There was a man who, favored by special graces, stood firm as “a fortified city, a pillar of iron, a wall of bronze to face the whole country: the kings of Judah and their chiefs, the priests and the people of the country” (Jer 1:18). 

Newsroom (May 16, 2023, 2:45 PM, Gaudium Press) Jeremiah was born in Anatot, a city located five kilometers from Jerusalem, approximately in 650 B.C. While still in his mother’s cloister he was consecrated and made a prophet by God (cf. Jer 1:5). According to “the common judgment of the Doctors, supported by this passage, Jeremiah would have been purified of the original stain from his mother’s womb, like the Precursor”(1), St. John the Baptist; at the age of fifteen he began to prophesy.(2) And, by God’s order, he remained celibate.

At the beginning of his prophetic ministry – which lasted almost half a century: 41 years in Judah and probably four in Egypt (3) – the Lord told him: “I set you against nations and kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to devastate and to destroy, to build and to plant” (Jer 1:10).

Called to “prophetism to destroy and to build,” Jeremiah foresees the destruction of Jerusalem, banishment, but he also urges the people to repentance. And he points out on the horizon a splendid way out for religious restoration, with the conversion of the exiles and their return to Judea. He also prophesies the destruction of the great empires and neighboring kingdoms (cf. Jer. ch. 46 to 51). (4)

In his writings he denounces the sins of the people and especially of the priests, the false prophets and the authorities of Judah. “The guides, whether spiritual or temporal of the people, had done nothing to restrain their brethren; they had even cast themselves further than the others into evil.” (5) And he also sows words for them to have another mindset, that is, to turn to the true God.

Prefigure of the Man of Sorrows

Jeremiah describes the Person of the Messiah, a descendant of David who “shall reign with truth and wisdom” (Jer 23:5); and predicts the slaughter of the innocents, soon after the birth of the Redeemer: “A cry is heard in Ramah, of lamentation, of weeping, of bitterness, it is Rachel who weeps for her children and refuses to be comforted, because they are no more!” (Jer 31:15). This prophecy is quoted by St. Matthew (cf. 2:17-18).

Because of the Prophet’s denunciations of the sins committed in Judah, he was greatly hated and persecuted atrociously by his own people. God had warned him, “They will make war against you, but they will not overcome you, for I am with you” (Jer 1:18-19). He was betrayed by his own blood brothers, who “slandered him behind his back” (Jer 12:6).

Msgr. John Clá states: “The prophet is misunderstood because he warns the people of their deviations and points them to a path contrary to human passions; the path of morality, of right and righteousness, the path, in short, of holiness. He, therefore, is a man who goes against the current and confronts public opinion. However, by this persecution he receives the merits that, by his great love, God has in store for him. And hence his greatness, even in the appearance of disaster.” (6)

So much did he suffer that he could represent himself as “a meek lamb led to the slaughter” (Jer 11:19). He not only preached good doctrine, but lived it in such a way that he was the “most perfect prefigurement of the Man of sorrows” (7) , Our Lord. And many Jews of Jesus’ time believed that He was Jeremiah resurrected (cf. Mt 16:14).

The priest Fassur orders the Prophet to be flogged

Among other tremendous denunciations, Jeremiah reproached the false prophets: “They practice adultery, they live in lies, they support the actions of criminal people, so that no one else will turn away from wickedness. To me, they are like Sodom, its citizens, like Gomorrah” (Jer 23:14). And some of these false prophets were priests.

One day, Jeremiah stood at the entrance of the Temple and proclaimed that misfortune would come upon Jerusalem and all the towns of Judah, because they did not heed his warnings (cf. Jer 19:14-15).

Then, a wicked priest named Phassur, chief administrator of the Temple, ordered Jeremiah to be flogged, imprisoned in a prison inside the House of God, and kept there bound on a log. The next day, Kassur went to the place to release the Prophet, but Jeremiah, inspired by God, vehemently rebuked him:

– Your name shall no longer be Fassur, but “Terror-the-Red.” I will make you a terrible thing for yourself and for all your friends. Judah will be conquered by the King of Babylon. You and those who dwell in your house will be taken as captives to Babylon, where you will die as well as your friends, to whom you prophesied lies (cf. Jer 20:1-6). “It is likely that [Fassur] was led into exile with King Jeconiah (cf. Jer 29:2) “8 , in 599 BC.

It is necessary for us to do apostleship, realizing that “sufferings must flow into the apostle, and he must receive them, embrace them as Our Lord embraced his Cross or as, for example, the Prophet Jeremiah who embraced and endured all immense suffering in order, in fact, to bring about the designs of Providence upon him.” (9)

By Paulo Francisco Martos
(in Notions of Sacred History – 86)

1 – FILLION, Louis-Claude. La Sainte Bible commentée – La Prophétie de Jérémie. 3. ed. Paris: Letouzey et aîné.1923, p.522 .
2 – Cf. SAINT JOHN BOSCO. Sacred History. 10 ed. Sao Paulo: Salesiana, 1949, p.150.
3 – Cf. ASENSIO, Félix, SJ. In LA SAGRADA ESCRITURA – Texto y comentario por professores de la Compañia de Jesús. Madrid: BAC. 1970. v. V, p.409.
4 – Cf. ASENSIO, op. cit.
5 – FILLION, op. cit.
6 – CLÁ DIAS, João Scognamigli, EP. The gift of wisdom in the mind, life and work of Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana; São Paulo: Lumen Sapintiae Institute. 2016, v. III, p.178.
7 – FILLION, op. cit. p. 518.
8 – FILLION, op. cit. p. 601.
9 – CORRÊA DE OLIVEIRA, Plinio. Crosses well accepted diminish the penalties of Purgatory. In Revista Dr. Plinio, São Paulo, n. 216, March 2016, p. 27.

Compiled by Zephania Gangl