Meditation Forty-Three First Psalm: Psalm 55 Second Psalm: Psalm 74 Old Testament: Jeremiah 17:5-10; Jeremiah 17:14-17 New Testament: Philippians 4:1-13 Gospel: John 12:27-36
“Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit” (Jer. 17:7-8). The vast rocky wilderness and unrelenting sun and heat of the desert are physical elements that somehow expose the spiritual truths of our lives. Jeremiah understood this, but he also knew the hidden, abundant, and beautiful life of the desert—the plants and animals that thrive by the springs and small oases. So the desert became a ground of metaphor for him to describe the spiritual life. In his Judean desert there grows a plant, known by the Bedouin as the ‘cursed lemon.’ In the rainy season it is a perfectly healthy looking shrub, which puts forth lovely fruit that looks like lemons. However its roots are shallow and it is so starved for water that when you break open one of the lemons you find only dry brown seeds. It is a dried up dying plant. But by the springs and oases that dot the Judean desert grow fig trees. They sink their roots into the ever-flowing water; so that even in drought they find water and provide figs for the hungry and shade for the weary. 106
from dust to triumph: reflections for a holy lent