| 2008 Jul 29 Tue Jer 14: 17-22/ Ps 78(79): 8. 9. 11 and 13/ Mt 13: 36-43 From today's readings: "Is it not You alone, O LORD, our God, to Whom we look?... Help us, O God our savior, because of the glory of Your Name.... The Son of Man will send His angels, and they will collect out of His Kingdom all who cause others to sin and all evildoers." Ravages of Sin In addition to the crisis of foreign invasion, chapter 14 of the book of Jeremiah recounts the catastrophe of a great famine. Droughts and food shortages were common from time to time throughout the ancient world, but the prophet bewails the effects of a famine which was evidently quite severe, and particularly bad-timed, coinciding as it did with grave military threats. Read all of chapter 14 to get the complete picture: false prophets were promising that no famine or war would come, even in spite of the people's sinfulness. But Jeremiah and the true prophets had announced that the Word of the Lord had foreseen the coming of these adversities because of the people's iniquities. And come they did! The people were faced with the unmasked reality of the fruits of their wickedness. Drought is so visibly awful, when life-giving water is dried up, and food sources quickly become scarce. We can recall the Lord's complaint voiced in Jeremiah 2:13 that "Two evils have My people done: they have forsaken Me, the source of living waters; They have dug themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that hold no water!" So now, the people physically experience the famine which parallels the spiritual dryness their sins have caused. | 
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