This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.
Lenten Mass readings on many days focus on repentance, purification, and God’s mercy. On some days, though, they foreshadow the events of Holy Week–specifically, Jesus’ suffering and death.
Today’s readings are of the latter type.
Have you ever felt that someone was plotting against you? That in one way or another, they were trying to get rid of you, because you were in their way? It is not an entirely uncommon human occurrence. It is dehumanizing; we feel what it is like to be treated like objects–specifically, objects in the way of others’ aims. The experience is the exact opposite of that of being loved for our own sake, of others seeking our happiness for its own sake, simply because we are human.
Jeremiah went through this experience. His contemporaries were plotting against his life because they found his words and challenges inconvenient. They imagined that they would incur no disadvantage from killing Jeremiah, because–they thought–there were other good preachers and prophets around.
It did not occur to them that Jeremiah was prophesying in direct obedience to God, and thus that they would be killing the anointed messenger of God himself.
Jeremiah cried out to God for help, with words similar to today’s psalm: “Save me, O Lord, in your kindness.”
And later, save him God did. Having been cast into a pit, he was rescued and ultimately enjoyed favor when Babylon conquered Jerusalem.
But, we may say, Jeremiah’s salvation did not come without a price. Jesus, the very Son of God Himself, would pay that price by taking the place foreshadowed by Jeremiah as He who would die to remove an obstacle for others–not the obstacle imagined by His enemies, but the obstacle of sin, barring the way into eternal life.
How unfair it feels to us when we are treated as objects, and done grave harm casually by another for the avoidance of their inconvenience. This Lent, without waiting for Holy Week, let us meditate on Jesus’ experience of this; let us drink deeply of His humiliation in prayer. And let us pledge to join Him in personal sacrifice for the eternal and temporal welfare of our brothers and sisters.
Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Contemplate Jesus’ passion, when He was arrested and brought before the Sanhedrin, who cared nothing for His welfare, but rather only for their own chance at success in getting rid of Him. Contemplate how, paradoxically, he yearned for their real fulfillment and happiness and suffered at the tragically erroneous path they were taking in its pursuit. Ask Him to share with you the innermost feelings and thoughts of His Heart as He began to suffer His passion.
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