Main news for 29 August 2024

The prophet speaks on behalf of the Israeli people, it is in particular to these people that God manifested Himself and opened His love and His favor to them. But, certainly, it is not only the description of the happened event, but also a prediction, that can and needs to be understood in the spiritual sense. In almost over five centuries after the prophet Jeremiah, God will manifest His love to all people in the fact that the Son of God will come into this world to bring the good will - salvation. Let’s notice that and in the case of people, and in the case of every individual, God's lovingkindness is not the corollary of some kind of righteousness, of some merits, but comes only from God's everlasting love. It is still important to see that the lovingkindness "extends" to us, and is not imposed, and in order that it becomes for us reality, it is necessary to accept it.

For a person living many centuries after the catastrophe of captivity and the return from it, brought up in an entirely different culture, it is not always simple to understand this exultant joyful news that "God will have mercy on His people." At times it is just as difficult to accept such ideas about God, who now destroys cities and villages in anger, now forgives them and returns them from captivity. But one way or another, we all live in this world, where the mystery of suffering is replaced by the mystery of salvation. And that means this exultation, this joyful round dance in which "old men and young men together" and in which "sorrow is turned into joy," can become an expression of our faith as well, of our knowledge that God loves us no matter what.

We are often inclined to perceive our relationship with God according to the principle of "crime and punishment" or "stick and carrot." That is, if we behave well, then God will help us in life: He will let us live this life well and then take us to Himself in paradise. But if we make a mess of things in this life, He will punish us. This principle of religious relationships goes back to hoary antiquity. In many ways, such was the moral theology of the Israelites in the period before the Exile, and, for some reason, of most Christians past and present. One could still explain that Israel went into exile for the sin of idolatry, but why did the best people, those most devoted to the Lord, end up in captivity?

This mystery is revealed to the prophet Jeremiah, and to other prophets: the Lord does not work by the stick and the carrot. He is guided only by fatherly love for His people and, in general, for all people. He permits the exile only for the correction of the people, for their cleansing from paganism, while loving Israel with an everlasting love that does not depend on their "behavior and diligence." The God of the Bible is the God of unconditional love; God is love.