Coffee With God

Reflection: Luke 19: 41-44

The Evangelist Luke was writing the Gospel ten or more years after the actual destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman armies in the year 70. In Jesus’ mind the destruction was not any direct punishment from God. It was simply the outcome of their unwillingness to respond to Jesus’ message of universal love and non-violence. The intervention of Rome had been triggered precisely by the armed revolt led by Zealots. Jesus weeps over Jerusalem, because the chosen people of God did not recognise the time of God’s visitation in their history through the patriarchs and the prophets. Israel did not recognise nor accept Jesus; instead they regarded him to be a heretic. Those who rejected Jesus did so because they believed that they had perfectly good reasons to do so, drawn from what they saw as their religious fidelity to the law of Moses. Explaining the gospel, Pope Francis suggested that Jesus weeps because he is living the experience of his own parable of in which, when the boss sends his employee to ask for the produce from his vineyard: the stewards beat him; and they kill the next. Eventually the master sends his son and the wicked stewards kill him to appropriate the legacy. This is the meaning of the “the hour of the visit”: Jesus is the son who comes and is not recognized. He is refused and will be killed!”. In John’s Gospel we read: “He came to them and they did not accept him”, “the light came and the people chose the darkness”. Pope Francis explained that “What causes pain in Jesus Christ’s heart, is this story of infidelity, this story of not recognizing God’s embraces, the love of God,” who desires the happiness of mankind. This is a drama of refusing to accept the visit of God, that is being repeated every day, says the pope. Each of us can ask ourselves: “Do I know how to recognize the time in which God visits me?” How is my heart before the visit of Jesus? The Gospel today is a reminder that each of us can fall into the same sin as the people of Israel, into the same sin as Jerusalem: that is, not knowing the time of God’s visitation in our lives”. The Word of God invties us to do an examination of conscience? Has the Lord visited me today? Did I feel any invitation, any inspiration to follow him more closely, to do a work of charity, to pray a little more?” Jesus wept not only for Jerusalem, but for all of us and he gives his life, in order that we might recognize his visitation. If we are not attentive to our heart, we will never know whether or not Jesus is visiting us”.