Duped or Seduced?

You seduced me,* LORD, and I let myself be seduced; you were too strong for me, and you prevailed.  All day long I am an object of laughter; everyone mocks me.  (Jeremiah 20:7)  I confess that I am a little confused.  Although the official web site of the United States Catholic Conference offers this as the first line of tomorrow’s reading from the prophet Jeremiah, the lectionary substitutes the word “duped” for “seduced.”  I am not sure whether our lectionaries simply have not caught up with the newer translation or if it is the other way around.

Be that as it may, I much prefer this translation of the Hebrew word “pata,” which linguists agree can be translated as “duped,” “enticed,” or “seduced.”  The first choice, and I suspect the one that we will hear tomorrow, seems to imply that God somehow misled Jeremiah when he was called to be a prophet.  When we take into consideration that Jeremiah was very young when he was first called, it would seem much more realistic to say that he was naïve about the vocation of being a prophet rather than misled.

Nonetheless, this passage from Jeremiah illustrates the tension that “comes with the territory” of a vocation to carry God’s Word the people.  Jeremiah illustrates this tension by claiming that he has tried to stop preaching God’s Word but that ultimately he finds impossible.  God’s Word cannot be contained, cannot be chained.  It has a way of overpowering the prophet.  Once the prophet accepts the vocation, God’s Word becomes a force in and of itself and will not be pent up. 

Psalm 63 is used as a response to this reading.  It too illustrates the tension which Jeremiah describes.  The psalmist speaks of his yearning for God and that he will be satisfied; of his thirst and hunger for God and of being seated at a sumptuous banquet.  These sentiments seem to be in opposition to one another.  Yet I believe it is a universally accepted truth that once one tastes God’s goodness, one cannot seem to get enough of it.  Though the psalmist’s thirst is quenched, he still is thirsty; though his hunger is slaked, he still hungers for God’s presence.  The psalm seems to indicate that the psalmist has spent the night in the Temple, sleeping in the shadows created by the wings of the six-winged seraphs that crown the Holy of Holies.  He awakes after a refreshing sleep and praises God’s gracious love, but he yearns for a deeper taste of that love at the same time.

Many of the saints speak of much the same thing in their writings.  Having communed with the Holy, they yearn for a deeper connection.  However, the cares and worries of this world are oftentimes so pressing that they pull us away from that intimacy.  Sometimes we come away from prayer feeling refreshed by an intimate conversation with God.  Other times we feel dry and empty even though we have put in the time and effort. 

This ritual of seduction is played out over and over again in our lives.  “O God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you.  Your love is better than life.”  God’s loving kindness continues to entice us into an ever deeper relationship, an ever more satisfying banquet of love.  We are powerless to resist; resistance is futile.

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator