Another great story today from 1 Maccabees. Today we meet Mattathias. Mattathias had had enough of the baloney (trying to be genteel here) that was being shoved down the throats of his people. When he sees a fellow Jew offering sacrifice to a false god, “his just fury was aroused; he sprang forward and killed him upon the altar.” He then leads fellow faithful believers out into the desert to live, leaving all their possessions behind.
In our Gospel reading today from Luke 19, Jesus weeps over Jerusalem. “They will smash you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another within you because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.” Jerusalem did not realize that the Son of God had come to them. Why? Were they blinded by pride? Could they not accept that the Son of God could be a humble rabbi, and not a mighty warrior king? Were they too caught up in their own lives; too busy to recognize what was happening around them?
Of course, we are often like Jerusalem of that time. How many times have you failed to recognize Jesus in your life? Can you not accept that Jesus is present in a ragged homeless person? Are you too blinded by pride to think that Jesus could speak to you through someone you don’t particularly like? Are you too busy with your day to day life to see all the miracles that Jesus is performing right before your very eyes? Have we, too, failed to recognize the time or our visitation(s)?
Father, open our eyes. Help us to recognize Jesus in the many ways that He chooses to come to us. Amen.
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