Saturday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 460

She (Jerusalem) indeed saw coming upon you the anger of God and she said:

“Hear, you neighbors of Zion! God has brought great mourning upon me, for I have seen the captivity that the Eternal God has brought upon my sons and daughters. With joy I fostered them;
but with mourning and lament I let them go.”

In this passage from Baruch, we hear Jerusalem speaking to neighboring cities of her sorrow for the sins of her citizens. "She" goes by many names. She is Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and the Church. She is grief-stricken Eve, the mother of all the living, whose son murdered her son. She is Rachel weeping for her lost children. She is the woman who appears in the sky over Patmos, wailing in agony as she is about to give birth. She is Jerusalem and the Church. She is all women who lose their sons, brothers, husbands, and fathers to violence and war. 

She is Wisdom who knows the Day of Judgment must come. She hears the blood crying to the heavens. She knows crimes demand justice, that wrong must be righted. 

We have heard Mary's expressions of grief in private revelations from Mount Sous-Les Baisses to Fatima and Medjugorje. Our Mother of Sorrows calls us to sadness for our sins and repentance. 

Our hope for salvation lies in atonement, expiation and penance. Can an honest person blame everyone else for the regime of evil without looking into his own heart? 

"When all else fails and evil seems to reign," they say, "turn to God." 

What does God say? 

"Turn away from sin and listen to the Gospelyour Mother: 

Fear not, my children; call out to God! He who brought this upon you will remember you. As your hearts have been disposed to stray from God, turn now ten times the more to seek him; For he who has brought disaster upon you will, in saving you, bring you back enduring joy.”