of Sea Anna Maria Cánopi

The proposed texts, including those of the next issue, are part of the 2019 annual program already agreed with Mother Cánopi and taken from recordings of Lectios that she had given.

Opening the Holy Scripture in the pages of the book of the prophet Jeremiah, we find ourselves faced with an unprecedentedly current situation. The people of Israel - and we can name many other peoples of the Middle East, Africa, Latin America... - are experiencing a dramatic moment: without a wise and faithful guide, they are deported, subjected to foreign powers, dragged into idolatry. In a word, it breaks the alliance with the Lord, solemnly sanctioned by Moses and renewed several times along the path of the Exodus up to the entry into the promised land and beyond.

What, then, does the Lord do in the face of this stiff-necked people? With the power of his word he raises up a prophet and entrusts him with a mission for that time: a difficult mission for ears that do not want to listen, but a necessary mission, so that nothing remains undone on the part of God to save his people, to save the 'humanity.

In the beginning - before anything else, before Jeremiah's awareness of the gravity of the times, before his personal project - the word of the Lord resonates in his life. Jeremiah is the man of the Word: he is the vigilant sentinel who listens to the Word, allows himself to be challenged by it and makes it resonate.

The book of Jeremiah begins immediately with the vocation and call of the prophet by God. We cannot read this passage without feeling personally involved, because every man who comes into the world is called into existence with a mission, for a divine plan.

Without any "warning" the Lord turns to Jeremiah and presents himself as a God who knows man from eternity and in his deepest fibers:

«Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you,

before you came into the light, I consecrated you;

I have made you a prophet to the nations" (Jer 1,5:XNUMX).

Like Abraham, like Moses at the burning bush, like Saul along the road to Damascus, Jeremiah listens to the words that give decisive orientation to his life. 

And what is his reaction? Like Moses and many other "sent", he is struck by dismay. God, in fact, sends him - in his name - to a rebellious, continually recidivist people: a people who have not been able to capitalize on the mistakes they have made, who do not know how to read the "signs" of the times. Precisely for this reason he needs a "prophet", a man who acts as God's spokesperson among men, to manifest to them God's will, God's plan. And God's plan is always for the salvation of men, but it is never cheap, never at the cost of compromises. This is why it is difficult to be a prophet, then as now.

Jeremiah feels unequal to this task, he believes - and how can he not agree with him? – completely incapable of carrying out the mission. With full freedom, she opens his heart to the Lord, showing him the turmoil that the Word has generated in him. He says the biblical text:

«I replied: “Alas, Lord God!

Behold, I cannot speak, for I am young'" (v. 6).

Each expression should be thought through for a long time. First there is the verb: I answered. It is the verb of the man who allows himself to be questioned and speaks after having listened; it is the verb of the man who does not presume to already know everything about himself, but who makes himself available to God and allows him to intervene in his life. Saint Benedict begins his Rule with the exhortation: Listen, son.

And what does Jeremiah reply? From her mouth comes an exclamation of discouragement immediately followed by a firm profession of faith. Jeremiah feels inadequate, crushed - alas - and yet continues to believe that the one who spoke to him is the Lord God. He does not doubt even for an instant. He firmly believes that the word heard - the vocation received - comes from God. How, then, can he reject it? Yet, how to join it? “Behold, I cannot speak, for I am young” (v. 6). It is the experience of inadequacy, which becomes all the more burning the more we have a sense of God.

God himself, then, comforts his prophet. As a caring Father, he reassures him; he does not downplay or retract his call, but offers him the key to living it without feeling crushed by it and without being tempted to back out.

Faced with Jeremiah's perplexity, the Lord offers a "but", which turns the situation upside down: "But the Lord said to me: 'Do not say: I am young'" (v. 7). I know well that you are young, that you are inexperienced in speaking: I have known you since your mother's womb, or rather, even before you were born... And yet, don't worry about this. Do not fear! Continuing, the Lord reveals to Jeremiah - and to us - the "secret" to overcome every fear, that "secret" that the Virgin Mary knew well: obedience to the will of God.

“You shall go to all those to whom I will send you, and you shall speak all that I command you” (v. 7).

The prophet - and every Christian is such by virtue of Baptism - must not invent anything, but simply go where the Lord sends him and do what he commands.  Jesus himself said of himself: "I do nothing on my own, but speak as the Father taught me" (Jn 8:28).

In this obedience, the friendship between God and man, broken by sin, is reconstituted. And where there is friendship with God, all fear is overcome: "Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to protect you" (Jer 1,8:XNUMX).

Jesus himself declared: "He who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him" (Jn 8:29).

The prophet can then face his mission - which remains arduous - with confidence because the Lord is with him and makes him suitable for the task he entrusts to him. 

«The Lord stretched out his hand

and touched my mouth,

and the Lord said to me:

“Behold, I put my words in your mouth.”

The Lord purifies the lips of the prophet, so that inappropriate, evil, worldly words do not come out of them, words that are "chatter", as Pope Francis would say. But it's still not enough: he gives him his "his words". And they are words that burn: words of edification, but also of demolition, words that comfort, but also recall and correct. Only these the prophet must have in his heart and on his lips, only these he must guard and announce, however uncomfortable they may be.

Here is the importance for every Christian to form himself on the Word of God, nourish himself by it every day, decide everything and do everything in his light, and not following the mentality of the world.

Only after having given him the gift of the "word", the Lord openly declares to his prophet what his mission will be. Previously it would have been too heavy a burden to bear: he is, in fact, appointed a prophet "to uproot and demolish, / to destroy and overthrow, / to build and plant" (v. 10). The hammering sequence of verbs is striking: four verbs – four actions – of destruction to reach construction. The teaching is clear: nothing valid and true can grow if we do not have the courage to eradicate evil. If the ground is not plowed, if the thorns are not removed, the seed will suffocate.

With a radical act of faith, Jeremiah accepts his mission. He – writes Bonhoeffer – «knows that he is taken by God and called at a specific, shocking moment in his life, and now he can no longer do anything other than go among men and announce God's will. The vocation has become the point of turning point in his life, and for him there is no other way than to follow this vocation, even if it were to lead to his death" (Conference, Barcelona 1928).

Before entering the heart of the ministry, Jeremiah receives a double sign from God, an omen of the fruitfulness and "price" of his mission. Two symbols appear in front of him. And the Lord asks him: what do you see? He sees an almond branch and I see a boiling pot (see Jer 1,11ff). You see well, adds the Lord. And, as you have seen, this is what you must do: do not be afraid to pour the "boiling pot", calling for conversion, without fear, without compromise. Don't be afraid, even if you have to suffer a lot for the word and be considered a "prophet of misfortune", imprisoned, condemned; do not fear, "because - says the Lord, reiterating his promise - I am with you to save you" (Jer 1,19:XNUMX).

Then the “Word” will flourish.

The prophet will never tire of calling out the rebellious people:

«Realize and experience how sad and bitter it is

abandon the Lord your God" (Jer 2,19:2,18). Yet his words fall on deaf ears and he ends his days "in shame" (Jer XNUMX:XNUMX). Total failure. Like Jesus on the cross.

But – as he promised – God watches over his word to make it come true (see Jer 1,11:XNUMX). Commenting on this passage, Saint Ambrose writes: no matter how much the prophets prophesied and suffered, everything "would have been insufficient, if Jesus himself had not come to earth to take on our weaknesses, the only one who could not be tired  from our sins and whose arms did not waver; he humbled himself to death and death on a cross,  in which, opening his arms wide, he raised up the whole world that was about to perish" (Commentary on Psalm 43).