If this day you only knew what makes for peace– but now it is hidden from your eyes.
For the days are coming upon you
when your enemies will raise a palisade against you...
Today's gospel passage and the Memorial of Blessed Virgin Mary present a very deep and very troubling mystery of our faith. It's a question we live with and must be somehow reconciled with. How is it that God's Holy City crucified the Son of God?
The one city on earth which is claimed by the Lord and belongs entirely to the Lord is the site where the Messiah was condemned to death. It is also the city where he was presented as the firstborn son of Mary. He clearly loved the city and was familiar with it from his youth, even making it his home for a day or two while his parents frantically looked for him! Not many years later, he stormed into town complaining that they had made God's temple into a den of thieves. If he was homeless, as he once remarked, he was also a citizen of Jerusalem with all its rights and privileges.
Today's memorial, coupled with this passage from Luke, reminds us that Jesus' pilgrimage from Galilee is a homecoming for him. And the Church honors Mary as the New Jerusalem. She is the Virgin Church which has been utterly faithful to God, without sin and in purity of heart.
Saint Matthew represents that same paradox to us with the magi discovering the "newborn King of the Jews" in Mary's arms after failing to find him in Jerusalem. (There is also a legend of a fourth magi finding Jesus on the outstretched arms of the cross, where Jerusalem has left him to die.)
Saint Luke ponders the paradox as he shows the City's delight at the Child's birth. Zechariah and Elizabeth welcomed him before he was born, and the elderly Simeon and Anna delighted at his first coming to the temple. But Jesus mourns over the City's infidelity and, accurately prophesied its destruction some forty years after he was crucified there.
The Holy City is the Holy Church is the Holy Mother of God, and is also the city of God's agony and death. And every Christian without exception is implicated in that killing.
Atonement begins with recognizing this paradox. We are God's Holy people. We are unfaithful sinners with treacherous hearts. More tortuous than anything is the human heart, beyond remedy; who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9)
In the month of November we anticipate the Joy of Christmas as we should. But we also remember the tragedy of Jerusalem. By Mary's presence the universe has become the holy city, worthy to receive its Savior. And yet it is also the site of tragedy, of deicide. We live with that mysterious irony, aware of our duplicity and our calling.
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I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.