Thursday of 33rd Week, odd numbered year
“As Jesus drew near to Jerusalem, and came in sight of the city, he said ’If you too had only recognised on this day the way to Peace! But, alas, it is hidden from your eyes!”
Here we see Jesus crying as he beholds Jerusalem. We are more moved by this tenderness of his more than by the ’strength’ with which he brings people back to life again. it is rare to see a man, cry in public - this means he is going through immense sorrow. Certainly Jesus perceives the enthusiasm of the disciples who acclaim him as he goes down from the Mount of Olives- ’Blessed is he who comes!’ But here before him, he sees Jerusalem, splendid and powerful, yet narrow with its ramparts and in its refusal. This is Jerusalem that doesn’t recognise the One Sent from God, and Jesus begins to weep over this town. God tries to join us, to touch us in all kinds of ways. ’ Today will you listen to my voice?’ This powerlessness of God is mysterious for it respects our freedom! He sees the hardening of our hearts! This mystery of freedom, of our self-love, of this self -will that shows up our ’ego’! In so many ways we express this terrible resistance that keeps God in a’ state of failure’.
“Yes, a time is coming when your enemies will raise fortifications all round you, when they will encircle you and hem you in on every side; if only you had recognised the moment when God visited you!”
Jeremiah had also cried over his own people, it was just before the first ruin of Jerusalem. He had been rejected by his own people : ’If you don’t listen, my soul will cry secretly because of your pride. My eyes will shed tears as they cry so much, for the Lord’s flock is leaving in captivity." Jeremiah would like to provoke his people’s contrition. Jesus’ tears take on a meaning both as a personal prayer and as a prophetic sermon. Jesus cries over what Jerusalem should cry about : the lost opportunity to encounter their God. We can hear sometimes parents’ reflexions towards their children : ’Look! Listen to what I’m telling you!’ And the child doesn’t listen but goes on his own way and this can lead to disaster.
It is something mysterious that we can,, cause God to be in a state of failure. Saint Ignatius the master of discernment said that behind our ill will ’the enemy of human nature is at work.’ We don’t leave much room for Jesus gentle and humble of heart to take hold of us. On the cross Jesus will show how he is victorious by his Love.Thus we are put before God’s desire for us. God is Love. Jesus has strong words, he has powerful gestures when he chases the marchands in the Temple. There are also places in our own lives where Jesus acts with strength.
“They will dash you and the children inside your walls to the ground ; they will leave not one stone standing on another within you, because you did not recognise when God visited you.”
Peace is not just a state of concord, material security or an absence of worries - it includes an accomplishment and a state of fullness that can only be received in harmony with God. Jesus came with his message of Peace, His hands held out to heal, and his own town didn’t recognise the Peace of God that was offered through him. It turned its gaze away from what God gave it to see ; and it lacked the favourable time that it had been waiting for for centuries on end. Today is our time for conversion ; the one that accusers the brothers day and night doesn’t sleep! Our poor sinful nature can let all sorts of chances for the devil to work in us. If we want to work for peace in the world, in our families, in our hearts, this mean to take an attitude of recognition of God’s passage. God passes through, warning us of his presence in a thousand ways; we can still open up our hearts to Him. And so a new Temple can rise up, one which will make us living stones, a Temple to which the Holy Spirit Himself will give its thrust and cohesion.