Memorial of Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

 Lectionary: 406

Thereupon the princes and all the people
said to the priests and the prophets,

“This man does not deserve death; it is in the name of the LORD, our God, that he speaks to us.” 

So Ahikam, son of Shaphan, protected Jeremiah, so that he was not handed over to the people to be put to death.

Today's first reading describes an odd, perhaps unfamiliar incident in the history of Israel. The duly ordained priests of the Jerusalem temple and the guild prophets announce that they find the Prophet Jeremiah guilty of blasphemy and deserving of death. But the princes and people object and intervene on his behalf. 

They recognize Jeremiah's authority despite his lack of standing among the recognized religious leaders; and perhaps they understand why he is hated. That is, because he challenges their preconceptions of what God should be saying. And the authorized leaders may be governed by their pride, fear, and resentment of the upstart prophet. The know nothing of the prophet's obedient spirit before Almighty God. 

Many people today can read the story and suppose the Church's cardinals and bishops are also governed by a stubborn pride in their privileged positions. And the hierarchy should be more open to Catholics who would ordain women, permit married priests, and recognize gay marriage. 

Because we read this passage during a weekday Mass on Saturday, we should understand it within the liturgical tradition of Catholicism. Jeremiah has been recognized as a type of Jesus Christ. The prophet was chosen before he was born, like both John and Jesus. And they suffered martyrdom as he did, after enduring violent resistance from their coreligionists. 

In fact, he is the most Christlike of Old Testament prophets for Jesus was also a single young man who, unlike Isaiah, had none of the usual credentials. There had been no prophets in Judah for several centuries and no one expected a reappearance. When John the Baptist began to baptize; and Jesus to heal, they were recognized as prophets by "princes and people," but not by the Establishment. Also, born of the House of David, he could not be a Levite priest. 

Jeremiah and Jesus predicted the eminent fall of Jerusalem. When he arrived in Jerusalem and the Galilean fishermen saw the archtectural wonder of Herod's temple, Jesus...  

...said to them in reply, “You see all these things, do you not? Amen, I say to you, there will not be left here a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down.” Matthew 24:2

Jeremiah was there when the Babylonians breached the walls; Jesus spoke of that coming Day as he was led out to be crucified: 

Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and for your children,

for indeed, the days are coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed.’

At that time people will say to the mountains, ‘Fall upon us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us!’

for if these things are done when the wood is green what will happen when it is dry? Luke 23:28

Rather than calling for the abolition of authority in the Church, the story of Jeremiah reminds us of the great sorrow which lies upon the Earth and humankind. The Lord himself bore it as he travelled to Calvary.

"Let us go to die with him. (John 11:16)