We hear from different prophets and different books of the Old Testament in the daily masses during Lent. Today, the prophet Jeremiah laments how the people have turned against him. Jeremiah prays to God out of fear for his own safety. The people plot against Jeremiah. Perhaps this brings to our mind those who are plotting 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 and 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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