We hear from different prophets and different books
of the Old Testament in the daily masses during Lent. Today, we hear from
the prophet Jeremiah who laments how the people have turned against him, how he
prays to God out of fear for his own safety. The people plot against
Jeremiah. Perhaps this brings to our mind those who plot against
Jesus on his journey to the cross. Today, in the Gospel, Jesus points out
the importance of serving others rather than wanting to be served ourselves.
In his book City of God,
St Augustine writes: “A good man, though a slave, is free; but a wicked man,
though he reigns, is a slave. For he serves, not one man alone, but, what is
worse, as many masters as he has vices.” St Augustine, a bishop in North
Africa in the early 5th century, wrote at the time of the downfall
of the Roman empire. According to Augustine, a man was not a slave
by nature or by law. Man’s freedom was a function of his moral state. Augustine
believed that our vices become our masters, our gods. Although Jeremiah
feared for his life, through his faith and his obedience to God, he was a free
man, freer than those that turned away from God and plotted against his
prophets. So, we might ask: What is enslaving us on our journey of faith? What is keeping us from giving our total
selves to God?
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