WEEK THREE

WEEK THREE

I have always felt connected to the prophet Jeremiah, for whom the Old Testament Book of Jeremiah is named.  He was called to minister in the midst of the national catastrophe of the invasion of Babylonia into the Promised Land, a ministry he didn’t much want. He ‘fought’ with God in prayer, protesting his impossible ministry. Yet in the midst of invasion, defeat, and exile, Jeremiah never forgot the goodness of his Lord.

I can identify with Jeremiah, for I have spent many a time in prayer ‘fighting’ with God, demanding that He heal me, so that I can minister in this large Catholic parish. The Book of Jeremiah reminds me that I also need to spend time in prayer thanking God for all He has done to equip me to minister in such a large parish.

In Jeremiah 31:21a (NABRE), God reminds His people who have been exiled to Babylonia that they will one day return to the Promised Land, but to do so, they must remember the ‘road markers’ of how God has been good to them in the past: Some background on the prophet Jeremiah and the Old Testament Book named after him:
The Book of Jeremiah is the second of the Prophetic Books.  It is the most autobiographical of the Old Testament books of the prophets, and Biblical scholars believe that Jeremiah prophesied in the years immediately preceding and at the start of the Babylonian invasion and exile of the southern kingdom of Judah. He was born about 646 BC in the town of Anathoth, in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin, about 2 miles northeast of Jerusalem. He was called to his ministry as a prophet (Jeremiah 1:1-19) about 626 BC, at the age of twenty, in the thirteenth year of the reign of King Josiah, and served as a prophet for about forty years. His call was both to the people of Judah and to all the nations of his time.

He never married or had a family, and ministered in Jerusalem until its fall in 587 BC, at the hands of the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar (Jeremiah 7:2; 22:1; 27:1-2; 32:1). After the fall of Jerusalem, he ministered for a short time amongst the survivors of that national disaster, but was abducted by his fellow countrymen and forced to flee to Egypt. He likely died in Egypt around 586 BC, with tradition stating that he was executed by being stoned to death by his enraged fellow countrymen in exile.
 
He was a prophet called upon by the Lord to deliver a very tough message of defeat, destruction, and submission to Babylonia as the only hope for their survival as a people.  A prophet generally has a difficult life, and the Book named after him portrays him as a man of great sorrow. In spite of his protests and his persecution at the hands of kings, priests, other so-called prophets, family, and fellow countrymen, he courageously declared the truth to all. He has been termed the Prophet of Sorrow, and his life can be characterized as one long martyrdom. Yet he continued to proclaim a message of hope. He prophesied that the Chosen People would one day return to a renewed land, if they would just remember what God had done for them and honor Him once again with their praise and thanksgiving.

Although Jeremiah could be ‘world-class’ at complaining about his ministry, he was also ‘world-class’ at remembering the goodness of his Lord, who somehow equipped and preserved him to accomplish his God-given mission in the midst of catastrophe. Jeremiah exemplified a prophet for troubled times, and the Book of Jeremiah continues to speak to those living in troubled times.

We are now at ‘such a time as this’, when we are being summoned to remember in profound gratitude the goodness of our Lord. God will do the same for us as He did for Jeremiah, equipping and preserving us, if we have ‘an attitude of gratitude’.  How can we do that? 

We can:

• Make a list in your journal of the good times you have experienced.
• Pray through your list, thanking God for the goodness He has shown you in the past. Thank him for the people and the events that have been a blessing to you.
• Pay it forward and look for ways to offer hope to the hopeless and to proclaim the good things God has done for you for people who are not seeing much goodness in the world now.

Rise up and remember the goodness of our Lord,
for such a time as this.