Franciscan Fractal
Contemplating Today’s Culture through the Eyes of St. Francis & the Life of Christ
“Cracked Cisterns”
Be appalled, O heavens, at this, be shocked,
be utterly desolate, says the Lord,
for my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water,
and dug out cisterns for themselves,
cracked cisterns that can hold no water.
Jeremiah 2:12-13
“Cracked cisterns (containers) that can hold no water (are of no use to God).” This should have been an awakening moment for Israel. It was written by Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, shortly after Judah (the southern tribe of Israel) was overtaken by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. While in line to become a priest like his father, Jeremiah was called instead by God to be a prophet to Judah.
Jeremiah left his traditional religious and cultural upbringing. His actions became a critique of his heritage. He began by challenging the religious establishment from the “inside,” as he stood on the “outside” of acceptability. He warned the people of Judah that their immorality and false religiosity (one that was devoid of a passionate love for God) would be the cause of their downfall. There would no longer be protection from the powerful enemies who were waiting to overtake Judah.
Jeremiah’s admonishment was for the people of Judah to return to God. His words were marked by both weeping and begging – begging the people to turn away from their ungodly ways and repent.
God nevertheless left the people of Judah a way out of their impending doom by emphatically proclaiming, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have continued my faithfulness to you.” (Jeremiah 3:31) Thus, “Act with justice and righteousness and deliver from the hand of the oppressor anyone who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place.” (Jeremiah 22:3)
Despite Jeremiah’s actions, the people of Judah never changed their ways. The Babylonians descended upon the people, demolished Jerusalem, and emptied the city of its inhabitants. There was a massive annihilation of the people. Those that remained were taken away to Babylon as captives and slaves. They never knew if they would be free again and questioned if they would ever see their relatives or the temple once more. Moreover, they longed for a return to a different way of life – one that would keep God at its center.
The work of a prophet is simple. It is to warn people of the final consequences of their thoughtless and dishonest actions. A prophet’s message is clear: “Unless you rethink your current assumptions, values, and priorities; unless you become ready to change your ways; your life as you know it will come to an end!” And, for the people of Judah, it did come to an end.
All Christians are called to be prophets – people who see the truth and articulate the disparity between what is illusion and what is reality. Prophets “tell it like it is.” They speak the truth.
What is the truth behind, mass deportations (often to unknown and/or distant places), retaliatory prosecutions, unilateral tariffs, unraveling of environmental protection laws, military dismissals of “trans” people, and a “big, beautiful bill” that denies health and welfare benefits to lower income families? These all lift up the need for and the importance of present-day Christian prophets – prophets who articulate a different set of values based on compassion that are grounded in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As the Old Testament prophet says, “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8)
Many people claiming to be followers of Christ have become cracked cisterns, and hold no possibility of life-giving water. Cracked cisterns only pretend to hold the reality of life-giving water by creating one illusion after another, all in the name of making “progress” great again. And, remember, cracked cisterns are of no use to God!
The power to address reality in our situations today requires that we work together – crying, protesting, and praying as Jeremiah did. Witnessing ungodly actions is brutal and often crippling. Yet, like Jeremiah, we look to God to direct our actions not only in lamentation, but also in contemplation.
Franciscan Friar Richard Rohr often defines contemplation as meeting all the reality we can bear. He goes on to say that to help us meet and bear reality, the prophets show us how to mourn privately and lament publicly. We should then turn our heart's lonely grief into the public poetry of liturgy. Express our heartbreak in painting, sculpture and song, and the performative art of protest. Put the whole ugly truth in the curriculum of our textbooks and schools, so it is not hidden from our children. Above all, don't let exploiters make us numb and stupid.
In addition, we need to feel the surge of divine grief, the groaning of the Holy Spirit deep within us. We need to allow those groans of loss to become our groans of labor, so a better world can be born from any failure, beginning with a better you and me who are still capable of seeing, feeling, and meeting all the reality that you and I can bear.1
Prayer and Blessings,
Fr. John
1 https://cac.org/daily-meditations/public-lament-2023-04-16/
