A Tour Guide in the Land of Ruin

At Mass we are reading from the later chapters of Jeremiah the Prophet, who wrote in the time of the Babylonian exile. As such he serves as a kind of tour guide for us through a land of ruin, one that seems all too familiar to us today.

The Northern Kingdom of Israel had been destroyed by the Assyrians in 721 B.C. The Southern Kingdom of Judah, ignoring numerous warnings and calls to repentance, later experienced the same fate; the Babylonians laid siege and destroyed Jerusalem in 587 B.C. Just prior to this destruction, Jeremiah saw the glory of God lift from the Temple and move away to the east. The city and even the Temple now lay in ruins. The Ark of the Covenant was lost and the survivors were deported to Babylon.

Yes, it was a terrible destruction, but one that could have been avoided if the Lord’s people had only heeded the warnings of the prophets and returned wholeheartedly to the Lord and His commandments. With the Lord and within the safe walls of his commandments there is strength and protection. Outside the walls and His presence, Judah was a sitting duck, easy prey, low-hanging fruit.

Let’s consider the passage from Jeremiah (30:1-2.12-15.18-22) that we read at Mass today (Tuesday of the 18^th Week) and see what the Lord says through Jeremiah. Let’s also ponder how this historical event speaks to our times as well.

I Ruin – Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Incurable is your wound, grievous your bruise.

Yes, things have gone beyond simple medicines or bandages. These wounds are deep, foul, and festering. Sin does this to us spiritually as its evils go deeper and deeper. A simple skin cancer, untreated, can find its way into inner organs and even reach our bones. So, too, does sin, untreated by repentance, grow more serious. It renders us vulnerable to deeper and more serious sins that bring spiritual ruin, darkness, and a stubbornly unrepentant demeanor in which the cancer of pride is in its final stages. Judah has reached this stage and the only medicine that is left is for them to experience the full effects of their rejection of God.

And what of the once-Christian West? What of America? Can we possibly think that our cultural revolution, rooted in sinful rebellion against authority, sacred Tradition, the moral vision of the Scriptures, and the meaning of human sexuality and marriage can yield anything but corruption? Can our greed, our insatiable desire for more no matter the human (or monetary) cost, forever mortgage our future? Have not our wounds multiplied and gone deeper? The blood of our aborted children cries out to Heaven. Our broken families multiply due to promiscuity and rampant divorce; broken families yield a bumper crop of broken children as the cycle deepens. Are these wounds curable? Do we even show any willingness to take the necessary medicines of self-control, fidelity, and obedience to God’s vision? It seems not. Midnight fast approaches. As Jeremiah was once warned the people of his time, so must we in the Church today send up the warning cry that our wounds are getting worse, the intellectual and moral darkness is growing ever deeper, and our time to repent is getting shorter. Soon enough, as with Ancient Israel and Judah, the full bill for our sin will come due.

Scripture says,

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith (Gal 6:7-10).

II Rejection – There is none to plead your cause, no remedy for your running sore, no healing for you. All your lovers have forgotten you, they do not seek you.

Among the things that the ancient Jews did was to run after other lovers and other remedies. They were entangled in foreign military alliances and were too enamored of pagan culture and religion. God spoke of their running after pagan gods as infidelity and adultery, for they were espoused to Him.

And as for us, in the formerly Christian West, while not espoused to God as a nation (but surely as members of the Bride of Christ), we too have often sought solutions far from God, even solutions opposed to Him. We have cast aside God’s plan for our happiness and bought into the notion that worldly indulgence and sin will bring us happiness and health. In so doing we call God a liar and forsake our covenant with Him. We run after other lovers, trusting the world, the flesh, and the devil instead of our God who made us and saved us. Secular mindsets and even outright atheism have made deep inroads into our culture. Church attendance has plummeted while attention to the “bread and circuses” of the modern world has reached new highs. We trust our affluence, power, medicine, and science (all themselves great gifts of God), but we do not trust the true Shepherd and Lord of our souls, the only one who can really save us.

And where are these philosophers that pose as healers and lovers, who have ushered in this ruin, now? They are doubling down on their false prescriptions and going ever deeper into darkness, repeating the lies of these worldly philosophies, glorying in the flesh, and marginalizing the vision of God. Moderns cry out “Love!” and speak of compassion. But it is a false love and a false compassion.

The text asks, “Where are these lovers now?” Where is the happiness and fulfillment they promised with their false notions of freedom? Yes, where are they?

III. Reason – I struck you as an enemy would strike, punished you cruelly; Why cry out over your wound? your pain is without relief. Because of your great guilt, your numerous sins, I have done this to you.

The effects and consequences of sin cannot forever be postponed. Even if God mercifully protects us from some of the consequences, he will not do so forever. God’s patience is directed toward our salvation. He gives us time to repent. But at some point (known only to Him) our presumptiveness eclipses His patience. The boil must be lanced; gangrenous tissue must be cut away. Only strong, even desperate, measures will work; they may seem to us to be cruel. But to do nothing would be to lose all, and that is a far worse cruelty. Our sins and unrepentance “force” these difficult measures, so that at least a few might be saved.

When does a person, a culture, or a nation reach such a point? God only knows. But why test the situation and draw this necessary measure? The Lord says,

“… O Israel, if you would but listen to Me! ‘You shall not have in your midst a foreign god; you shall not bow to an alien god. I am the LORD your God Who brought you up out of the land of Egypt’—open wide your mouth, and I will fill it.” But My people did not listen to My voice, Israel did not yield to Me; so I set him free with their stubborn heart, that they could follow their own counsels. O that My people would listen to Me, that Israel would follow My ways! At once I would subdue their enemies, against their foes bring back My hand. Those who hate the LORD shall cringe before Him; their doom will last forever. But He would [rather] feed him the finest wheat: and sate you with honey from the rock. (Ps 81:9-17).

IV. Restoration – Thus says the LORD: See! I will restore the tents of Jacob, his dwellings I will pity; City shall be rebuilt upon hill, and palace restored as it was. From them will resound songs of praise, the laughter of happy men. I will make them not few, but many; they will not be tiny, for I will glorify them. His sons shall be as of old, his assembly before me shall stand firm; I will punish all his oppressors.

God permits these terrible ills to befall His people so that He might save at least some, a faithful remnant.

The people of Israel spent eighty years in Babylon, and then as if miraculously, God brought them back. The Babylonians were defeated by the Persians; Cyrus, King of Persia, permitted them to return to their land and even offered to help rebuild Jerusalem! Now that there is a purified remnant, God will begin again with His people. Future purifications will also be necessary.

And what of us? In times of old, there was a faithful remnant that did not fully succumb to the darkness of the days. There were others who did repent; it is for their sake that God acts to bring an end to widespread evil lest all of His people be consumed. Though none of us has lived perfectly, through repentance we should seek to be the faithful remnant whom God acts to save. We are likely going to see even darker days before the evil of our times plays out and is purged. The battle is the Lord’s. For our part, we should seek to stay faithful, repent when we fall, and look to the day when God will restore this world or come again in glory.

The Church has survived many ups and downs in this world. Empires have risen and fallen, nations and cultures have come and gone, but we are still here proclaiming the Gospel, in season and out of season, until the Lord shall come.

What is your mission and mine? Be the remnant! Yes, Lord, do what you need to do, but please, help some of us to stay faithful!

V. Reunion – His leader shall be one of his own, and his rulers shall come from his kin. When I summon him, he shall approach me; how else should one take the deadly risk of approaching me? says the LORD.  You shall be my people, and I will be your God.

Here is the endgame. Whatever the ups and downs of this world, the Lord’s ultimate work for each of us is to restore ourselves to union with Him. Jesus came to give us access to the Father through the shedding of His precious blood. Jeremiah’s word to us is to stay faithful unto death, when we will be summoned to the Father, and by the grace of our Lord Jesus approach Him with the confidence of holiness granted to us by that grace. The Book of Hebrews describes this and gives us both hope and an exhortation.

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the veil, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near (Heb 10:19-25).

Thus a quick tour through a ruined land, but with our eyes set on a glorious reunion.

Meanwhile, be the remnant and stay faithful, by His grace. Let God do His work. Maranatha!