Lamentations of a Rachel in the Digital Age

Abstract

Thus says the Lord: A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more. (Jer 3 1 : 15) achel: daughter of Laban, sister of Leah, favored wife of Jacob, mother of Joseph and Benjamin, grandmother of Ephraim and R Manasseh, and the foremother of the northern tribes of Israel.Centuries after her death, Rachel is depicted by the prophet Jeremiah weeping for the children of Israel as they are led away to Babylon. In Jeremiah, Rachel cries out from her grave in a time of spiritual and moral turmoil, giving voice to God's own anguish at the loss of his children to sinfulness. In Matthew, centuries later, Rachel cries out again, personifying the pain felt by the mothers of the babies murdered by Herod's soldiers in their quest to kill the baby Jesus.Rachel, a spiritual mother of God's people, follows her children in their journeys through time-inconsolable until they are safe. She is a powerful symbol for mothers in every generation whose pain will not let them rest, mothers who refuse to be comforted, who refuse to sit stoically while things are not right with their children. The mothers of the desupurecidos in Latin America, the mothers who have mobilized to stop drunk drivers, and the mothers who have joined together to challenge the gun industry in the United States all walk in Rachel's footsteps. She speaks to mothers across the ages, reminding us to be inconsolable as long as our children suffer. She inspires us because she will not be placated. She moves us to feel, to grieve. She provokes us to action. And we are at a moment when we should listen again to the voice of her lament.