Fr. Michael Williams

Today’s readings allow us to reflect on the role of a prophet.

Firstly, we have Jeremiah who lived about 600BC. The first reading tells us that Jeremiah was consecrated to be a prophet ‘before he came to birth’. He was to ‘stand up and tell the people all I command you…to confront all this land’. At the time of Jeremiah the People of God had generally abandoned God and His laws. The people had gone after false gods and false values, and as a result there were all sorts of injustices prevalent within the community. It seems two and a half thousand years later and we are in exactly the same situation-people have abandoned God and all sorts of injustices are prevalent within the community. Jeremiah knew that the nation had become rotten to the core and he had to deliver the message to the people. The people had to change and return to the Lord; they had to repent. Delivering this kind of message normally goes down like a lead balloon because people don’t want to change unless a disaster or major problem occurs. Jeremiah was sent by God to tell the people they had become so distanced from God they would have to go into the disaster of exile to Babylon, where they would be purified and only then would they be able to return to the soil of Israel. Again, this message went down like a lead balloon and Jeremiah was persecuted by the religious and political leaders, and generally scorned by the people. He was put into the stocks and persecuted.