Faithfulness Has Disappeared

Homily for Thursday of the Third Week in Lent

The last line that we read from the prophet Jeremiah today is, perhaps, the most disheartening of all the messages that we ponder during Lent. “Faithfulness has disappeared; the word itself is banished from their speech.”

Jeremiah is sometimes called the “weeping prophet.” Jeremiah shares Jesus's deep compassion for the people and his lament over their rejection of God. Both faced opposition for their messages and were misunderstood by many. Even before he brings the word of God to the people, God tells him that they will not listen to him. Like Jesus, Jeremiah brought to the word of God the people in the Temple of Jerusalem. When he told them that God would treat the temple as he had treated Shiloh, the chief priests and the Temple prophets arrested, imprisoned, and ridiculed him. The twenty-sixth chapter of the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah ominously foretells what will happen to Jesus when he comes to Jerusalem.

In the Gospel text from St. Luke, Jesus receives the same kind of reception when he expels the demon from a deaf mute. He is accused of cooperating with Beelzebub. Jesus speaks of a house divided and its eventual destruction, just as the temple was eventually destroyed by Assyria.

How do we respond to such division within our own society? We turn to the Psalm response for today for our answer: “If today you hear God’s voice, harden not your hearts.”