Gospel: Luke 19:41-44

 

Jesus, when he saw Jerusalem, began to shed tears and to pronounce a very dark future for the city of His people.

 

Jesus sheds tears because He loves His homeland and His people, the Holy City and the temple. He sheds tears because He knows that everything will be destroyed due to the fault of His people who were not aware of the call made by God through His ministry. People were not aware of the way to peace (Shalom). 

 

This affirmation recalls the criticism of Isaiah to the person who adored idols: “He adores ashes, his deluded heart has led him astray; he will not save himself…” (Is 44, 20).  People became incapable of perceiving the truth. As Saint Paul says to the Romans: “But for those who out of jealousy have taken for their guide not truth, but injustice, there will be a fury of retribution” (Rom. 2, 8). It is a truth that remains the prisoner of injustice. On another occasion, Jesus complains that Jerusalem did not know how to become aware of God’s visit nor of accepting it.

 

Jesus describes what will happen to Jerusalem. He uses the images of war. In fact, in the year 70, Jerusalem was invaded by the Roman army and everything was destroyed. 

 

Even today, Jesus is still knocking on doors, as he knocked at the gate of the heart of Jerusalem: at the doors of his brothers, of his sisters; at our doors, at the doors of our heart, at the doors of his Church.