The Prophet Zachariah
addresses the people who have returned to Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile
in the text today from the Roman Catholic Church. Friar Jude Winkler tells us
that these people faced life in a community which had been destroyed and which
offered little security to the inhabitants. Zachariah proclaims the intention
of God that Jerusalem is returned to peace and joy as the centre, as the
psalmist declares, of the praise of the name of the Lord for His faithfulness
to the remnant who returned. The Diaspora will also return to Jerusalem and
live there as the people of God. Our understanding sometimes is to see some
people as more the children of God than others.
The Gospel of Luke today is set just after Jesus Transfiguration. The
apostles, perhaps in discussion of the experience of James and John, try to
order the figures of the Kingdom as to their importance. Jesus declares that
those who see the least among us, the children, and who serve the least are the
greatest. Our inability to see those who are not prominent, progressive,
popular and polite causes us to miss encounters with Christ in the poor in
spirit and the outcast. Friar Jude comments that the apparent indignation of
John that someone not of their group might be acting like Jesus is a reminder
of the concept of anonymous Christians which theologian Karl Rahner presented
in the last century and which Rev. Jeremy Smith sees within the comments of Pope
Francesco.
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