Twenty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time

August 30, 2026

Matthew 16: 21-27

I have always been fascinated by the prophet Jeremiah and his famous line: “You duped me, Lord, and I let myself be duped; you were too strong for me and you triumphed.” And then as a result: “All day I am an object of laughter; everyone mocks me.” To be duped, as in taken in, tricked, maneuvered to do something under false pretenses. And further, the result of this trickery was to be made the object of scorn and derision. And worse, it was God who did this. The result of this situation is that Jeremiah felt very much put upon.

But Jeremiah does not seem to be alone in being asked to do something he felt manipulated into doing, especially something he was naturally reluctant to do. Peter could just as well felt the same from the vantage point of his fishing boat; Paul was knocked off his horse and led to bring Jesus’ word to the non believers. We can wonder about Father Miguel Pro, who was executed because he tried to minister where the Church was forbidden; did Father Maximilian Kolbe feel a twinge as he volunteered to die for a man with a family in the concentration camp; what did Mother Teresa of Calcutta experience when she followed the call to minister to the dying, and then did not feel God’s closeness for years.

And what about you; do you ever feel duped by God? We are often called to minister to those who do not seem to want our help. It is not uncommon that we are almost forced to go out of our way to help someone when we already had our agenda planned. After all, we are very busy people with responsibilities to family, work, even church.

I think hanging around God can be hazardous to our personal timetable. It can even change our direction as it certainly did for Paul. And, it can be alienating as for Jeremiah; Kathleen Norris noted the observation of Abraham Heschel in his rye comment that a prophet is someone you wouldn’t invite to your home a second time. This is certainly true of Jeremiah.

But hanging around God is an opportunity to follow the advice of St. Paul in not conforming ourselves to the present age and offering our bodies a living sacrifices. Spending time in God’s presence does help us discern what God is really asking for us, in a way which goes beyond the obvious. It allows us to plug into what Dietrich Bonhoeffer calls grace that costs.

In short, we open ourselves to be duped by God. In fact, being close to God enables us to follow what Jesus asks of us today: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” The cost is that we give up our life, our control, and dare to step in Jesus’ footsteps and call God, Our Father. The Father asks nothing less of us than he did of his Son.

It would seem that being duped by God is helpful for salvation.

Fr. John Tran