There is a danger when a crisis drags on for too long: we can begin to grow accustomed to it. News of poverty, injustice, environmental destruction, disasters or human suffering comes in a constant stream. We read it, feel concerned for a moment, then go back to our daily lives as usual. Not because the problem has been resolved, but because we are gradually learning to live alongside it. Yet, the fact that bad things happen frequently does not automatically make them normal. Frequency does not turn what is wrong into what is right. When suffering continues to recur and we no longer feel disturbed by it, perhaps it is not the crisis that has disappeared, but our sensitivity that is beginning to dull.
Jeremiah 16 reveals something unusual. The Lord forbade Jeremiah from marrying and having children. He was also forbidden from entering houses of mourning or houses of feasting. In ancient Israelite society, marriage and offspring were vital to the continuity of the family and the future of the community. Consequently, Jeremiah’s own personal life became a sign: Judah was in a state far from normal. Jeremiah even had to withdraw from the social spaces where people usually shared their sorrows and joys. His absence, in fact, served as a testimony. Whilst society carried on with life as if everything were fine, a prophet was called to show that something was amiss.
People do indeed adapt easily to things that keep recurring. What is initially shocking can, over time, come to feel ordinary. For this reason, moral sensitivity must be maintained. We must not become so accustomed to seeing suffering that we no longer feel the need to ask, “Why is this happening? And what can I do?”
Dear Friends of the Bible, faith does not always make us feel comfortable. Sometimes faith actually makes us uncomfortable with things that many people have come to regard as normal. Do not be too quick to dismiss that unease when our hearts are troubled by injustice or suffering. It may well be that this unease is God’s way of keeping our conscience alive.
