The very first line of today’s first reading summons us to seek the Lord and to call upon God. This sentiment is echoed in the refrain for today’s responsorial psalm: “The Lord is near to all who call upon him” (Psalm 145:18a). Saint Paul is the embodiment of someone who constantly sought the Lord. In the excerpt we read today from his letter to the Philippians, we find Saint Paul toward the end of his life, a life he describes as completely consonant with Christ. He writes, “For to me life is Christ” (Philippians 1:21). To find out what it means to live life completely in accord with Christ we need look no further than today’s Gospel. There we find that God’s love and mercy are immeasurable for all those who seek and call upon the Lord.

In the ancient world watchmen were extremely important people. They kept communities safe and were there to alert them to any impending danger or attack. Before locks, alarms, and security systems, watchmen were the protectors, the safety measure. So when the Lord charges Ezekiel as a watchman today, it is a weighty charge. So weighty, we learn, that if Ezekiel fails to sound the alarm for those around him and they perish in a state of wickedness, Ezekiel will be held responsible! This profound connection between God’s will on earth and in heaven is repeated in today’s Gospel, where Jesus instructs us that we are to be the security force, the watchers placed on alert that nowhere in the Body of Christ, the church, will there be any two members of the one Body who are not reconciled.

If you’ve ever had an unpleasant but somewhat amusing practical joke played on you, then you have some understanding of how Jeremiah feels today when he tells God “good one, you duped me.” We can almost see him shaking his head with a bit of a rueful smile, but an angry undertone in his voice. In similar fashion, Peter thinks Jesus is “duping” him when Jesus starts to explain that being Messiah means suffering and dying, and being a follower of the Messiah means taking up a cross and doing the same. Jeremiah tries to deny God’s will for him by trying to shut up; Peter, who has just been made the foundation of the church out and out denies the teaching of Jesus, for which he is named “Satan” today.