Would Jesus Weep Today?

Thursday of the 32nd Week in Ordinary Time

(St. Elizabeth of Hungary)

1 Mac 2: 15-29; Lk 19: 41-44

Dc. Larry Brockman

 

Suppose Jesus flew into Washington DC this morning, and looked down onto our Capital City.    Do you suppose He would weep?     

 

Scholars tell us that as Jesus went down from the Mount of Olives, on His way to Jerusalem, He would have had a bird’s eye view of the whole city and area.   Just imagine- Jesus taking in the hustle and bustle of the whole area, like the view from an airplane in today’s world.   And what did Jesus see?   He saw folks going about their daily business as they had for millennia-   buying, selling, teaching, working, soldiering, praying, cursing, politicking, romancing, touring, tax collecting, and yes, even prostituting and robbing,  as if nothing special was about to happen or had been happening.   They were oblivious to the spiritual events leading to the salvation of the world- the incarnation of the Christ  and his Gospel, that is, His good news message of Salvation.   And, after 3 years of trying to get their attention, Jesus is now about to enter into Jerusalem for the last time for what would be His trial, death, and Resurrection.       

 

And, so what does He do?   He weeps, overcome by the emotion of the moment, that here, in this bird’s eye view, He catches a glimpse of the collective soul of man.   A collective soul that doesn’t see Him and has not responded to Him even after 3 years of direct contact- individually and collectively they are oblivious.     

 

And as a result, what does He say?   “If this day you only knew what makes for peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.”   Indeed, they were so busy with the things of this world, that they had missed the message, and so they had missed the day of the visitation, that is, the arrival of the Messiah.   And because they missed that, they missed what it takes to make peace, the kind of peace that every single one of them longed for.   They are just carrying on in the world as usual.     

 

It is no different in our world, is it?   If Jesus were to fly into Washington DC this morning,   He would catch a catch a glimpse of our collective souls arguing and bickering over the horrendous public debt and taxes; terrible unemployment and economic times; legal hassling over the constitutionality of a three thousand page hastily written law that nobody understands; people demonstrating in the streets who can’t explain why they are there or what they want; and terrible poverty amidst tremendous affluence.  

 

What Jesus would not see is what he did not see in His own time-  people who had heard His message over their lifetimes, and were working together to make the peace of Christ happen.   The lifetime of opportunity that they all had to put into practice their faith collectively has been as lost for us as for the Jews.   Not only that, Jesus second coming could come at any time for any of us,  just like it would come soon after Jesus arrival in Jerusalem.   And yet, it would seem we are far from ready.     

 

Yes, Jesus would weep.  

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