“Young and old lie together in the dust of the streets; my young men and young women have fallen by the sword. You have slain them in the day of your anger; you have slaughtered them without pity. – Lamentations 2:21

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 2, 2014): Lamentations 2

Despair can be overwhelming. We are not designed to live in a state of despair – at last not for long. When we experience despair for too long, our behavior begins to change in an extremely negative way – sometimes we don’t even know it. We can no longer function on some very basic levels of life. In fact, the task of living is often too much for is to bear. And the strain is not just on us, it is on all of those who are close to us. If the time of despair lasts for too long a period of time, the relationships that we have with the people around us can irreparably damaged.

It is a time of despair that Jeremiah is describing. The prophet describes a time when the despair is so great the normal behavior patterns of the people are changed. Rich men and women who would normally have laid down on silk sheets with fat pillows, find themselves lying shamelessly on the street. Young men and woman who would have normally been starting to plan out what it is that lies in their futures, instead lie dead from sword wounds. Nothing is as it should be. It is a time of national distress.

And it for this reason, the depth of this despair, that the prophet weeps. There is nothing else for him to do. He blames God, but what deepens the despair is the prophet’s belief that it didn’t have to be this way. Another path could have been chosen. But the people turned away from the hope of God toward a path that could only lead them into despair. The fact that they willingly chose that path made the despair even worse.

Right now the Christian Church is moving through its annual time of despair. The time is called Lent. It is our time to remember the despair that Jesus went through willingly, so that we wouldn’t have to. Jesus chose his path of despair, in many ways mirroring the despair of the nation that he was born into - a nation that seemed to suffer through cycles of despair. But in Jesus, God sought to put an end to those cycles. God wanted to give us hope once and for all. And that is why Pope John Paul II reminds us that we cannot abandon ourselves to despair – Jesus died to end that cycle. “We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.”

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Lamentations 3