Fear Not 220

Beloved brethren, gathered in the sacred assembly of the faithful, let us attend with devout hearts to the oracle of the prophet Jeremiah, who in the thirty-first chapter cries out: '...proclaim... shout... be glad and exult...' In the historical context of Israel's Babylonian exile, as the holy doctor St. Jerome expounds in his Commentary on Jeremiah, these words herald the divine promise of restoration after seventy years of captivity, prefiguring the spiritual liberation wrought by Christ. The Early Church Fathers, drawing from the Septuagint tradition, saw herein the voice of the New Jerusalem, the Church militant and triumphant. St. Augustine in his City of God reminds us that the shout of joy resounds not in earthly revelry but in the canticles of the redeemed, echoing the Catena Aurea wherein St. John Chrysostom links such prophetic exultation to the Beatitudes proclaimed on the Mount. Historical records of the patristic era, from the persecutions under Diocletian to the peace of Constantine, illustrate how these verses sustained martyrs who proclaimed the Gospel amid shouts of derision turned to triumph. As the blessed Thomas Aquinas compiles in the Catena Aurea from Origen and Cyril, the gladness is that of the soul returning from the far country of sin, exulting in the sacraments. Let us therefore, O children of the promise, raise our voices in the liturgy, for the Lord has ransomed Jacob and redeemed him from the hand of the stronger. In the spirit of St. Basil's Hexaemeron, creation itself joins this chorus of praise. Thus the prophet's call becomes our own in every age of trial. #FearNot220 #FearNotUNPLUGGED #166of220 #Catholic