“Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you,
how many times I yearned to gather your children together
as a hen gathers her brood under her wings,
but you were unwilling!
Christians cannot recall the life and death of Jesus without remembering the appalling attitude and actions of the Holy City Jerusalem. In today's account from Saint Luke, we hear his anguish over what has happened -- and will happen -- in the most sacred site on earth.
The Earth is dotted with holy cities. Wikipedia counts dozens on its list, and defines one as, "...a city important to the history or faith of a specific religion." Major religions have built them on every continent.
But Jerusalem was the Lord God of Hosts' particular city; and the Old Testament is its record of God's continual favor and disappointment. Only the truly wicked should be unwelcome, but they often occupied the most honored positions! There should be neither homeless orphans, abandoned widows, nor despised foreigners. But Jerusalem and its citizens behaved like every other city in history. And, consequently, suffered the same breaches, invasions, and devastations.
Jerusalem survives to this day, as do its Jewish people, for one reason only: God does not forget the covenants with Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, and Jesus.
Christians, by our Baptism, enjoy the same favor, even as we also give God endless disappointment. That story is recorded in the New Testament. The four gospels describe the cowardice and treachery of the Lord's disciples. (Scholars believe that the man who fled naked from Gethsemane was the Evangelist's self-insertion into the story.)
He who consecrates and those who are being consecrated all have one origin. Therefore, he is not ashamed to call them “brothers,”saying: “I will proclaim your name to my brothers,in the midst of the assembly I will praise you”;and again:“I will put my trust in him”;and again:“Behold, I and the children God has given me.”
That "one origin" is the Love of God; namely, the Holy Spirit. When Jesus consecrated bread and said, "This is my body which is given up for you," he united his body with the bread in a consecration which includes and embraces everyone who eats his body and drinks his blood. We are, despite the idiocy, horror, and scandal of our sins, bonded in the Lord Jesus by a blessing more intense and more sacred than that which has sustained Jerusalem through three millennia. It is a bond which can never be broken. (Eucharistic Prayer of Reconciliation, #1)
The sad, glorious, tragic, inspiring story of Jerusalem reminds us of God's endless love which can neither tolerate wickedness not divorce us forever. (He hates divorce!) He will always bring the willing back to their senses with both rewards and punishment; and for that we are eternally grateful.
