Wednesday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time
Life can be so hard sometimes. It seems like when problems come they tend to accumulate to what seems like an avalanche of issues. For some people when this happens they want to curl up in a ball with their hands over their head and beg for the chaos to stop. This kind of turtle approach, of pulling inside ones shell, only delays and often worsens the issues one faces.
In the reading today Jeremiah is wearing his heart on his sleeve. Clearly he has had enough. The tumult the Lord has allowed Jeremiah to suffer is almost more than he can bear. To say Jeremiah is depressed is an understatement. His pity for self is so great that Jeremiah prays for the woman who bore him. For Jeremiah, the suffering he has endured is directly connected to his bearing of God’s message. The scripture alludes to the fact that God’s message is hidden in Jeremiah’s heart, a message that calls the Israelites to justice. How is God communicating to us in the silence of our hearts? How are we being called to proclaim the reign of God?
Like Jeremiah, God invites us to live out our call to be prophets. Like Jeremiah we understand that there is a price to be paid as servants. While clearly there is cost to faithful discipleship, the gospel reminds us that deep within us there is a passion that beckons us to seek and to find the treasure that is God. As we grow in our understanding of this relationship with God, we realize that beneath dirt, inside the shell is the reign of God. This reign is the pouring forth of God’s grace upon us, not for our sake, but for the sake of all. Thus it is in the doing of God’s will that we bring about the kingdom of God.
"Loving God, continue to strengthen us to proclaim Your saving deeds as the treasure that lays buried in our midst. In doing so, we can truly witness what we profess, Your kingdom come, Your will be done. Amen!"
-Michael Montgomery