Thursday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Today's Mass Readings

Today’s reading is again from the prophet Jeremiah, who expresses God’s anguish and disappointment in his people who have abandoned them. The tone of Jeremiah’s words is emotional; he wants the people to understand just how treacherous are the acts they have been committing against God. In turning away from God, they have rejected his love and chosen idols. God’s passionate response to this is described in very human terms in order that the people might think of God in personal terms. In the gospel passage from Matthew, Jesus also seems to be passionate in expressing disappointment. Quoting the prophet Isaiah, Jesus explains to his disciples that he speaks in parables because the people do not see and do not hear. We might interpret this “not seeing” and “not hearing” as the result of what Jeremiah describes. The people’s continual turning away from God has made it so that they no longer see and hear as they should. They no longer recognize God in their midst, and, in particular, when Jesus begins to walk the earth, they cannot see and hear him as their God walking among them.

In so doing, the people forsake God, “the source of living waters” (Jer. 2:13). This water image is emphasized throughout today’s psalm, Psalm 36. The response proclaims, “With you is the fountain of life, O Lord!” The fountain of life, the source of living waters—this is our God, this is Jesus. These Scripture readings invite us to open our lives to God, to respond to Jesus by seeing and hearing, by recognizing in God the love of our lives.

Jeremiah’s and Jesus’ words may seem harsh to our ears today. We are not as faithful as we ought to be, and we do not listen and watch Jesus as attentively as we ought to do. But we are not simply the people who bear the criticism of Jeremiah and Jesus. Rather these passages automatically place us in the role of those who DO see, those who DO listen. We share in God’s anguish reflected in Jeremiah’s words. We listen to Jesus’ parables as well as his explanations. In this way, we are privileged. We are also challenged. We know that we are called to more each day.

Let us recommit ourselves to seeing and hearing Jesus, to recognizing him as the fountain of life. Through him, with him, and in him we have our being—our very sustenance for continuing in our daily activities. Let us be aware of this and rejoice in it!

- Maria Morrow