Saturday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
In today’s first reading from the book of Jeremiah, we are given a message from God delivered by Jeremiah to God’s people. The words are striking in their call to the Jewish people to make their worship congruent with their actions. In order to fully understand this message, we need to know a bit about the temple.
The temple in Jerusalem stood as a testament to the Jewish people’s covenant with God. In the innermost circle of the temple in Jerusalem, called the holy of holies, rested the ark of covenant which was built by Moses in the desert and was carried with the Hebrews as the presence of God among them.
Jeremiah is addressing a situation in Judah in which the Jewish people exalt the presence of God in the temple (Jer 7:4), yet they belie God’s presence in their dealings with others. They betray the covenant in their oppression of widows, orphans, and resident aliens (Jer 7:6) all of which are specially protected by the law. They betray the covenant by worshiping idols, murdering, stealing, lying, and committing adultery (Jer 7:9)—all things which we can recognize as directly contrary to the Ten Commandments. They act as if they weren’t the people of God, perhaps even as if God didn’t exist despite proclaiming His presence in the temple.
This situation that Jeremiah addresses is similar to the one Paul would later address in the church at Corinth. Paul scolds the Corinthians for celebrating the Eucharist and, on the same occasion, sharing a meal in which there are strict divisions based on class (see 1 Cor 11-12). They have missed the point of the Eucharist, which undercuts all class divisions. Furthermore, the Corinthians deem themselves competent to distinguish the worthy from the unworthy at God’s table.
As Jesus illustrates in today’s gospel, identifying divisions (i.e. the slaves who want to rip out the weeds [Mt. 13:28]) is not the work of His disciples. This is not our job. Instead disciples of Jesus are called to be a shining light of God’s presence in the world. How do we do that? Well, Jeremiah helps us to understand that it must involve both worship and the implications of that worship. Do our lives outside of Mass bespeak “Peace be with you”? Do we really understand Christ’s presence in the Eucharist if we do not say “Amen” to the presence of Christ in the “least of us”? Do we really only “believe in one God” or are there idols (like getting praise, financial security, or the latest technology) to whom we pay homage and offer sacrifices? Let us pray that we might proclaim the presence of the one true God like glimmering wheat!
- Tim Gabrielli