Contemplating today's Gospel
Today's Gospel + homily (in 300 words)
As he finished saying these words, a certain Jew came forward in the sight of all to offer sacrifice on the altar in Modein according to the king's order. When Mattathias saw him, he was filled with zeal; his heart was moved and his just fury was aroused; he sprang forward and killed him upon the altar. At the same time, he also killed the messenger of the king who was forcing them to sacrifice, and he tore down the altar. Thus he showed his zeal for the law, just as Phinehas did with Zimri, son of Salu. Then Mattathias went through the city shouting, «Let everyone who is zealous for the law and who stands by the covenant follow after me!». Thereupon he fled to the mountains with his sons, leaving behind in the city all their possessions. Many who sought to live according to righteousness and religious custom went out into the desert to settle there.
«Gather my faithful ones before me, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice». And the heavens proclaim his justice; for God himself is the judge.
«Offer to God praise as your sacrifice and fulfill your vows to the Most High; then call upon me in time of distress; I will rescue you, and you shall glorify me».
“If this day you only knew what makes for peace”
Fr. Blas RUIZ i López (Ascó, Tarragona, Spain)Today, the Gospel presents us with the image of Jesus who “wept” (Lk 19:41) for the fate of the chosen city, which has not recognized the presence of its Savior. Given the recent news, it would be easy to apply this lament to the city that is both holy and a source of division.
But looking beyond this, we can identify this Jerusalem with the chosen people, which is the Church, and—by extension—with the world in which it must carry out its mission. If we do so, we will find a community that, although it has reached great heights in the fields of technology and science, groans and weeps because it lives surrounded by the selfishness of its members, because it has erected walls of violence and moral disorder around itself, because it casts its children to the ground, dragging them down with the chains of a dehumanizing individualism. In short, what we will find is a people who have failed to recognize the God who visited them (cf. Lk 19:44).
However, we Christians cannot remain mired in mere lamentation; we must not be prophets of doom, but rather people of hope. We know the end of the story; we know that Christ has brought down the walls and broken the chains: the tears he sheds in this Gospel prefigure the blood with which he has saved us.
In fact, Jesus is present in his Church, especially through those most in need. We must recognize this presence to understand the tenderness Christ has for us: so sublime is his love, Saint Ambrose tells us, that he made himself small and humble so that we might become great; he allowed himself to be wrapped in swaddling clothes like a child so that we might be freed from the bonds of sin. He allowed himself to be nailed to the cross so that we might be counted among the stars in heaven... Therefore, we must give thanks to God and discover among us the one who visits us and redeems us.
Thoughts on Today's Gospel
“To confess my personal feelings, when I reflect on all these blessings I am overcome by a kind of dread and numbness at the very possibility of ceasing to love God and of bringing shame upon Christ because of my lack of recollection and my preoccupation with trivialities.” (Saint Basil the Great)
"The true God, who comes to meet us in the disarming docility of love" (Benedict XVI)
“… When Jerusalem comes into view he weeps over her and expresses once again his heart's desire: "Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace! But now they are hid from your eyes." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n 558)
