Arulvakku

19.11.2020 — Judgment of Mercy

33rd Week in Ord. Time, Thursday – 19th November 2020 — Gospel: Lk 19,41-44

Judgment of Mercy

Jesus predicts the terrible judgment that would come on Jerusalem. He had visited this sacred place frequently during his earthly life. It is here that he was presented to God as an infant, in fulfillment of the Jewish law. He had spent time talking with the Jewish leaders when he was 12 years old. Jerusalem is where the Jewish people believed God dwelled in a special way. As Jesus looks at the city of Jerusalem, he realizes that this place will soon be no more and so he wept. The word used here is stronger than in John 11,35, where Jesus quietly wept at the tomb of Lazarus. The word here means loud cry of agony. God does not delight in judgement, but in mercy. He is not willing that anything should perish, but that all would come to repentance. He is slow to anger and abounding in love toward every sinner (Ex 34,6-7). Yet he is also the righteous judge. This mystery is nicely expressed by Wordsworth, “Christ here proves his twofold nature by shedding tears as man, for what he foretold as God.” Jerusalem’s day of grace was rapidly ending and a time of terrible judgement was approaching, because they did not recognize the time of their visitation (19,44).