Today's readings: Jeremiah 17, 5-8; 1 Corinthians 15, 12. 16-20; Luke 6, 17. 20-26.
The prophetic character of Jesus' mission in Luke is accentuated by the very fact that it takes off in the synagogue of Nazareth mainly to proclaim the "good news to the poor". This is further emphasised in today's Gospel with Luke's version of the Beatitudes, which include not only blessings but curses too, thereby recalling the prophetic oracles in the Old Testament.
Luke shows how God is at work in the prophet Jesus, transforming values and challenging perceptions. This is, in fact, what God's Word does when received with an open heart: it challenges our perceptions and those of society in general.
In the first reading, Jeremiah presents exactly this type of challenge. Jeremiah's position is an either/or situation, with no grey area in between. You either trust in the Lord and be blessed, or trust in man or in things of the flesh and you are cursed. The imagery he uses to describe the person whose heart turns from the Lord - "dry scrub in the wastelands" - is common in the Scriptures, yet very impressive.
In his 'Large Catechism', Martin Luther, commenting on the first commandment, 'Thou shalt have no other gods before Me', asks the question: What is God? He answers: "That upon which you set your heart and put your trust is properly your god".
In his view, a god is where we are to expect all good to come from and where we are to take refuge in times of distress. So for him, the confidence and faith of the heart alone make both God and an idol. We can even create our gods.
Jeremiah speaks also of the man who trusts in himself and who believes himself to be self-sufficient. What most probably provoked Jeremiah's mistrust was the failure of the reforms embarked upon in his days, as well as the alliances with peoples or cultures alien to God's people. Jeremiah wants to reaffirm that the only source of strength is God.
All this seems to recall the figure of the 'Antichrist' in Soloviev's prophecy. In a sense, Soloviev anticipates what we face today. In his little masterpiece A Short Story of the Antichrist, he had already seen the unification of Europe in the 20th century following the two World Wars. But in his vision he also speaks of the complete failure of materialism, of the emptiness which was to characterise European civilisation, an emptiness where the 'Antichrist' could reaffirm his presence.
The accuracy of Soloviev's vision of the great crisis that would strike Christianity at the end of the 20th century is astonishing. He represents this crisis using the figure of the Antichrist, who will not be hostile in principle to Christ, and describing Christianity as a religion of values, openings, and dialogue, but one where little room is left for the person of the Son of God crucified and risen.
In this sense, both the Gospel and Jeremiah today present us with two ways of perceiving life, the first being in relation simply to life here on earth; the second in relation to life eternal. It is not just a question of demonising the rich or richness in itself. It is more a question of what really gives security or assurance in daily existence.
One of the problems with our vision of humanity today is the almost tacit denial that there is something called 'nature' created by God. In the wake of the triumph of reason in modernity, humanity substituted God, leading to the belief that man is capable of saving himself. Atheism was only an initial phase in this.
Today we no longer seem to argue whether God exists or not; we are simply indifferent, because the feeling is that we just don't need any God. This feeling of self-sufficiency gave human nature a false optimism. At the end of the day, it is not God who blesses and curses. Blessings and curses can be only consequences of choices made.