Word to the Wise
Wednesday, July 30, 2014 - Wednesday in the 17th Week in Ordinary Time
[Jer 15:10, 16-21 and Matt 13:44-46]Woe to me, mother, that you gave me birth! A man of strife and contention to all the land! I neither borrow nor lend, yet all curse me. When I found your words, I devoured them; they became my joy and the happiness of my heart, because I bore your name, O Lord, God of hosts......[Jeremiah]
Those of us who are familiar with the plays of William Shakespeare would know those moments in the plays when a principal character is alone and "thinks out loud" about his or her situation in a "soliloquy." Hamlet's "To be or not to be...." is certainly one of the more famous ones! Perhaps you, like me, were required to memorize one or more of them! Well, whoever took down Jeremiah's words was there long before Shakespeare. And Jeremiah could be quite dramatic, as today's first scripture shows. He is truly nicknamed, "the reluctant prophet!"
Although Jeremiah is bemoaning his situation, God still listens and replies and promises help! "And I will make you toward this people a solid wall of brass...." This will not be the first time that God has to "buck up" his reluctant prophet! Nobody, especially Jeremiah, likes to be a continual bearer of "bad tidings." But the situation in Jeremiah's time was really bad and only dramatic gestures would get any attention from a crowd that had gone after its own appetites and fashioned "gods" that would serve those appetites.
At least Jeremiah had one thing going for him. In his time, the "role" of the prophet was socially recognized even if the prophet was not always heeded. In our time, we seem to dismiss prophetic utterance as the words of "religious fanatics." Can you identify anyone whom you would regard as a prophet? Perhaps obvious public figures like Martin Luther King, Jr. or Dorothy Day might qualify. After we go through some more of Jeremiah, we will understand why he and so many in our own time, were and are reluctant to be a prophet! AMEN