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Tuesday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time Memorial of Saint John Vianney, Priest
Jeremiah 30:1–2, 12–15, 18–22
Today, the Lord tells Jeremiah to write His words in a book.
And those words begin with a painful diagnosis:
“Your injury is incurable.”
A fatal wound.
A wound no one can heal.
At least, not those on whom Israel had relied until now.
Not idols.
Not alliances.
Not false prophets.
Not human strength.
The wound is real.
The failure is deep.
The disaster cannot be covered with easy words.
But then, in the same passage, the Lord says:
“I will restore your fortunes.”
This is one of the great features of the Bible:
indestructible hope.
The biblical story moves between the first creation and the new creation.
And no matter how deeply human beings fail,
no matter how far they stray,
the Bible never allows us to give up.
The incurable wound can be healed.
The creation wounded by sin can be renewed.
After Good Friday comes Easter Sunday.
Biblical hope is not optimism.
It is not positive thinking.
It is not pretending that everything is fine.
Biblical hope is rooted in trust in God,
for whom nothing is impossible.
That is what Jeremiah was doing.
He was speaking to people who had lost everything:
their homes,
their city,
their dreams,
their future.
And yet, he told them to imagine restoration.
A city rebuilt.
Children playing again.
Families returning.
Songs of joy heard again in the streets.
Jeremiah was not practicing wishful thinking.
He was awakening hope in wounded hearts.
If the people doubted, he could remind them of Abraham and Sarah.
They also laughed when they heard that Sarah would bear a child in her old age.
And the Lord asked:
“Is anything impossible for the Lord?”
This is the question that keeps hope alive.
Saint Paul wrote:
“In hope we were saved.”
And then he added:
Hope that is seen is not hope.
Who hopes for what he already sees?
But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
That is what Abraham and Sarah did.
That is what Israel had to do after Babylon destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BC.
That is what we too must learn to do.
Our world also carries wounds that seem incurable.
Personal wounds.
Family wounds.
Church wounds.
Social wounds.
Wounds of war, fear, loneliness, and sin.
But our God is not the God of despair.
He is the God of healing.
He does not deny the wound.
He names it.
And then He promises restoration.
Nothing is impossible for Him.
He will restore our fortunes.
And we shall sing again for joy.
Biblical Reflections on the Gospel of Matthew
Scripture Attribution
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition,
copyright © 1989, 1993
the Division of Christian Education of the National Council
of the Churches of
Christ in the United States of America.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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© 2025 Krakus.
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