Today we mark the fifth Friday of Lent. For this liturgical calendar in Year A of our readings, we hear from the prophet Jeremiah, who laments his persecutors and their stubbornness of heart to believe the Word of God that was sent through him. And in the Gospel, our Lord himself, who is a type of fulfillment of the prophet who came before him, and yet so much more as God, the Word of God, who stood in our midst and yet was rejected.