|
Contents: Volume 2 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time - October 27, 2024
1. -- Lanie LeBlanc OP - 29th Sunday2. -- Dennis Keller - 30th Sunday
3. -- 5. -- (Your reflection can be here!)
Sun.30 B 2024
The Prophet Jeremiah’s career as God’s prophet extends over a tumultuous time in the Kingdom of Judah. The Assyrian empire was in decline. The Egyptian empire was defeated in 605 signaling the ascendancy of Babylonian domination in the Middle East. Jeremiah’s ministry spanned that period, 627 BCE to 587 BCE. This book of prophecy is the largest book in the Bible, of both Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. Jeremiah’s prophecies speak of judgment, catastrophe, and destruction. We can relate our times to his. We ought to consider his message directed to our own time and place. It seemed then and now there is no escape from terror, catastrophe man-made and weather related, and from destruction and untimely death. Truth and attending to the common good are matters buried in the pursuit of power and wealth. His message is to clearly note the horrors of the time. To those terrible conditions, God always offers possibilities of living again. There are indications of a way to liberty and newness of life. Chapter 52 of this book speaks of the four thousand six hundred people deported into exile.
This bit of history leads us to understanding the power of faith in the gospel narrative about the cure of Bartimaeus’ blindness. This selection from Jeremiah was written between the first siege by Babylon and the second siege. There was deportation of some of Judea’s citizens after the first siege. After the assassination of the Babylonian assigned governor of Judea, a second siege was mounted. The slaughter of men, women, children, and domesticated animals ended with the destruction of Jerusalem’s walls, dwellings, palaces, and especially the Temple of Solomon. A second deportation enslaved those who survived the slaughter. Between these two sieges Jeremiah prophesied our reading. This prophecy is hope-filled but would require more than seventy years to reach fulfillment.
The marshaling place for deportees was a place called Ramah. It was there that Rachael, wife of Jacob, died in child birth and was buried. The reference to mothers with child would have been understood by practicing Jews as a reference to Rachael. The child borne of Rachael was Benjamin, a favorite son of Jacob. Benjamin had a part in the story of Joseph at the court of Pharoah. Benjamin’s son was Ephraim listed in this reading. In another place in the Hebrew Scriptures there is a reference to Rachael weeping at the loss of her child and grandchildren, “for they are no more.”
This reading from Jeremiah is meant to be a prophecy of hope. The remnant refers to the survivors of the two sieges taken into Babylon. Included is the remnant scattered after Assyria over ran the Northern Kingdom.
The gospel is a faith narrative. Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus, became blind at some point in his life. His father’s name is a Greek name and a curiosity about the cultural heritage of Bartimaeus. Scholars puzzle as to why Mark included that name . It is Bartimaeus’ faith in Jesus that effects a return to sight. Unlike an earlier miracle giving sight, this miracle is completed by a simple statement. Bartimaeus then follows in the way of Jesus to Jerusalem. There Jesus would be rejected by religious leadership and handed over to the Gentiles. Faith provides evidence for us to follow in the way of the Lord. As with Bartimaeus, faith grows because of our experience of God’s presence. This question comes to me: does faith atrophy when we ignore God’s presence in nature, in others, and in our relationships?
The reading from Jeremiah, taken from the in-between time of the two successful sieges of Judea by Babylon, Jeremiah insists hope comes from faith in God. That faith, as prophesied by Jeremiah, leads to a reunion the dispersed chosen people. When blindness is cured, we encounter life lived fully because of sight seen through the lens of faith.
In our time of disaster, in the wholesale slaughter of non-combatants, of devastation of the necessary resources of our world, our faith is the only antidote against despair. God gave one job to the first of humans. Take care of and till the earth and make it flourish. We understand how desperate our condition is as we look at the wars that create despots who rob their people of liberty. We understand our common home has been ravished as evidenced by the millions suffering from the effects of climate change. When we see with eyes of faith there is hope. We hope because of trust in our Creator. We hope in our Brother who leads us to safety by his teaching and modeling. We hope in the Spirit who inspires us to discover solutions to our depravities, our callousness, and our relentless struggle for domination. As our relationship with God grows so also does our faith. When we work to care about our world and our neighbors our faith grows.
Jeremiah tells us there is life beyond violence and theft. Jesus tells us his purpose in coming is that we might have life and have it fully. Seems like a very worthwhile goal.
******************************************************
Mail to:
Or, go to our webpage to make an online donation:
-- REGULAR INFORMATION --- To UN-subscribe or Subscribe, email "Fr. John J. Boll, O.P." <preacherexchange@att.net>
-- WEB PAGE ACCESS --
A service of The Order of Preachers,
The Dominicans. |
|