Jeremiah, despite his reputation, is not all gloom and doom. While it was important for the prophet to point out the people’s shortcomings and to warn them of the consequences of their lifestyle, Jeremiah also brought a message of hope. Today we are given an optimistic vision of Zion in the Messianic age.
Today’s reading (Jeremiah 3:14-17) is a message of hope for a people whose city has been destroyed and who have been carried away into exile in Babylon. Now the prophet is calling them to come back; not only to their city but also to following the will of their God. He calls them “faithless children” and reminds them that God alone is their husband and master.
The Hebrew word here for “husband/master” is ba’al, which also is the name given to the false gods that the Jews of the time had been worshiping (Baal, with no apostrophe). Jeremiah is calling on his people to have only one ba’al, or master, namely the one true God.
Now comes the promise. The people will return to Zion (Jerusalem), but in very small numbers, “one from a city and two from a family”. They are the remnant of Judah who will carry on the covenant promises of the Messiah to come. They will have shepherds (leaders), who, like David of old, will be “after my own heart”. They will be wise and prudent, unlike the corrupt and idolatrous rulers who led them to their downfall and exile.
The Ark of the Covenant will no longer be with them, suggesting that it had been carried away or destroyed by the Babylonians when they pillaged the Temple. That will not matter. The Ark, symbolizing God’s presence, will become irrelevant when the Messiah comes. The city of Jerusalem, itself, will become the “throne of the Lord” to which all the nations will assemble. “…all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall no longer stubbornly follow their own evil will.”
Unlikely as it must have seemed at the time, Jerusalem did become a place where the nations assembled. It became the place where the Messiah, the Christ, sealed the New Covenant in his own blood. It was the place where the people converged from all over the Mediterranean and, on the day of Pentecost, heard the Good News proclaimed in a language they all could understand. It was from Jerusalem that the message eventually reached every corner of the world. This is the theme of the Acts of the Apostles.
Jeremiah’s hearers never lived to see that day, but he was accurate in everything he foretold. How are we responding to this tremendous gift of God’s love? To what extent have we heard and assimilated the Message? The Messianic Age continues, but it depends on us to make it visible. The realization of the Messianic Age is the coming of the Reign of God into our world. There is a lot of work still to be done!
In today’s Gospel reading (Matthew 13:18-23), from the Parable of the Kingdom, we find the explanation of the Parable of the Sower. While the focus of the parable seems to be the sower, the focus actually is the soil upon which the seed falls. The four kinds of soil are taken to represent four kinds of responses to the Word of God.
The first kind is like the seed on the stony path. The Word of God never even gets started but gets plucked away by the evil influences by which the person is surrounded. In our strongly secular world today it is not easy for the Word to take root with so many competing enticements.
The second kind is like the seed that falls on the rock. The Word of God is received with great enthusiasm; the person becomes a devout and active Christian. But, if obstacles arise that make living the Christian life difficult, the person falls away, maybe quickly, maybe gradually. As the Gospel says, the person has no roots; the faith has not gone deep, and so has not been really assimilated. This must have been the case with many in the early Church who enthusiastically embraced Christianity, but when persecution came, abandoned their faith. In our own time, we see this when people are removed from a protected environment where it is easy to live the faith, to one where the faith is ignored or even ridiculed.
The third kind is like the seed that falls among the briars and brambles. Sounds like my garden this year. I would suggest that a very large number of us, occasionally, fall into this category. Anxieties about many things and the lure of material goods can gradually choke off our commitment to the Gospel in its fullness. Our witness becomes seriously compromised and “there is no yield”, that is, we make no real contribution to building the City of God and changing the world. We sit on the fence and try to have the best of both worlds; we try to serve God and mammon, which Jesus says is not possible.
Finally, there is the fourth kind of seed which falls on good soil. This is the one “who hears the message and takes it in”. These people hear the Word, accept the Word, make it their own and the Word overflows into all they are and do and say. Much fruit for the world comes from such people.
To which type of soil do we belong?
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!