The voice of Ebed-Mèlec – his name simply says that he is a servant of the king – becomes the voice of the pain of the prophet Jeremiah and is opposed to the conspiracy of notables who do not like the prophet who “discourages warriors”. In reality, what Jeremiah energetically discourages are the illusions and, with all his strength, he lays bare the hypocrisies of the powerful of all times. The letter to the Hebrews strongly urges: “think carefully about him who has endured such great hostility against himself.” The Lord Jesus does not hesitate to place himself in the same line as the great and true prophets, reducing to nothing all our vain illusions of escaping the paschal logic: “I have come to cast fire on the earth, and how much I wish it were already lit”. A peace “lightly” is not worthy of the name and in any case it is not the paschal gift of the Lord. Peace is in fact the fruit of courage drawn from the fountain that gushes within and which gives the strength to resist up to the blood, thus living one’s baptism. The cross under which Jesus accepted to walk is not simply consenting to be “the man of pain who knows how to suffer” (Is 53: 3), but even more than not having refused to be like the prophet Jeremiah ” man of conflict “because he is always irreducible to any empty superficial accommodation:” you will have peace while a sword reaches your throat “(Gr 4, 10). The cross, the only way to the truth that gives peace, is the courage to remain alone and naked: like the prophet in the dry cistern, like the Lord Jesus suspended on the cross.

Commentary by b. Michael David, osb Novalesa Abbey

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves, Prinknash Abbey