Thursday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
(I Maccabees 2:15-19; Luke 19:41-44)
Not everyone has the emotional and spiri9tual capacity to lament. A lament requires deep remorse, caring love, and
humble strength. The one who laments mourns
the loss of what was dear to him or her on the journey of life. But the person does not surrender to dreaded fate. He or she endures the pain of loss to carry
on until he has the joy of reaching his/her goal in life. David lamented the death of his son Absolom,
yet he carried on to consolidate his authority again. Today’s gospel shows
Jesus lamenting the future loss of Jerusalem.
Jesus realizes that Jerusalem with its arrogant, defiant
leadership will sooner or later rebel against Roman rule and be crushed. He knows that if they had responded to his
call for repentance, they could have spared themselves the coming
catastrophe. As it is, Jerusalem will
suffer a second destruction as it had six centuries earlier at the hands of the
Babylonians.
We can take away from today’s short, evocative gospel Jesus’
human fullness. He can cry out of the love
for the holy city. But he is not paralyzed
by his emotions. He will proceed into
Jerusalem to meet the destiny of a prophet as he gives his life as a ransom for
many.
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