XXX SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Jeremiah 31:7-9
Zambia is celebrating her independence under a very cloudy climate, going through a big economic crisis that forces her people to question themselves about the future of the Nation.The celebration of the independence must be an occasion for Zambia to affirm herself and for her people to prepare the future, while remembering the past. A Nation is never truly independent, and so the struggle for independence must be an ongoing struggle, in which people fight for and affirm their autonomy, knowing that the future of the country is in their hands.
It is easy to despair in difficult times, as it is easy as well to become totally dependent, crying to God and expecting him to solve all our problems. Prayer and fasting will not solve any of our economic problems. Certainly we should cry out to God, as the people of Israel did, when oppressed by the Egyptians. But the true aim of our prayer and our fasting is to establish a deep relationship with God, in which we listen to his word and open our hearts to his Spirit; and that relationship will lead us to commit ourselves to concerted and responsible action for the good of the country. Prayer and fasting, if they are true, exclude attitudes of selfishness and bring attitudes of service. Once we open our hearts to God, he will send us back to the reality of our daily lives and his Spirit will lead us in a careful examination of the causes of the crisis and of our failures. Without doing that, we cannot find solutions, and the situation will deteriorate even further, leading people to loose all confidence in the ones they chose to guide them.
Throughout history, the people of Israel passed through big crises that endangered the very existence of their nation. It was during such a crisis that Jeremiah was called to be a prophet. During most of his prophetic ministry, Jeremiah was a prophet of doom, announcing the destruction of the Temple and of the Nation, unless the people repented and turned back to God. Jeremiah himself resented this role entrusted to him by the Lord and he complained to God:
“I have become a laughingstock all day long;
everyone mocks me.
For whenever I speak, I must cry out,
I must shout, “Violence and destruction!”
For the word of the Lord has become for me
a reproach and derision all day long.
If I say, “I will not mention him,
or speak any more in his name,”
then within me there is something like a burning fire
shut up in my bones;
I am weary with holding it in,
and I cannot.” (Jer 20:7-9).
However, as the Babylonian army approached, his message became a message of hope. The Lord promises to bring back his people scattered through the nations:
“With weeping they shall come,
and with consolations I will lead them back,
I will let them walk by brooks of water,
in a straight path in which they shall not stumble;
for I have become a father to Israel” (Jer 31:9).
The experience the people of Israel went through repeats itself in the life of the Church as the people of God in pilgrimage to the promised land. Like them, we have been unfaithful to the Lord, as we transform passing vanities into the values that guide ours lives. The reproach that Jeremiah pronounced against the people of Israel can be applied to us:
“for my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living water,
and dug out cisterns for themselves,
cracked cisterns
that can hold no water (Jer 2:13).
The Europeans nations, in spite of all their wealth, leave a feeling of emptiness. It is a doomed society that rejects life and walks at a fast pace towards self-destruction. Here, in Zambia, with a deep economic crisis, people are uncertain about the future and don’t know where to turn to. It is in a situation like this that we need a message of hope. If we are open to the Lord and allow ourselves to be challenge by him, new horizons will open for us and we will realise that the Lord protects and defends us. He welcomes us with open arms, because he is our Father, who has never stopped loving us.
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