Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent

“In my distress, I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice.”

The Scriptures are God’s Word to us but the Psalms have a dual role: they are God’s Word to us and our words to God. How many of us in these days of the COVID Virus pandemic have not articulated those very words to God “in my distress I called upon the Lord”? In the Scriptures, both the prophet Jeremiah and the Lord Jesus are in distressing situations. Jeremiah cries out “terror on every side” and the Gospel begins with the verse “they picked up rocks to stone Jesus.”

A common trait shared by the prophet Jeremiah and the Lord Jesus in the Scriptures is perseverance. The prophet, the voice speaking on God’s behalf calling Israel back to God; and Jesus, the revelation of God, persevere in their mission. Jeremiah calls God “the One who probes the heart and mind.” Jeremiah’s prophetic vocation is to tell the Israelites what they need to hear and refuse to hear. Jesus manifests the Father’s glory and presence but also upsets conventional wisdom unsettles religious structure. Jeremiah and Jesus remain faithful to the God on their mind and in their heart in the midst of a difficult situation, knowing that through them the Father can be made known and their conscience is at ease.

This Sunday marks the start of Holy Week. At the end of the Gospel Jesus returns to the place where he was baptized by St. John the Baptist. As we enter into the holiest days of the Christian calendar it is a reminder that we must return to our own baptismal living. In Baptism we are one with Christ, and we enter his life, passion and, resurrection. Even in the most distressing of times let us remain faithful to “the One who probes the heart and mind.”

Fr. Michele Vricella, OFM Cap

Mount Carmel-Annunciation Parish

Brooklyn, NY