“But they did not listen to me, nor did they pay attention. They walked in the stubbornness of their evil hearts and turned their backs, not their faces, to me.” (Jeremiah 7:24.)
Tertullian of Carthage comments on this verse from the First Reading proclaimed at Mass today:
“Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you will be my people; and you will walk in all my ways, which I have commanded you.” This was God’s invitation. “But,” it says, “they did not listen, nor inclined their ear.” This was Israel’s refusal. “They departed, and walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart.” I have bought a field, I have purchased oxen, I have married a wife. So again he adds: “I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, rising early even before daylight” — this would be the Holy Spirit who calls to those who are feasting — “Yet my people did not listen to me, nor inclined their ear, but stiffened their neck.” (Against Marcion, 4.)
Collect
We implore Your majesty most humbly,
O Lord,
that, as the feast of our salvation
draws ever closer,
so we may press forward
all the more eagerly
towards the worthy celebration
of the Paschal Mystery.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
O Lord,
that, as the feast of our salvation
draws ever closer,
so we may press forward
all the more eagerly
towards the worthy celebration
of the Paschal Mystery.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen
