During this Lenten season, the prophets have been directing us on the path to repentance, which also leads to salvation.  Today Jeremiah reminds us how to find that path:  listen to God’s voice and walk with Him.  Doing so will lead to spiritual prosperity – not always prosperity as the world thinks of it, but a deeper and more sustaining one that leads to everlasting life. 

But we are not such good listeners.  Sometimes we even stop our ears from hearing God’s voice.  We often stumble as we walk, but we also do worse:  we throw away God’s map and go off on our own paths.  Sometimes we might think that those paths will lead to the same good end, but they regularly do not.  And when we get the warning, “return to course”, we silence that voice.  That is essentially how Jeremiah is describing the people of his time, and sadly, we are no different.

When we face the realities of God’s commands, we can sometimes feel good about keeping some of the negative ones.  I don’t steal, I don’t murder, etc.  (And you will notice I am not listing too many of them, just in case.)  But when we encounter the greatest commandment, to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and the one which is like it, to love our neighbor as ourselves, we are crestfallen.  The commandment about honoring father and mother also falls in this category.  To keep these commandments in their fullness means we must be transformed, and we know that it has not yet happened.

In my own Lenten journey, regrets emerge as I ponder these commandments about love and honor and my own failures to live up to them.  A country music artist I enjoy sings a line in one of her songs, “There’s no such thing as no regrets ….”  She is right to recognize this. Our sinful tendencies often get in the way of doing what we should do, even when we want to do good.  And we must also cope with our limitations, when we are too fatigued or overwhelmed to do all the good that we wish to do.  In such times, we must simply surrender these things up to God, leaving them in His capable hands. 

Don’t stop with regret and don’t end with despair. The prophet Joel reminds us that God is gracious and merciful to all those who turn to Him. Heed the instructions of the Psalmist; do not harden your hearts by quieting the voice that says, “return to course”.  God provides instructions for living in order to free us to live in dignity and to love as we ought, rather than leaving us enslaved to sin and our distorted passions, desires, and wills.

Jesus shows us that truth in today’s Gospel, where he heals a mute man.  The crowds were “amazed” when that man spoke.  Giving a voice to a silent person was indeed a wondrous thing – a gift to dignify him and restore him to a place of acceptance and wholeness.  Hallelujah!  But not all saw it that way.

Jesus also tells us “whoever does not gather with me scatters.”  Walking with Him may entail turning around and picking up what we have scattered along our path.  Let us ponder these things on our Lenten journey.  Thanks be to God.