How can we be
saved?
Having accurately prophesied
that the Kingdom of Judah would fall to Babylon, the prophet Jeremiah has been rejected
by the community. When King Zedekiah
allows the princes of Judah to lower Jeremiah into a cistern, the prophet sinks into the mud, threatened by death
from famine. One can imagine Jeremiah despondently praying
Psalm 40, asking God for help: Lord, come to my aid! But the psalm is ultimately a song of
praise: God reaches in to draw his servant from the pit of destruction, the mud of the swamp. Only through God’s action can Jeremiah be
lifted out of his difficulty; only God can put
a new song of praise and thanksgiving in the psalmist’s mouth. Both Jeremiah and the psalmist must trust
that salvation will come from the Lord.
During the times
of the persecutions, when both Luke’s Gospel and the Book of Hebrews were
written, Jesus’ message was also a reminder that salvation can come only
through God’s action. I have come to set the earth on fire, he
tells his disciples. Once the fire of
God’s love enflames the people’s hearts, they will not be able to go back to
what they were used to, and chaos and division within families may result. But Jesus’ death and rising – the baptism by which he must be baptized – will serve as a means of purification,
destroying all that is harmful, washing away sin as he aligns our lives with
his own. The audience of the Book of Hebrews
would need to be reminded that, throughout the persecutions, they must keep their eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith, who knew
that his death and rising would bring salvation to all.
Our hearts are
meant to be aflame with the salvific power of God’s love burning within us. We must be stirred by love in the very depths
of our being, for that is where love works – not on the surface but at our very
core. That love will draw us together, even
when we are divided; that love alone, God’s gift, will bring us salvation. We have but to trust and persevere.
This post is based
on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
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