Word to the Wise
Thursday, March 7, 2013 - 3rd Week of Lent - Thurs
[Jer 7:23-28 and Luke 11:14-23]From the day that your fathers left the land of Egypt even to this day, I have sent you untiringly all my servants the prophets. Yet they have not obeyed me nor paid heed; they have stiffened their necks and done worse than their fathers. When you speak all these words to them, they will not listen to you either; when you call to them, they will not answer you. Say to them: This is the nation that does not listen to the voice of the Lord, its God, or take correction. Faithfulness has disappeared; the word itself is banished from their speech.
Jeremiah is known as the "reluctant prophet!" It's no wonder. He is caught in the middle between an angry God and a people who will not listen! That is not a comfortable position to be in! On occasion he complains to God about his fate. Today God says to him, "You think you have it bad? I've been putting up with this stubborn people for thousands of years! Get on with it. Go tell them what I tell you!" Earlier in this chapter Jeremiah has delivered his famous "temple speech" in which he stood at the main door of the temple and yelled at the people: "Do not put your trust in these words: 'This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord." He accuses them of a perverse kind of "field of dreams" thinking to the effect that if they have the temple building, God must be there!" God's reply is: "Don't count on it! Change your way of treating the most vulnerable in your midst if you expect me to reside in your temple!"
Jeremiah issues a direct challenge to the kind of thinking that says, "God is on our side." He tells us that God is on the side of all those who are suffering, oppressed, homeless and all others who are victims of economic greed and political power. No church building will guarantee God's residence! Only a collective and individual change of heart can do that! For us Catholics, this can be a dangerous way of thinking - i.e. the tabernacle in our church guarantees the presence of the Lord! If we come into that presence without a change of heart, we are like the man who comes to the banquet without a wedding garment! [Matthew 22:12]. Jeremiah and the prophets may not be the most pleasant and positive folks we encounter in the Word of God, but if we dismiss them, we dismiss what God is trying to say to us. Do we want to take that chance? AMEN