How do we avoid separation from God?
Jeremiah doesn’t have an
easy time of it. Called to be a prophet
to a people that has returned to its idolatrous ways, he is under constant
threat from his persecutors. It is not
surprising that he undergoes an interior crisis of sorts: you
seduced me, Lord, and I let myself be seduced, he laments. Jeremiah knows his persecutors believe God
has abandoned them; they are profoundly self-centered and thus live in
separation from the God who invites them to covenant. But Jeremiah surmounts his own moment of
crisis thanks to his returning confidence in the Lord: to you
I have entrusted my cause. Like the
psalmist in Psalm 69, Jeremiah is able to praise
the Lord, able to bear insult because
zeal for the Lord’s house consumes
him. Unlike his persecutors, who have
cut themselves off from relationship with God, Jeremiah resists such
separation, putting his faith in the relationship that is at the core of his
existence.
Whenever we put our own
self-focus before our faith in the Lord, we are entering into that mode of
separation that follows the pattern of
the trespass of Adam, as Paul explains to the Corinthians. Sin – separation – isolates rather than
incorporates. But the death of Jesus
restores us to relationship through grace and forgiveness; this is his gift to us, a gift that overflows for the many. It
is also a gift that leaves no place for fear:
Fear no one, Jesus tells the
Twelve in Matthew’s Gospel, for no one can take this gift from you. Instead, go out and share God’s love, proclaiming it on the housetops! If we do,
living from that love, separation diminishes as we move ever closer to the
fullness of life in Christ.
This post is based on Fr.
Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: Wordle
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