to give your best and end a failure - 5th week lent friday

Today we hear the last of the five so called Confessions of Jeremiah.  It is called by commentators as the Confessions of Jeremiah because like the Confessions of St. Augustine, it also reveals the feelings of his heart,.  It is a prayer of trust where the prophet opens his heart to the Lord and pours his deepest emotions and inner complaint to God, it was a time of inner crisis.  This prayer was uttered probably at the time when Jeremiah was persecuted by King Jehoiakim.  Why was Jeremiah pouring out his heart to God?  Because despite his efforts Jeremiah felt he has failed miserably.  He did what he can, he has given his all and it all ended up in failure.  Because of this Jeremiah even doubted his vocation – was I really called in the first place or has God misled me.  He even lamented his vocation as a prophet for because of this call he received nothing but pain, persecution and utter shame.

All of us experience this, don’t we?  We did our best or at the very least we did what we thought was our best.  We have given our all for our formation only to end up in failure.  And yet we were always taught to believe that God loves us and God will not abandon us.  This tension was also in the heart of Jeremiah.  He felt pain, he felt abandoned, he felt alone and yet he knows that God is with him, God loves him and will never abandon him.

What did Jeremiah do in the face of this confusion and pain?  He could only bare the feelings of his soul to God and renew his trust in him.  He can only pray opening the feelings of his heart to God.