NOTES for Jer 14:21
This prayer of the prophet Jeremiah, spoken more than two and a half thousand years ago, is very important for every person. The point is that the stereotypes of our religious psychology are such that we are very inclined to care about having something for which we can be praised. Perhaps this is the result of the failing and excellent grades we received in school... It seems to us that we must try to do something for the sake of which God will not reject us. But, as the Apostle Paul says, "Christ died for us while we were still sinners"...
There is nothing by which we could earn mercy, and therefore it is altogether meaningless to conduct a dialogue with God in terms of merit. Do not reject us for Your name's sake, that is, for Your own sake, the prophet prays. "Not for the sake of our righteousness," as St. Basil the Great put it in one prayer, but for Your own sake. Only in this case does our hope become so firm that, according to the word of Christ, we can go and bear fruit.