Gospel: November 21, 2024

November 21, 2024 (Thursday)

33rd Week in Ordinary Time Psalter: Week 1 / (White) Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 149: 1b2, 3-4, 5-6a, 9b

The Lamb has made us a kingdom of priests to serve our God.

1st Reading: Revelation 5: 1-10

Gospel: Luke 19: 41-44

When Jesus had come in sight of the city, he wept over it and said, “If only today you knew the ways of peace! But now your eyes are held from seeing. Yet days will come upon you when your enemies will surround you with barricades and shut you in and press on you from every side. And they will dash you to the ground and your children with you, and leave not a stone within you, for you did not recognize the time and the visitation of your God.”

Reflection:

“Jesus wept.”

There are two identified events in Jesus’ life when it was explicitly mentioned that he wept (cf. klaiō). One is in the context of the death of Lazarus (cf. Jn 11:31). The other is the one we find in today’s Gospel (cf. Lk 19:41). In John’s Gospel, Jesus wept over the death of a friend.

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In today’s pericope, Jesus wept over a people who failed to recognize the time of its visitation by God. We may remember Jesus’ grief over the stubbornness of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law (cf. Lk 11:42- 46).

Now, Jesus expressed more than a feeling of grief. He wept for the entire Jerusalem populace. He wept over the people out of his love for them. He could only exhort them to change. He could only show them the way toward the life God intends them to have. He could only help them recognize the time of God’s visitation.

However, in the end, it was for them to decide accepting or not what God was offering them. Likewise, in this faith journey, Jesus is more than willing to guide us but the decision is left for us to make if we are to embrace God’s offer of life.