Wednesday of the Second week of Lent 23 March 2011
Matthew 20,17-28.
17. As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the Twelve disciples aside by themselves, and said to them on the way,
18. Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man ….
17. As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the Twelve disciples aside by themselves, and said to them on the way,
18. Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man ….
As in the parallel Synoptics, the journey marker of “going up to Jerusalem”, gives us Jesus’ definite perspective.
The cue of ‘going to Jerusalem’, can brush aside the more dramatic words of the Prophecy of the Passion, and the ‘antics’ of the sons of Zebedee.
Our Mass commentary used a quotation from Augustine. The heading of "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem" served the DGO Editor. It illuminates the depths of the framework of the journey of the Synoptics.
Saint Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and Doctor of the Church
Confessions, XIII, 9 (trans. F.J. Sheed), DGO Edit.
Confessions, XIII, 9 (trans. F.J. Sheed), DGO Edit.
"Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem"
Give Thyself to me, O my God, give Thyself once more to me... The Holy Spirit is Your gift. It is in Your gift that we rest, it is there that we enjoy You. Our rest is our peace. So high does love raise us up and Your Holy Spirit lifts up our lowness from the gates of death (Ps 9,14). In goodness of will is our peace.
A body tends by its weight towards the place proper to it; weight does not necessarily tend towards the lowest place but towards its proper place. Fire tends upwards, stone downwards... each seeks its proper place. Oil poured over water is borne on the surface of the water, water poured over oil sinks below the oil: it is by their weight that they are moved and seek their proper place. Things out of their place are in motion: they come to their place and are at rest.
My love is my weight: wherever I go my love is what brings me there. By Your gift we are on fire and borne upwards: we flame and we ascend... It is by Your fire, Your beneficent fire, that we burn and we rise, rise towards the peace of the heavenly Jerusalem, since I have rejoiced when they said to me: "Let us go to the house of the Lord!" (Ps 122[121],1). There our good will shall place us, so that we shall desire nothing but to remain there for eternity.
A body tends by its weight towards the place proper to it; weight does not necessarily tend towards the lowest place but towards its proper place. Fire tends upwards, stone downwards... each seeks its proper place. Oil poured over water is borne on the surface of the water, water poured over oil sinks below the oil: it is by their weight that they are moved and seek their proper place. Things out of their place are in motion: they come to their place and are at rest.
My love is my weight: wherever I go my love is what brings me there. By Your gift we are on fire and borne upwards: we flame and we ascend... It is by Your fire, Your beneficent fire, that we burn and we rise, rise towards the peace of the heavenly Jerusalem, since I have rejoiced when they said to me: "Let us go to the house of the Lord!" (Ps 122[121],1). There our good will shall place us, so that we shall desire nothing but to remain there for eternity.
No comments:
Post a Comment