WEEP WITH ME, MY PEOPLE

November 18, Thursday

Thirty-Third Week in Ordinary Time

 

      The priest and leader Matthatias turns down the honors and power promised him if he renounces his faith and offers sacrifice in honor of King Antiochus IV Epiphanes of Syria. He starts the open revolt of the Jewish people, a revolt that is both religious and political.

      Luke wrote his Gospel when the Temple had already been destroyed. How come that the Jewish people, God’s own, who had been so zealous to fight for loyalty to the God of the covenant, did not recognize Christ, the expected one? It is not up to us to condemn, as Christians have often done in the past. With Jesus, we weep over the city and its people and pray and work that Jews too, may find their Messiah. And in the meantime, let us too, know the paths of peace of God’s people, and recognize the time the Lord visits us.

 

First Reading: 1 Maccabees 2:15-29

Tracing these dissenting Jews, who came to be called the Maccabees, to Modein, the king’s henchmen came. Their purpose was to coax the fam- ily to offer public sacrifice for all to see. They drew a crowd in the street, including a goodly number of Jews, Mattathias and his sons among them. The king’s man addressed the entire crowd but focused on Mattathias.

“You’re a leader, a great and noble citizen, not to mention your sons and family. That’s why we want you to be the first in your town to obey the order of the king. What we’re asking you to do is no more than the Gentile nations have already done; and that would include most of the men of Judah and all those who remain in Jerusalem. But when you do so, you and your sons among others will be numbered among the special Friends of the King. As such, you’ll be entitled to receive silver and gold ornaments and medals, purple hats and robes, and other rewards.”

Mattathias responded, shouting to be sure he was heard.

“I don’t care if all the nations obey the king! I don’t care if everyone else has abandoned God’s word and consented to the king’s commands. I and my sons and family will continue under the Law of our ancestors. May the Lord continue to be merciful to us as we refuse to obey the king’s laws and all that it implies. We’ve heard the king’s message that we should swerve to the right or to the left in our holy observance, but we have no intention of doing so.”

As Mattathias spoke, a Jew walked right up to the front of the crowd, unfolded a collapsible altar, and began the pagan sacrifice. Mattathias, a nice man but with a short fuse, couldn’t believe what he was seeing. His face turned red; his stomach churned. Suddenly, in defense of God’s Law, he charged the man and killed him right on the false altar. In the same swoop, he felled the king’s man. Then he overturned the altar.

It was a costly deed, but observance of the Law was worth more to Mattathias than the cost to himself. Hadn’t Phinehas done the same to Zimri, son of Salu? Mattathias was ranting by this time.

“Listen, everybody! If you have a grain of love left for our beloved Law, follow me out of this city!” He and his sons f led toward the mountains, leaving their belongings behind.

 

Gospel: Luke 19:41-44

When the city came into view, he wept over it. “If you had only recognized this day, and everything that was good for you! But now it’s too late. In the days ahead your enemies are going to bring up their heavy artillery and surround you, pressing in from every side. They’ll smash you and your babies on the pavement. Not one stone will be left intact. All this because you didn’t recognize and welcome God’s personal visit.”

 

Prayer

Lord our God,
we seek the road to peace
of Jesus Christ, your Son.
Let us be your chosen people
recognizing day after day
the time of your visitation.
Let this very day be the time
when we are open to your coming
in the words you speak to us,
in the people we meet,
in those who cry out for compassion
and a bit of warmth.
We ask you this in the name of Jesus, the Lord. Amen.

 

Reflection:

The visitation of God

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”.

 

Video available on Youtube: The visitation of God