The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to ponder the paradox of being conquerors who are rejected.
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| To Jerusalem |
The passage from the Letter to the Romans proclaims how God’s Love in Christ Jesus allows us to conquer all obstacles.
* [8:31–39] The all-conquering power of God’s love has overcome every obstacle to Christians’ salvation and every threat to separate them from God. That power manifested itself fully when God’s own Son was delivered up to death for their salvation. Through him Christians can overcome all their afflictions and trials.1
The psalmist seeks vindication not on the basis of personal virtue but because of God’s promise to protect the poor.
* [Psalm 109] A lament notable for the length and vehemence of its prayer against evildoers (Ps 109:6–20); the cry to God (Ps 109:1) and the complaint (Ps 109:22–25) are brief in comparison. The psalmist is apparently the victim of a slander campaign, potentially devastating in a society where reputation and honor are paramount. In the emotional perspective of the Psalm, there are only two types of people: the wicked and their poor victims. The psalmist is a poor victim (Ps 109:22, 31) and by that fact a friend of God and enemy of the wicked. The psalmist seeks vindication not on the basis of personal virtue but because of God’s promise to protect the poor.2
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus learns of Herod’s desire to kill Him and He laments the rejection of His message in Jerusalem.
* [13:33] It is impossible that a prophet should die outside of Jerusalem: Jerusalem is the city of destiny and the goal of the journey of the prophet Jesus. Only when he reaches the holy city will his work be accomplished.3
Gladyce Janky notes that there is one thing that can separate us from God - free will. We can freely turn to God for everything, or we can go our own way.
The Letter to the Romans and the reading from the Gospel of Luke set the tone for how I should treat others and how I should live. That is, I should show compassion and concern, especially for the marginalized, and when making decisions start with, “God, how are we going to handle this?” No matter what I encounter, if I use my free will to remain centered on God, nothing has the power to separate my soul from its destiny to be with God.4
Don Schwager quotes “Jesus foreshadows his triumphant entrance into Jerusalem,” by Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD).
"'And I tell you,' he says, 'you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord.' What does this mean? The Lord withdrew from Jerusalem and left as unworthy of his presence those who said, 'Get away from here.' And after he had walked about Judea and saved many and performed miracles which no words can adequately describe, he returned again to Jerusalem. It was then that he sat upon a colt of a donkey, while vast multitudes and young children, holding up branches of palm trees, went before him, praising him and saying, 'Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord' (Matthew 21:9). Having left them, therefore, as being unworthy, he says that when the time of his passion has arrived, he will then barely be seen by them. Then again he went up to Jerusalem and entered amidst praises, and at that very time endured his saving passion in our behalf, that by suffering he might save and renew to in-corruption the inhabitants of the earth. God the Father has saved us by Christ." (excerpt from COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 100)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on Romans 8:31-39 comments that carrying the weight of guilt is like carrying a backpack filled with rocks. We should be shedding them; they aren’t helping us on our journey. But for some reason, we hang onto them.
That’s not what God intends. He is for us, not against us (Romans 8:31). So he offers us the Sacrament of Reconciliation. In Confession we encounter Jesus in the person of the priest. As the priest listens to our sins, it is Christ listening to us. As the priest absolves us, it is Christ speaking to us, freeing us from the weight of sin and guilt. Suddenly that heavy backpack filled with rocks is lifted off of us. We can stand up straight and hold our heads high.6
Friar Jude Winkler notes the mystery that God did not spare His Son from suffering. Allowing our guilt to be more powerful than Jesus Love is the sin against the Holy Spirit. Friar Jude reminds us that we are especially close to God when we need His strength.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, contemplates that Sebastian Moore presents the crucifixion of Jesus as an unjust political act that claimed a human life. Moore asserts that the Church is but a society held together not by power but by love. This polity of love stems from the self-consecration of Jesus as our lover nailed to the cross of our power, manifest in his resurrection to draw all things to himself. This is the secret of the Church, the ripple effect of Calvary.
Now what does the Church give as her credentials? A man put to death by us and brought to life by God. An act of political bloodshed that otherwise would have been lost in the great mass of human injustice. But focused upon through the Spirit, political bloodshed is a universal language. This language is elemental. Everyone who witnesses the killing feels a barrier being crossed. There is this awed hush, a sense of having gone fatally too far. And a very important and most easily forgotten aspect of this elemental insight is, that all of us, those for and those against the victim, are being brought together, and this not only as in the bonding of Caesar’s killers, but as [people] involved simply as humans, all our loyalties forgotten with the sight of the fatal blow. . . . So that is the given of our faith: a public murder held in focus by a continuing community who owe to the victim a love that is the fulfilment of our humanity to change this cruel world. For all peoples and for all times, a dangerous memory.7
Love in the relationship between Father and Son becomes tangible in our lives when we accept to journey with Jesus to Jerusalem offering the gift of full life to all.
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