Woe and Know

The use of the word ”woe” in the way Jesus presents the consequences of the failure of the “Unrepentant Cites” to hear His message in the Gospel of Luke from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today may be quite unsettling. Friar Jude Winkler emphasizes that we too often take the gifts of God which we have received for granted. The feast today of Saint Francis of Assisi marks the life of a man who saw the gifts of God in all Creation and brought peace to others through lived experience of faith and goodness. The reflection of Baruch, in the passage from the Hebrew Testament, speaks a truth that we often miss. We bring the consequences of our selfishness and turning away from the plan of God for love upon ourselves. Some scholars have interpreted the “woe” of Jesus as His own sorrow for those who the Great Reversal, which John R. Barker, O.F.M. comments is thematic in the Gospel of Luke, will mean a drastic change in their circumstances. These consequences of failure to hear the invitation of Jesus to Love and peace will be brought upon ourselves as Baruch reflects as the understanding of the Babylonian captives five hundred years before Jesus is born.