The Greatest Mission On Earth

Twentieth Sunday in Course 2025

Cisterns, which date back thousands of years, are holes in the ground meant to collect and store water. Often they are lined on the sides with rocks to slow down leakage into the surrounding soil. At our house we have no cisterns, but we do have rain barrels that store water coming from downspouts on our rain gutters. They give us the opportunity to water our plants with free rainwater. We’ve had them collecting for at least ten years.

But I would hate to have to clean out either our barrels or any cistern. Despite filters on the top of the barrels, tiny flakes of sediment get into the water and slowly precipitate to the bottom of the container. Today we hear a picture of the prophet Jeremiah, who honestly communicated God’s word to the Israelites, being cast into a muddy-bottomed cistern. His judges intended him to die. He told the truth to power, and the powerful didn’t want the truth.

Providentially, Jeremiah was rescued by God through the intervention of Ebed-melech, an African servant of the king and court official. He approached King Zedekiah and shamed him into allowing the release of the prophet, and the liberated Jeremiah then prophesied that he would not die when the Babylonians conquered the Israelites. The psalmist today shares with us a hymn of hope, rescue and praise in a similar situation. You might remember that when Jesus asked His apostles to take a poll among those who followed Him ”who do they say I am,” He heard Himself called “Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.” There were many parallels between Jesus and Jeremiah, particularly their common persecution by the elites. Tradition from the Christians in the Holy Land tells us that when Jesus was arrested, the authorities had Him imprisoned in an old cistern near the High Priest’s palace. That began the fulfillment of Christ’s prediction that after His arrest, He would be “in the ground” for three days and nights.

His arrest, trial, flogging, crucifixion and burial culminated the three days, but as He had also predicted, Jesus rose, glorified, on that third day. Those events were the baptism He had to undergo. “Baptism” means immersion, or better, soaking or marination. He anticipated His trial and execution, as we heard today, in “anguish.” Nobody looks forward to pain with joy, but when anything excruciating has to be undergone, the person of courage undergoes it like Jesus. “For the sake of the joy that lay before him He endured the cross, despising its shame.” And the Father, God, raised Him from death and made Him the model for all the baptized who undergo trials. God’s grace has been with the Church in that way for two thousand years.

Let’s all take heart from the Scriptures today and know that as we break and share the Bread of Life and take and drink the Cup of Blessing, we are surrounded by each other and a huge throng of witnesses, thousands of years old. The graces we receive in this sacrament will energize us and fill us with the fire of the Holy Spirit. We will then be able to “persevere in running the race that lies before us while daily keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith.”

God loves us and calls us to imitate Jesus Christ in this way so that the end of our lives is not death, but intimate union with the Blessed Trinity. If we persevere in our commitment to Christ, we may be alienated from people here on earth, but if we persevere in faith, hope and charity for all, we will attract others to follow Him and share our mission. Blessed be God who calls us to the greatest endeavor on earth.