They turned their backs, not their faces, to me and walked in the hardness of their hearts. The seventh chapter of the Book of the prophet Jeremiah from which today’s first reading is taken concerns Jeremiah’s oracle on the abuses in worship. The Lord was not pleased with the worship undertaken by the community because it lacked sincerity. For although worshipping was an indication that they were close to the Lord, in reality they had strayed from the path the Lord had set for them. Their worship was a mere lip service that was not reflected in their actions.
In the passage we have read today, Jeremiah addresses the reason for God’s displeasure with the community’s worship. The covenant(s) that bound them to God contained dictates on how they were to conduct themselves before God: they were to remain faithful to God’s commands. God had sworn to remain faithful and to keep his end of the bargain provided the people walked in the right path. God certainly desired nothing other than the people walking with him. It is to this end that God had been sending his messengers the prophets to remind the people of their obligation to the terms of the covenant. Unfortunately, as God lamented through Jeremiah, his efforts had been thwarted by the stubbornness of the people. Not only did they harden their hearts, they also turned their backs on God!
God desires that we walk with him, that is, that we be in a relationship with him. It is a relationship that is marked by some kind of “equality” in the sense that we are partners with God. Partnership endures as long as the parties remain together. Turning one’s back to the Lord is the same as walking away from God. When that happens, one can no longer listen to or even be addressed by God. One who turns his/her back to God can no longer hear what God has to say. The about turn that we make during the period of Lent is one of turning and facing God once again so that we can walk towards God and listen to God. It is a time to turn our faces to God so that we can read God’s lips and understand what God has to say. Lent calls us to turn our faces, not our backs, to God so that we can once again be partners in the covenant.