Jeremiah 26:13 "Now therefore amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the Lord your God, and the Lord will repent of the evil which he has pronounced against you."

A few days ago my post was on Sirach 35:18, which promised the Lord would not delay in His justice for the unrighteous and His vengeance on the nations. In that post, I talked about turning that warning inward and finding the sinful tendencies and patterns of behavior I need to fix in order to not be one of the unrighteous when His time of justice comes. That is precisely what Jeremiah is getting at here.

God may have pronounced evil against me, my nation, or even the the world, but until it happens, it can always be averted by repentance and amendment. Even if only a small number of people repent and commit themselves to God, He can work with them. He needs His remnant. If the evil is to come anyway, because we collectively refuse to repent, there have to be believers who have individually repented in order to continue to proclaim the Gospel.

It is very easy to read this a verse like this and think of all the people to whom it applies, when in fact it applies to me. If I want to help build His Kingdom, and avert, mitigate, or even just endure the "evil he has pronounced against us", that is, our chastisement, I cannot be contributing to the necessity for it in any way.

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During the nine days beginning on June 16th and ending on June 24th, Mary, appearing in Medjugorje, has asked us to pray a Rosary Novena for Peace. She, too, is trying to avert the evil that He may have pronounced against us (as she always does!), and this is one way we can help her.