Tuesday of the 26th Week [I]
September 27, 2011
“He resolutely determined to journey to
Jerusalem.” [Luke 9:51]
Today’s
Gospel passage doesn’t make this fact entirely clear, but St. Luke the Evangelist
placed this text at a strategic point in his telling of the Gospel. Unlike any of his disciples (except perhaps
His Mother), Jesus had in mind His Passion and Death long before they
occurred. This length of time between
the start of His public ministry and His death on Calvary shows a poignancy in
every event during those three years.
Perhaps
in his human nature, Jesus was tempted to hope that the agony of His suffering
and death might come quickly, rather than seeing so often during those three
years the men who would condemn Him once He made His identity known. But Jesus never hoped for a quick end. Jesu8s never retreated to his small, quiet
hometown. Rather, He made a commitment to
all the works and words of His Father that He needed to make known to God’s
People. “He
resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem.”
Jerusalem
was the city where all His adversaries dwelt.
Jerusalem was the place where the Temple shone as the heart of the
Jewish religion. Jesus made His journey
to Jerusalem to fulfill in His self-sacrifice on Calvary everything that the
Temple seemed to stand for, so that each disciple of Jesus could become a living
temple within which the self-sacrifice of Christ might be offered; within which
the Holy Spirit might dwell; within which God the Father nurtures His care for
His beloved.
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within which God the Father nurtures His care for His beloved
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