IT’S DONE FOR
It’s Jesus’ last visit to Jerusalem. Some of those who accompany him are amazed when they contemplate «the beauty of the temple». Jesus on the contrary feels something very different. His eyes of a prophet see the temple in a more profound way: in that grandiose place God’s reign isn’t being welcomed. That’s why Jesus takes it for being done for: «what you are contemplating – there is coming the day when a stone won’t be left upon a stone: all will be destroyed».
Soon his words have broken the self-deception that is being lived out around the temple. That splendid edifice is feeding a false illusion of eternity. That way of living religion without welcoming God’s justice or hearing the clamor of those who suffer is deceitful and is perishing: «it will all be destroyed».
Jesus’ words aren’t born out of anger. Even less out of scorn or resentment. Luke himself tells us just before that, when he came close to Jerusalem and saw the city, Jesus «began to cry». His mourning is prophetic. The powerful don’t cry. The prophet of compassion does.
Jesus cries before Jerusalem because he loves the city more than anyone. He cries for an «old religion» that isn’t open to God’s reign. His tears express his solidarity with the suffering of the people, and at the same time his radical criticism of the religious system that impedes God’s visit: Jerusalem – the city of peace! – «doesn’t recognize what leads to peace», because «it’s hidden from her eyes».
Jesus actions throw more than a little light on today’s situation. Sometimes, in times of crisis as in our times, the only way of opening paths to the creative novelty of God’s reign is to give up on whatever is feeding an expired religion, without generating the life that God wants to introduce into the world.
To give up on something lived out in a sacred manner for centuries isn’t easy. It won’t be done by condemning those who want to conserve it as eternal and absolute. You do it by «crying», since the changes demanded by conversion to God’s reign make many suffer. The prophets denounce the sin of the Church by crying.
José Antonio Pagola
Translator: Fr. Jay VonHandorf
