Breaking the Word

3^rd week in Lent, Thursday – 7^th March 2024 – Jeremiah 7,23-28; Lk 11,14-23

State of Regress

In the first reading, Jeremiah is told by the Lord that even though he and the other prophets have tried to get His Chosen people on the right track, they have chosen to go another way. Instead of turning their faces to God, they have turned their backs to God and are heading away from God. Therefore, he makes strong statements about how God’s people do not listen to his words. The covenant was, “Listen to my voice, then I will be your God and you shall be my people. Follow right to the end the way that I mark out for you, and you will prosper.” But that did not happen because “they followed the dictates of their own evil hearts, refused to face me, and turned their backs on me.” In the wilderness, God did not request sacrifices and oblations from the Israelites rather simple obedience. They were asked to walk in the way of righteousness and God’s command. Instead, the chosen people in Jeremiah’s time never hearkened God’s words; they despised His counsels; they walked in the imaginations of their evil heart and they went backward and not forward. Hence, instead of becoming more wise, obedient, and holy, they grew more corrupt; so that they became more reckless than their fathers. Morally and spiritually, they were in a state of regress, not in progress.

3^rd week in Lent, Wednesday – 6^th March 2024 – Deut 4,1.5-9; Mt 5,17-19

Laws of Intimacy

Moses reminds the Israelites of the great treasure they have in their laws and customs, a treasure full of “wisdom and understanding.” The first reading calls attention to the loving intimacy between God and the people among whom he lives: “Indeed, what great nation is there that has its gods so near as the Lord our God is to us? What great nation is there that has laws and customs to match this whole law?” The precepts of the Lord are not meant to restrict us and our freedom, but to draw us closer to God. They are meant to be yet another sign of God’s love for the people whom God has chosen. In other words, the laws are life-giving and a reminder by God to establish relationships with the chosen people. The greatness of any society can be measured, first, in the quality of its legal system, and second, in how its laws are administered and observed. This involves mutual cooperation between law-makers, enforces of the law, interpreters of the law and observers of the law. It is in the law that God is with his people. Through its observance, the people express their closeness to him.