“Running, in sincere repentance, to the welcoming Motherly Heart of our Beloved God!”
(Based on Rev 5:1-10 and Lk 19:41-44 – Thursday of 33rd Week in Ordinary Time)
Aicha Moussaoui had been up all night, weeping and pacing inside her house…
“I am wounded,” she said.
Moussaoui was enduring a hard time.
She was the mother of an alleged conspirator in terrorist crimes.
Her youngest son, Zacarias Moussaoui, 33, had been accused of plotting with the 9/11 hijackers which killed thousands of Americans at the World Trade Centre.
“For me, it’s as if he had died,” she said of her son…
“I want to see him so I could ask my son: Why? How? Is it true?”
Moussaoui said she “felt like the roof fell on me”
These are painful and heart-wrenching words of a mother who was shattered by the alleged misdeeds of her son.
She expected him to respect and honour her care.
She had brought him up, with much love and affection.
She wanted him to become a responsible person in the society.
But her love was answered with disgrace….
Her expectations shattered by humiliation
Her affections bruised with pain
The heart of a mother is broken when her child strays away from the ways of truth and honesty!
If this is the experience of an earthly mother, how much more will be the pain and suffering of our God, if we stray away from Him…
… Him, Who loves each one of us deeply with a motherly affection?
If a human mother has so much pain, how much more will God, with a motherly heart suffer!
It is this sorrow and grief that is strongly expressed by Jesus in the Gospel of the day.
Jesus laments over the City of Jerusalem.
St Luke records this lamentation of the Lord with a powerfully sentimental verse:
“As Jesus drew near, he saw the city and wept over it” (Lk 19: 41)
Jesus is usually an epitome of great joy and rejoicing.
But this joyful Jesus being made to shed tears shows the gravity of situation.
What made Jesus to shed tears?
The pain and the hurt He experienced because of the ill-response and harsh reaction of His chosen people, Israel, represented by the city of Jerusalem.
God had chosen Israel as His people.
Out of all the civilizations on the earth, He chose them as His beloved.
… through them He promised that the Saviour of the human race would come.
This promise ignited the hearts of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
God wiped out their enemies even in the most extreme of circumstances!
Time and again, God blessed them with judges, kings and prophets. He even provided them a place to worship.
But as the quote goes, “Familiarity breeds contempt!”
Israel, God’s own people no longer delighted in being His distinctive people.
For them, He became a routine.
They began to consider Him of little value.
They allowed their hearts to grow hard… over and over… again and again.
Finally, Jesus, the long-promised Messiah came, the One whom God the Father had sent.
But most of the Jews by then, had grown stubborn and complacent in their ways.
They had no room for One who came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets.
They maltreated the Saviour of the World.
They rejected the Chosen One of God.
They abused the Anointed One of the Lord.
And this led, Jesus to shed tears.
Like a mother…
… whose heart is broken in seeing her child choose wrong ways.
… whose soul is crushed in witnessing her child engaged in misdeeds.
… who cries in agony when her child strays away from the path of goodness.
This story of Jerusalem could well be our own life-story.
We have been specially chosen and loved by the Lord.
He has taken us through many dangers, sicknesses and accidents.
… In times when everything seem lost, He has been our refuge.
… In moments when all seemed totally blank and dark, He has been the glowing light.
… In occasions we felt like quitting life and escaping from realities, He held us in good stead.
But we tend to easily forget all these good deeds and wonders of the Lord.
We fail to be grateful and thankful to the Lord….
…by living a holy and virtuous life.
…by deepening our bond of love and affection with Him
…by translating His graces into deeds of charity and concern for our people.
We instead persecute and torture Him…
…by living a lethargic or unholy or even scandalous life
…by abandoning many of His commandments and the teachings of the Church
…by harming our brothers and sisters and being highly indifferent in situations.
God’s heart, like that of a broken mother weeping for her child, is crying out for us…
We have strayed much!
It’s time to come back to Him
He calls us.
He longs to have us with Him always.
He wants us back in His loving embrace.
As little children, let us run, in sincere repentance, to the welcoming Motherly Heart of our Beloved God.
God Bless! Live Jesus!
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