The podcast can be found here.
We are told in Luke’s Gospel: As [Jesus] came near and saw [Jerusalem], he wept over it saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.” He saw the city and cried. That city was to have been the City of Peace, the City of God on earth, but instead, it was a place of bondage, corruption, suffering, and in just forty years from that point, it would also be a place of destruction. Jesus saw what His Father had intended and he saw what it had become and he wept.
I believe that this sight would have been enough to bring Jesus to tears, but the tears were not just for the city, but were mostly for the inhabitants. For the soul of the individual was to be the true dwelling place of God, but like the city, instead of seeing this dwelling place of God, Jesus looked within the souls of the people and saw bondage, corruption, suffering, and ultimately destruction. He saw what His Father had intended and he saw what it had become and he wept.
The tears over the city and the tears over the people were not tears of anger, but of sadness, brought on because God had such great love for his people, but through their corruption, they had become separated from him. We know, “For God so loved the world…”… a love so great that we lack the capacity to even comprehend it, but God’s love was not enough to turn us to him. So Jesus wept, but God did not turn his back on us. Jesus wept, but God did not give up.
Thomas à Kempis writes: “Jesus… often wept over man’s miseries, and when he had no more tears to shed, he shed his blood with even greater love.” St. John tells us, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Jesus wept, because God loved, and when that wasn’t enough, God loved even more.
Beloved of God, you have been shown the Father’s greatest love.
Let us pray:
God, our Father,
may we love You in all things and above all things.
May we reach the joy which You have prepared for us in Heaven.
Nothing is good that is against Your Will,
and all that is good comes from Your Hand.
Place in our hearts a desire to please You
and fill our minds with thoughts of Your Love,
so that we may grow in Your Wisdom and enjoy Your Peace.
Amen.
Candle in a Cave 