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Writer's pictureFr. Francis Murira

SATURDAY OF THE 16TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

23RD JULY 2022


Reflection


Our Reflection will be based on our first reading: Jeremiah 3:14-17


A few days ago we read about the call of Jeremiah. We noted that he at first resisted but God assured him of His support; He anointed his lips and gave him a mandate: to destroy and scatter, build and to plant.


Those who would listen to his message would be exalted and blessed while those who would reject it would be scattered and destroyed.


In our today's reading Jeremiah is telling us to discard from ourselves all the traces of sin and evil, of all wickedness and the disobedience we have against God.


He calls us to seek what is holy and good, worthy of God and get rid of ourselves the attachments to worldly desires and sins, of all things that keep us away from God and His path. The Lord is calling us to return to Him with righteousness and true love, devotion and commitment to Him.


At the time Jeremiah is preaching, the people of Judah and their kings and leaders had long disobeyed the Lord and turned back into the path of sin, evil and wickedness, and for that, Jeremiah told them all that they would pay the consequences for their disobedience and sins. However,, despite their stubbornness and sinfulness God still loved His people and desires to show them His mercy, to forgive them and be reconciled with them.


The Lord called the people to change their ways of life, to abandon their false and pagan gods and idols. They had to abandon Idolatry and syncretism ( diluting true religion with pagan/foreign religious practices) that had mislead them in the wrong path. They had to leave behind their wicked deeds and all their past transgressions.


God demands of them to purify themselves and to follow Him once again with faith, to glorify His Name by their deeds, to honour once again the Law of God and all that God has placed in their midst to guide and help them in their journey.

The prophet Jeremiah invited them to repent their sins and to enter once again into Covenant with God.

The same message of repentance and turning back to God is still relevant to us today. As we have often repeated in this forum we shall not go to hell because we sinned but because we ignored God's invitation to repentance.


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