The Glory of the Lord, Vol. 6 by Hans Urs von Balthasar

Author:Hans Urs von Balthasar [Balthasar, Hans Urs von]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Spiritual & Religion
ISBN: 9780898702484
Publisher: Ignatius Press
Published: 1991-03-31T16:00:00+00:00

5. JEREMIAH

Jeremiah comes from Anathoth, a tiny place outside the gates of Jerusalem which still belongs to Benjamin and thus to the northern kingdom; and the prophet begins, before Josiah’s reform, with a proclamation that is completely permeated by Hosea. Later, after the ‘discovery of the law’ (621), he adopts the thinking of Deuteronomy, which likewise seems to come from the northern kingdom, until his own prophetic commission takes full hold of him and isolates him. In Hosea, the breakthrough occurs to a God who is near in a hitherto unknown, incomprehensible manner; in Jeremiah, this nearness becomes so oppressive and burdensome that almost the only aspect of it which is experienced is the incomprehensibility, which means a new, paradoxical distance: ‘Am I only a God at hand, says Yahweh, and not also a God afar off?’ (23.23). Jeremiah is attacked, taken hold of and inhabited by this incomprehensible Other who lays claim to him as a whole, down to the very marrow of his existence. It is not (as with Hosea) one piece of the intimate sphere of his life that he must make available to God, but everything: ‘You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place’ (16.2), i.e. a total virginity so that he can be utterly obedient to Yahweh, even with his body. He must share in God’s withdrawal: ‘Do not enter the house of mourning, or go to lament, or bemoan them; for I have taken away my peace from this people, says the Lord, my steadfast love and mercy . . . You shall not go into the house of feasting . . . Behold, I will make to cease from this place the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride’ (16.5, 8-9). He is cut off from other people in loneliness. ‘I did not sit in the company of merrymakers, nor did I rejoice; I sat alone, because thy hand was upon me, for thou hadst filled me with indignation’ (15.17). He is a vessel for the divine feelings, which are foreign to him: ‘I am full of the wrath of Yahweh, and I am weary of holding it in’ (6.11). He must proclaim him, therefore, but this brings him only scorn and a new isolation: ‘The word of the Lord has become for me a reproach and derision all day long. If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,” there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot’ (20.9). If we take into account also the message that the prophet must proclaim more and more unambiguously and inexorably—the national defence must be abandoned, they must capitulate before the king of Babylon who is first drawing close and then besieging Jerusalem, they must above all bid farewell to every

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