Homily, 7-29-24: Monday of the 17th Week in Ordinary Time:
Each year, Michigan State holds a viticulture field day at their experimental vineyard in Benton Harbor. At the field day they give tips on growing and caring for grapes. We heard about it last year and made the drive out to attend for the first time. We will be making the trip back out to Benton Harbor later this week for this year’s field day. Last year, one of the talks was about soil analysis. The speaker talked about the many complexities of soil composition, but then offered a simple test for determining the best location for a vineyard if you were trying to decide between multiple locations. It was the tighty whitey test. You buy a package of men’s cotton underwear and bury a pair at each location. After several months, you dig them back up. If the soil is really rich with living organisms, all that will remain is the elastic waist band. This would be a good site for your vineyard.
As I read our passage from Jeremiah, I couldn’t help but wonder if someone got the idea of the tighty whitey test after reading it for him or herself. Apparently, linen will rot much like cotton. Jeremiah’s loincloth or waistcloth or girdle, depending on which translation you use, rotted after some time being hidden in the cleft of the rock. This garment is used as a symbol because it clings close to the body, and God intended the Israelites to cling close to Him. He wanted their faithfulness and fidelity, but they were corrupted by the influence of the Babylonians. They became good for nothing like a rotted loincloth.
As we read the prophets, we can see how their message applies to the people of their time, but we can also look for a message for our own time. We can look at our once great nation founded on Judeo-Christian principles. We can consider how closely we clung to God as a nation. But now we have become rotten, overcome with pride and corrupted with pagan principles. Are we becoming good for nothing like Judah in the time of Jeremiah? I can see a lot of similarities, and unfortunately I cannot see a lot of hope in stemming the tide, let alone reversing the trend. So we need to pray for God’s mercy on our country that we do not face exile and occupation as those in Judah many years ago.