I WILL LIVE AMONG YOU

September 25, Saturday

TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

      The prophet Zechariah gives us today a vision of joy, hope and universalism. The rebuilding of the Temple and of Jerusalem after the exile assures that God lives in the midst of his people and that many nations will find God there, among his people. They must be an open people, without walls, for God himself will protect them.

       “They did not understand it at all,” says the gospel about the disciples, when Jesus told them about his coming passion. Jesus speaks of himself as the “Son of Man,” the mysterious person of heavenly origin predicted by Daniel. “He must be delivered up,” for he is also the Suffering Servant of the songs of Second Isaiah. Indeed, all this, about one who comes from God, is a servant, and has to suffer and die, is hard to reconcile and accept, at least from the human viewpoint. And to be told to follow his example is difficult to take too.

 

First Reading: Zechariah 2:5-9,14-15

I looked up and was surprised to see
    a man holding a tape measure in his hand.
I said, “What are you up to?”
    “I’m on my way,” he said, “to survey Jerusalem,
    to measure its width and length.”
Just then the Messenger-Angel on his way out
    met another angel coming in and said,
“Run! Tell the Surveyor, ‘Jerusalem will burst its walls—
    bursting with people, bursting with animals.
And I’ll be right there with her’—God’s Decree—‘a wall of fire
    around unwalled Jerusalem and a radiant presence within.’”

“Shout and celebrate, Daughter of Zion!
    I’m on my way. I’m moving into your neighborhood!”
        God’s Decree.

Many godless nations will be linked up with God at that time. (“They will become my family! I’ll live in their homes!”)

 

Gospel: Luke 9:43b-45

While they continued to stand around exclaiming over all the things he was doing, Jesus said to his disciples, “Treasure and ponder each of these next words: The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into human hands.”

They didn’t get what he was saying. It was like he was speaking a foreign language and they couldn’t make heads or tails of it. But they were embarrassed to ask him what he meant.

 

Prayer

Lord our God,
you chose for your new people
no one else than the people
set free by the blood of your Son.
How can we be your sign among the nations
unless you are alive in our midst
in our welcome to all, our peace,
our spirit of service, our love without boundaries?
Make us capable of all these, Lord,
by the saving power of your Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

Reflection:

Throw oneself into the hands of the beloved

“The Son of Man will be handed over to men.” Last Sunday we have reflected on this verse, of course from the narration of St. Mark. Father Armellini had given a beautiful explanation for this. Jesus says he will be handed over to men. Who will hand him over? Who could have the power to hand over God to man? Do we think, Jesus was referring to Judas? Or would it be the work of the devil? No forces of evil could have any authority over God. It is God alone who could hand himself over to man.

It is the beautiful image of love – God the lover throws himself into the hands of his beloved. A lover has no other way to express all the love than to throw himself or herself into the arms of a loved one. This is what God has done: he handed himself into the hands of people, knowing fully well that they would torture him and kill him. Do we not say that love is blind? When two teenagers fall in love, there could be a lot of opposing voices from the parents or the family. No matter how bad the obstacles are, the lovers are determined to overcome all that, because their love for each other is blind.

In the Gospel today Jesus declares his love for the humanity – the God who is madly in love with humanity. Luke would also immediately point out that the disciples did not understand what he was saying. Can you imagine the pain of love that is rejected? God so loved that world that he gave his only son – but the world did not recognise him. Will we fall into the same trap of not recognising the love of God?

In fact, Jesus was very specific on this requirement – that “Pay attention to what I am telling you.” Jesus calls on us to consider things on a deeper level, and actually think about the things that we don’t understand. He wants us to dig deeper and think about who we are and what the gospel means to us.

Often, we are like the disciples here. We don’t understand and we “are afraid to ask” … because we do not want to hear things that are unpleasant to us.

Video available on Youtube: Throw oneself into the hands of the beloved