Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Jeremiah 35, 1-19

The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh in the days of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah,

'Go to the clan of the Rechabites and speak to them; bring them into one of the rooms of the Temple of Yahweh and offer them wine to drink.'

So I took Jaazaniah son of Jeremiah, son of Habazziniah, with his brothers and all his sons, the whole Rechabite clan,

and brought them to the Temple of Yahweh into the room of Ben-Johanan son of Igdaliah, a man of God, which was next to that of the chief men, above the room of Maaseiah son of Shallum, guardian of the threshold.

I then set pitchers full of wine, and some cups, before the members of the Rechabite clan and said, 'Drink some wine.'

But they replied, 'We do not drink wine, because our ancestor Jonadab son of Rechab gave us this order, "You must not drink wine, neither you nor your sons for ever;

nor must you build houses, sow seed, plant vineyards or own them, but must live in tents all your lives, so that you may live long on the soil to which you are alien."

We have punctiliously obeyed the orders of our ancestor, Jonadab son of Rechab, never drinking wine ourselves, nor our wives, our sons or our daughters,

not building houses to live in, owning neither vineyard nor field nor seed,

living in tents. We have obeyed the orders of our ancestor Jonadab, respecting them in every particular.

However, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded this country, we decided, "We must get away! We will go to Jerusalem to escape the armies of the Chaldaeans and Aramaeans." So that is why we are living in Jerusalem.'

Then the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah as follows,

'Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this, "Go and say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Will you never learn the lesson and listen to my words, Yahweh demands?

The words of Jonadab son of Rechab, ordering his sons to drink no wine, have been observed; obedient to their ancestor's command, they drink none even today . But to me, who spoke to you so urgently, so untiringly, you have not listened.

I have urgently and untiringly sent you all my servants the prophets to say: Turn back, each one of you, from your evil behaviour and amend your actions, do not follow other gods to serve them, and you will go on living on the soil I gave to you and your ancestors. But you have not paid attention or listened to me.

Thus the sons of Jonadab son of Rechab have kept the command their ancestor gave them, but this people has not listened to me.

And so, Yahweh, God Sabaoth, God of Israel, says this: Look, on Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem I am going to bring all the disaster which I have decreed for them, because I spoke to them and they would not listen, called to them and they would not answer." '

Then Jeremiah said to the Rechabite clan, 'Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this, "Because you have obeyed the orders of your ancestor Jonadab and observed all his rules and done everything he ordered you to do,

therefore, Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this: Jonadab son of Rechab will never lack a male descendant to stand before me for ever." '

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Among all the events that occurred during the siege of Jerusalem, the story of the Rechabites stands out as an example of obedience and faithfulness to the word received from God and the practices passed down from earlier generations. The Rechabites are an example of spiritual nobility, founded on the sacred character of the given word. Human words must have weight; they must be consistent. As Jesus says, “Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one” (Mt 5: 37). Wise people like the Rechabites, fulfil their promises and keep their word. If this is a good thing for human words, how much more so must it be for the Word of God, which is eternal and the source of all stability? It deserves to be listened to and acted upon in real life. The Rechabites obedience to their ancestor’s command is all the more attractive because it occurs in the difficult context of the famine that has struck the people who, like them, had taken refuge in Jerusalem: in this context, a cup of wine could restore a weakened and listless body. But the Rechabites keep their ancestral commandment and do not drink the wine offered by Jeremiah. The contrast between the Rechabites and the other Hebrews is strong. The Jews have been given the words of many prophets sent by the Lord, including Jeremiah, who tells them, “I myself have spoken to you persistently” (v. 14). And yet the deafness to the words of the prophet was entire. The hardness of their hearts made the oracles of the prophets useless. Even though God had called the people to listen to his voice (“Hear, O Israel!” Dt 6:4), they have become a nation of non-listeners. It is essential for every disciple to listen to the Word of God. Indeed, the disciple is none other than the one who listens to and learns from the Word of God continuously in order to put it into practice.