From today’s Old Testament reading, from Jeremiah: ‘I hear many whispering. Terror is on every side! “Denounce him! Let us denounce him!” say all my familiar friends, watching for my fall. “Perhaps he will be deceived, then we can overcome him, and take our revenge on him.” But the Lord is with me as a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble, they will not overcome me. They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed’.

St Ambrose wrote: ‘Indeed, Christ, loving Moses, appeared to him in fire, and Jeremiah, having in himself the gift of divine love, said, “There was a burning fire in my bones, and I have become weakened on every side, and I cannot bear it.” Love is good, then, having wings of burning fire as it flies through the breasts and hearts of the saints and consumes whatever is material and earthly but tests whatever is pure and with its fire makes better whatever it has touched. This fire the Lord Jesus sent on earth, and faith shone bright, devotion was enkindled, love was illuminated, and justice was filled with splendour’.

The prophecy is taken as referring to Christ, the new Moses. May we have the wings of burning love, and may God bless you this day.