Word to the Wise
Tuesday, July 28, 2020 - Tuesday in the 17th Week in Ordinary Time
[Jer 14:17-22 and Matt 13:36-43]Let my eyes stream with tears day and night, without rest, over the great destruction which overwhelms the virgin daughter of my people, over her incurable wound. [Jeremiah]
Jeremiah is noted for his laments. His name has even entered the English language in the term "jeremiad" which means a lament or long complaint. The first scripture today is taken from one of his laments which refers to disasters that befell Judah and Jerusalem. War and famine are the two disasters. War comes from political alliances that led to the destruction of Jerusalem. The famine is a punishment for idolatry because much of it focused on fertility rites which included temple prostitution. Idols could not produce rain. Only God could. In the case of both disasters, the cause is direct - lack of faith in God.
War and drought remain human disasters. One of them is within human resources to prevent - war! The other can be mitigated by proper care of the environment to lessen the possible effects. Political solutions and greedy exploitation of the environment seem to be lessons humanity has a hard time learning. There are Jeremiahs in our midst, but like the original prophet, we often turn a deaf ear or do the equivalent of what happened to Jeremiah. He was thrown into a cistern to die. Only a court official with a conscience saved him. [Jer. 38] Jesus, in his turn, would weep over Jerusalem. Tears of frustration are the fate of all prophets. Who may be crying for our nation? AMEN