“SPRINGS OF LIVING WATER”
Daily Spiritual Reflections
18th November 2021
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THURSDAY, THIRTY THIRD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
1 Mac 2: 15-29; Ps 50: 1-2, 5-6, 14-15; Lk 19: 41-44
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DISCOVER GOD’S PRESENCE
Today, the image presented to us by the Gospel is that of a Jesus who “wept” for the fate of the chosen city, which did not recognize the presence of its saviour. Knowing the history of Jerusalem over the years, it is easy to apply this lament for the city which is, at the same time, holy and a cause of division. But, looking further ahead, we can identify this Jerusalem with the chosen people, which is the Church, and - by extension - with the world in which it must fulfil its mission.
In doing so, we will find ourselves in front of a people that, although it has reached great heights in the fields of technology and science, groans and weeps, because it lives surrounded by the selfishness of its members, because it has raised the walls of violence and moral disorder, because it throws its children to the ground, dragging them with the chains of a dehumanizing individualism. We find a people who do not know how to recognize the God who visits them (cf. Lk 19:44).
However, we Christians must not be prophets of doom, but men of hope. We know the ending of the story; we know that Christ made the walls fall and broke the chains. The tears he sheds in the Gospel today prefigure the blood with which he saved us.
Jesus is present in his Church, especially through those who are most in need. We must recognize this presence to understand the tenderness that Christ has towards us. So exalted is his love, says St Ambrose, that he made himself small and humble so that we can become great; he allowed himself to be wrapped in the swaddling clothes of an ordinary child so that we are freed from the snares of sin; he let himself be nailed to the cross so that we can be numbered among the stars of heaven. Therefore, we must be grateful to God and discover the one who visits and saves us, present among us.
Response: To one whose way is blameless, I will show the salvation of God.
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