The Divisions which Continue

The Text from the Book of Jeremiah in the Roman Catholic Lectionary today tells of the ‘stiff necked people” who are portrayed as walking backyards in the journey toward greater unity with God. The failure of the people to listen, to hear obediently is lamented by the prophet. The psalmist recalls the time in the desert at Meribah and Massah (doubt and discontent) when the people of the Exodus tested Providence even in the glow of their deliverance from Egypt. We are the complicated people who, even though Luke has Jesus remind us that a kingdom divided cannot stand, hold to both directions at the same time. We are attracted toward intimacy with the Joy, Peace and Love yet we look back and walk back to the life that divides us from the destiny we seek. Who can understand this “stiff-necked” people? God.