Word to the Wise
Thursday, March 24, 2022 - 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]
Poor Jeremiah! He is rightly known traditionally as "the reluctant prophet." He had good reason. He was caught between the commands of God and the resistance of the people to those commands. God's complaint is given in the quote above. It is a familiar complaint in the Old Testament. Blind resistance to the demands of the covenant was the result of cultural lifestyle decisions that corrupted a whole nation, mostly in the realm of adopting pagan religious practices like temple prostitution and failing to care for the vulnerable "widows and orphans."
In today's gospel scripture, Jesus meets the same resistance in constant demands for a "sign from heaven" and an accusation that he was allied with Satan in whatever he did. Ultimately his enemies used the Roman authorities to get rid of him by claiming Jesus preached a different kingdom than the Roman empire - a political charge.
The role of the prophet is to hold up a mirror to the audience and ask if what they see is faithful to what God has commanded. The danger of the prophet's position is that people will smash the mirror and kill the prophet to prevent further discomfort. We have plenty of examples in our own American history and our own Church history. If we destroy prophets and ignore God's commands in favor of "Gods of our own design" we will suffer as the Chosen People suffered. "Faithfulness" has to be real, as God told Jeremiah. Are we listening? AMEN