By Theodore Cooley, 1981
I have a profound malaise as America enters the 1980’s. This spiritual malaise is not a new illness, for it was experienced and described by the prophet Jeremiah some 2500 years ago, hence the term, “Jeremiah Syndrome.” His experienced the false prophets of the religious marketplace praising their work, culture and message (now enhanced by the electronic and publishing media), celebrating God’s blessings on home and national lifestyle, and the great religious revival under King Josiah (as we experienced the boom in religion from 1945 through the 1970’s). I find myself in agreement with Jeremiah: vain hopes, visions of the prophet’s own mind, wishful thinking and stubbornness of heart are spread about on every side and received with thankful hearts as the true word of God. The preaching of fulfilled material and religious desire, easily and quickly, has always had a large and eager audience, but there are other areas of spiritual agreement between Jeremiah’s and today’s conditions.
Jeremiah’s syndrome differs from the currently popular Chicken Little Syndrome. The latter was and is certain of the immediate end of the world. The cataclysm will be great, but God’s people will miss the pain or only experience it for a short time. Jeremiah tried to prepare the people for a hard time, a different lifestyle over years and decades of suffering, but not the end of the world. Likewise, I do not see the end of the world in symmetric mushroom clouds of red hue, however quick and poetic this may be. Jeremiah identified with his people undergoing the suffering of social collapse and encouraged them to accept the coming trials and exile as the will of God. Like Jeremiah, I do sense the end of the traditional social order and system as it has been known in recent Western Civilization. Chicken Little went to see the king to do something about the problem. Our culture is still searching for the right king who will give the answer. This is not a problem for the White House or Royal Throne; it is a shared descent into the reality of a new and different age. I am deeply tempted, if not compelled, to see and accept America’s place with the poor of the earth as the cleansing act of God, in love rather than in vindictive anger, compelling us to again experience what it is to be the un-powerful, the un-lovely, the uncovered, so that we may know intuitively and with compassion the joy of God’s Salvation.
Jeremiah’s Syndrome differs from the ordinary forms of melancholy. He knew the good to be gained from the pain and horrors about him and could sense the redemptive values in the impending agony of his people. Likewise, I am sensing the need for a painful separation of organized religion from the wealth, power, and poised professional hucksterism, which is so prevalent today, a removal of carcinogenic greed and a purging for the Church. Judah went into exile with the false prophets saying, “It shall be well with you”, and “No evil shall come upon you.” The same prophets and abroad in the land today. The end came for the kingdom of Judah. The end did not come for the people of faith, rather a new beginning returned a cleansed community form exile to prepare the Way of the Lord. Today the Church needs a new beginning, not of technique or method, but of heart ad purpose. Exile from positions of power and glory may well be good for the Western Church, so that it may again return to the poverty of its Lord and submit to His will.
Jeremiah’s Syndrome is not to be understood as a normal depression. A theological sense of purpose and direction gives perspective to the malaise. Instead of compulsive attempts to restore the idealized past, a Christian alternative of preparation for a change of lifestyle, of less and limitations in social terms and of more and completeness in spiritual ways gives hope in face of the impending collapse of secular tradition. Jeremiah’s syndrome has a revolutionary calm. Change is coming, like the sultry air of the Midwest with lightening on the western horizon and I will physically suffer from it. Yet, this fresh breeze is the working out of God’s plan to cleanse the faith and renew the Church. I rejoice in the impending cleansing! I dread much that will be involved in the process. Hence, inner joy is tied with uncertainty and apprehension, for all about me and within me are words of encouragement while the reasons from such encouragement grow fainter. God stands in Judgment, and the defendants are at play. I must preach now to rejoice in the spread of the Good News, for the day will come when both the preachers and the hearers must live the Good News, and this will be painful for them both.
Jeremiah did not run from his call. Yet his word brought heartache to him and to his people. No aspirin exists which could then or now numb the hurt and pain of cleansing. No Valium can dull the separation between the Kingdom of our Lord and the worldly and judged arrogance of our society. I must share the path with the people where they are, in the parish surrounded by that which is not understood, rather than strive to climb above and apart, leaving the people, thus escaping the troubles of their naive misplaced trust. The false prophets say “America” like those of Jeremiah’s day said, “the kingdom of David.” Neither is nor was eternal.
Jeremiah’s Syndrome includes shared hurt for those who are going to lose their illusions, shared pain for those whose lives and values will be disrupted, and shared hope for the cleansing of all before God. It is the oneness of the sufferer with the suffering. I believe the need for purging and penance in our lives, which “modern” man has denied, will be restored, for it is a way of healing lives crushed and broken with change. We must prepare to sense and share this pain from a theological perspective even as we also accept the turmoil with those around us. The Kingdom of Judah did not survive the exile. The Jews and the words of Jeremiah did. Our poised stability, our denominations and organizations may be impermanent. A different lifestyle will cost much the is very dear to us, even to giving up ourselves. The Church and the Word of God will endure. Hope is underneath the agony of Jeremiah. Hope lies underneath the presence of Jeremiah’s Syndrome. Despite or because off, the impending chaos God will preparer, cleanse, purify, and lead His people, under His command, into His will and presence. Amen.