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Easter: Jesus weeps over Jerusalem
by Roberto de Mattei
Actually it should be a moment of greatest joy: Jesus enters into Jerusalem, where He received the encouragement and the enthusiasm of the crowd. Today, He is the most popular man in Jerusalem. But Jesus can not be deceived by the flattery. The world applauded him, but He does not like the fact He does not boast of this success. During the triumphal descent to the temple, Jesus viewed the city of Jerusalem from the height of the western slope of the Mount of Olives, where the places of his impending suffering was: the neat building of the temple of Herod the sparkling residence, the sober square of the fortress Antonia, the seat of the Roman garrison.
Et ut appropinquavit, videns Civitatem flevit super illam (Lk 19,41). When Jesus saw the city of Jerusalem, he suddenly wept over it. He Who weeps there is not any man, nor a supreme secular authority: It is the second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Word made flesh, the God-man, in whom is summarized the entirety of history. His weeping has a meaning that relates to the history of all centuries. Jesus wept as a child in the manger of Bethlehem. Bethany witnessed the tears which He shed on the death of Lazarus. The tears accompany His passion. But this time it is a different weeping. He weeps over the city that was before him like no other city: it is Jerusalem, the Holy City of the chosen people, the spiritual center of the world. Jesus weeps because of the punishment that awaits Jerusalem, but the main reason of his tears are the sins that are insulting God, they are the reason for that penalty.
The smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God and obscured the eyes of the high priest. Through tears and sobs Jesus said: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, if even you, had only recognized on this day, what brings you peace. But now they are hidden before thine eyes"(Lk 19,42) That's like saying: If you only knew the things I know about you, then you would no doubt weep, just as I weep now. But all this is hidden from you, as a punishment for your sins. Why do you not cry, do not regret and will not have taken advantage of your penitence and your pain. In the Hosanna cries of the crowd, Jesus responds with the prophecy of the inevitable punishment for the unfaithful city: "For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a Wall about you and encompass you and hem you in on every side. They will crush you and your children within you, and no stone will be left in you over the other, because you did not recognize the time of grace." (Luke 19.43-44).
Jesus knows the terrible trials that await Him. But that is not why He is crying. He does not cry for himself, because of the pains that await Him, the suffering that awaits Him, He weeps over the fate of the Holy City. Can there be a greater proof of love for Jerusalem? Nevertheless, this boundless love can not turn away the infinite justice of God. God is not only infinitely merciful, but also infinitely just, because He is infinitely holy. And Jerusalem will not be spared because of its sins.
Today, there is another city, about which there is need to cry. It is the city of which we spoke in the Third Secret of Fatima. That "big, half-ruined city", which the Pope crosses, "half-pressed trembling with halting step, with pain and sorrow," and "for the souls of the corpses" he prays, " for those he encounters on his way." What does this mysterious city that is half in ruins mean? Does it mean a city, a culture, or even the Church of Christ? Only the future will reveal the dramatic mystery. Today is the hour of tears. The tears bring the seriousness of the tragic and dramatic situation expressed in the houses the world.
It is not the hour of euphoria and illusions, but neither of the irreverent sarcasm or useless controversies among Christians. It is the moment of mourning and weeping. The tears arise from the pain. And if the tears are a gift, so the pain is a feeling that needs to be nurtured by knowing the things that concern us: therefore let us waiver not to exert our reason, but we base our faith in reason and we enlighten our reason with our faith. May the Mother of God grant us this grace in the hour of the Passion of Christ and the Church.
Text: Corrispondenza Romana
translation: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Ars Cristiana
translation: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Ars Cristiana
Translation: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMGD
Thank you, friend Tancred, for publishing this.
ReplyDeleteA happy Easter to you and yours....
Yes, thank you - the voice of reason and Faith, a prophetic voice.
ReplyDeleteHappy Easter everybody!
ReplyDelete"For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a Wall about you and encompass you and hem you in on every side. They will crush you and your children within you, and no stone will be left in you over the other, because you did not recognize the time of grace." (Luke 19.43-44).
ReplyDeleteTHE
ROSE
Took away the bells
Took away the art
Took away the songs
Inspiring our heart.
Took away the missals
Took away the veil
Took away our right to kneel
At Communion rail.
Scourged us with indifference
Whipped with Worship, weak
Crowned us with their humble words,
“Get with it, Catholic geek!”
Now with untuned strings you dance
Pass us on The Way
Carrying our crosses on the path
Of “long defeat”, we stay.
Try to kill us softly
With bashful, blushing, babble
Condescending degrader dogs
Then slap us as we scrabble.
The Way, the Truth and our life
“Is crux of all sedition.”
But we are merely branches
Rooted in Tradition.
Branches weak and branches strong
Branches propagate
Branches full of Sacred Sap
From Vine proliferate.
A branch can bend, a branch can break
Become dead wood to toss
But He Who makes all things new
Made dead wood save…the Cross.
So take away the bells
Take away the art
Take away our Catholic name
Written in His Heart.
For “What is in a name?”
Our Catholicity you cheat
But “By any other name”
Our Christian souls… still sweet!
Happy Easter to all who come to this lovely blog especially to you Mr. Tancred for hosting us!
ReplyDeleteGod bless us everyone!
Barbara
If the author wishes to attack the Holy See - and he clearly does- - why doesn't he have the guts to do it; why does he use substitutes for the name, Rome, for he knows that the Holy See is not Rome?
ReplyDeleteIt is an infallible truth that the Holy See is the one Church that which never fail.
Cowardice accounts for the failure to name the object of his attack; he follows in the footsteps of the sspx schism which also attacks, Rome.
He’s been frequently critical of the Pontificate of Francis and has even lost his job at Radio Maria Italia for doing so.
DeleteI really wish people like you would think more before you comment.
That is not a direct response to my observation that he is too craven to identify the Holy See as the object of his attack, not Rome.
DeleteRome is not the Holy See.
The CIA understands that the Holy See is not Rome but the schismatics do not.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/it.html
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/vt.html
Maybe this will bring them up to speed
Internet connections are cheap and available to anyone, including the most humble.
DeleteOK, I have no idea what you intended to indicate with that response but to me it is a clear indication that you want nothing to do with any distinctions being made about Rome and The Holy See being two different places.
DeleteTo me it is an indication of either confusion or cowardice; perhaps both :)
I get tired of people who think they know things they clearly don’t know.
DeleteObviously, "Bornacatholic", Mattei is too subtle for your liking. Anyone who knows his Faith and understands the power of figures of speech (which evidently you do not) will know well enough who Mattei means, even the enemy. Methinks thou dost protest too much.
DeleteHappy and Holy Easter Tancred. Keep up your work of immense patience and devotion.
Deletehttp://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20000626_message-fatima_en.html
DeleteYes, he is way too subtle for me. The Catholic Church has already explained the Third Secret and so speculations about it by Pro Mattei, Michael Matt, Chris Ferrara, John Vennari, Fr Gruener, or a sedevacantist man living in an alcove above his Grandmother's green garage/independent chapel are all just the private judgment opinions of men which, against the judgment of the church, are without merit.
Now, y'all are welcome to throw palm branches before the unending parade of this critical circus (and to shout, Hosanna, while you are at it) that enters the schismatic spaces in which some are delighted to exist EENS but the Church which speaks in His name (Luke 10;16) has extinguished the lamp of skepticism with its explanation of the Third Secret that was left for His Church, not Pat or Pam Pewdweller, to interpret - which is the ecclesiastical process the great Saints, St Teresa of Avila and St John of the Cross advised - even as they cautioned against the lake of rationalism in which so many private judgment men are led into and drowned by Satan.
But, who am I to write such things? I am not a soi disant traditionalist anymore and so I am not qualified to correct the Catholic Church Jesus established.
That is your bailiwick, isn't it?
Thankfully, we do not need to believe in apparitions for salvation. Our Blessed Lady has done enough without them all to convince me that the traditional Faith rooted as it is the Sacred Tradition and authoritative interpretation of Holy Scriptures with all of its perpetually consistent teachings gives those who obey in love of The Christ, the pathway to eternal life.
DeleteTroubling though that encyclical of Pope St Pius X condemning in no uncertain terms the liberal modernist enemies within the church. Even more disturbing that his centenary is ignored & his teaching as though he never existed. Troubling too that the NO resembles the protestant Cranmer service of the sectarian Anglicans. Even more disconcerting is the fact that the chief indicators have declined disastrously since 1965 and 1969.
Remember too that St John of The Cross and St Theresa of Avila also warned us about apparitions and mysticism. They both put obedience to the orthodox faith first and advised us to do the same. These, more than rationalism, lead many astray as the false garrulous Gospa at Medjugorjie warns us.
Indeed, as Francis I inquires on your behalf - who are you to judge?
DeleteMind you, Our Blessed Lord warned us to discern good fruit from bad fruit according to the condition of the tree it came from. Now that's another story altogether but the NO don't want to talk about discernment: only judgment red-herrings.
Troubling too that the NO resembles the protestant Cranmer service of the sectarian Anglicans
ReplyDeleteSilly.
Identify the protestant communion that uses our Mass for its services.
Our Missa Normativa is as far from a protestant worship service as Pluto is from the sun.
Leon. I am sure you know that not one of the suspended a divinis clerics of the sspx schism could take the Oath against Modernism because all of them believe the Church teaches error.
Are you actually calling for obedience - the kind demanded by Vatican I?
Wow; such a stand will likely to cause the gang to palpitate greatly :)
I'm just trying to figure out who you're trying to persuade with these smug and condescending repostes.
DeleteYou started by maliciously accusing Roberto de Mattei of cowardice and you've been nothing but insufferably insulting ever since.
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Delete"Identify the protestant communion that uses our Mass for its services."
DeleteMany Episcopalian communities have been using the modern Roman Rite for decades.
Probably Mark Shea
ReplyDeleteSurely His Pastriness has anathemas to hurl in other climbs?
DeleteI thought the same thing.
DeleteDelphina
Yes and amen for Jeus loved Jerusalem just that time and weeping for his sake knowing what is going to happen for her, but today Jerusalem belong to Israel and Jesus will enter to that citys soon ,thanks and bless,keijo sweden
ReplyDelete