Scattered thoughts on this mornings office …

It was startling to read about Jeremiah, telling the king that Jerusalem would be destroyed (as it was) and then in the (OHS Breviary) canticle (for missionaries — it being Samuel Isaac Joseph Shhereschewsky day) talking about how beautiful are the feet of the messenger who announces peace and the people’s comfort that Jerusalem has been redeemed (Isaiah 52:7-12).

As I read about the king bringing Jeremiah to him in secret (after his arrest) I was reminded that this king, at least, seemed to have a lot less than absolute authority.  He was likely trying very hard to keep his throne, giving in to the powerful nationalistic party (instead of following the word of God as received in Jeremiah).

Then reading that Jeremiah, by the kings grace, was thereafter imprisoned in the court of the guard (and fed, daily, until the food ran out, rather than returned to the house of Jonathon the secretary, where they were starving him).  And that juxtaposed for me with Shereschewsky’s life, where, suffering from paralysis (and able to use only 1 finger on his typewriter) he translated over 2,000 pages of the bible over a 20 year period.  And Portaro talking about the limitations of our lives — not everything is possible for us.  But sometimes the limitations themselves can be a gift to us, focusing our lives.  And I’m thinking tell that to Jeremiah, who as I understand it was eventually carried away captive by his enemies, and never heard of again.

There are always things that catch my eye and make me think in any given day’s readings.