HOMILY FOR THURSDAY OF THE THIRTIETH WEEK IN THE ORDINARY TIME YEAR B
(Ephesians 6:10-20, Luke 13:31-35).
The stiffness of heart of the Jewish leaders has never gone unnoticed between themselves and Jesus. Thus, the reaction of Jesus to the Pharisees, who came to tell Him to go away because Herod wanted to kill Him, tells a lot about the continuous opposition that accompanied Jesus’s earthly ministry.
In the Gospel passage of today, we are given a glimpse of Jesus’ love for the people of Jerusalem. He was not expressing His love for the city, but for the people in the city. It is clear that His deepest desire, His strong yearning, was that they allow Him to draw them close to Him so that He can protect them from all evil.
Jesus begins by speaking the word “Jerusalem” twice. This expresses deep compassion for the people of that city. It also expresses a lament that they have not turned to Him, remaining unwilling to change. Their refusal began long before Jesus walked the earth when their forefathers rejected the call of the prophets to repent and turn back to God.
The stubbornness of their fathers continued with the people of Jesus’ day, and He experienced their rejection. This rejection did not lead Jesus to anger or condemnation as much as it led Him to holy sorrow.
First, Herod wanted to kill Jesus because He was afraid of the truth and justice that Jesus stood for. Secondly, the Pharisees were only trying to scare Jesus away in order to reclaim their lost fame as those to be respected in the Jewish society.
One would wonder why would those who do not agree to what Jesus was doing and teaching, now tries to show how they support and care for him, by revealing to Him about the evil plan of Herod to kill Him. Do they really love Jesus that much to want to warn Him about the danger ahead?
It was really obvious that Jesus would not fall to their tricks. He first reprimanded Herod for being evil by calling him a fox and then instructing them to tell him about His great works of healing and casting out demons.
There are people who behave like the Pharisees. They pretend to care about what we do but behind us they are planning evil to trap us down. Jesus’s reaction is a point of encouragement to us never to succumb to those who give us undue pressure to abandon our good tasks of spreading God’s kingdom.
Let us not be afraid of the plans of the evil ones but to conquer them knowing that Jesus is always there to lead us. Peace be with you.
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