9781644135945

The Time After Pentecost
conquered the city; they saw how the power of God delivered their enemies, the Canaanites,
into their victorious hands. Thereafter they took possession of the Promised Land. Theirs was
the ark of the covenant, the law, the priesthood of the true God; later on, instead of the simple
tent for the ark, they had the wonderful temple in Jerusalem, where God showed His mercy
and protection again and again. Becoming more and more aware of their being the chosen
people, they became proud and self-reliant, thinking themselves saved because they were the
children of Abraham (Mt 3:9; Jer 7:4). They became so confirmed in their self-sufficiency that
the representatives and the leaders of the people, the priests and scribes, refused to acknowledge
the Messias promised by their prophets.
The chosen people did not comply with their divine election. “Let us not covet evil things,
as they also coveted. Neither become ye idolaters, as some of them; as it is written: The people
sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of
them committed fornication, and there fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither
let us tempt Christ, as some of them tempted, and perished by the serpents. Neither do you
murmur, as some of them murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these
things happened to them in figure, and they are written for our correction. . . . Wherefore he
that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall” (Epistle). Israel fell; God rejected
the Jewish people.
Yet how eagerly the Lord sought them! How deep was His affection for Jerusalem! He
wept over the city, saying: “If thou also hadst known, and that in this day, the things that are
to thy peace; but now they are hidden from thy eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, and
thy enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and straighten thee on
every side; and beat thee flat to the ground, and thy children who are in thee; and they shall
not leave in thee a stone upon a stone, because thou hast not known the time of thy visitation”
(Gospel). Forty years later this prophecy was fulfilled literally; Jerusalem, preferred and elected
by God, fell because it had not known the time of its visitation and had misused God’s graces.
Its destruction is a warning for us Christians. It is not enough to belong to the chosen people,
to be a Christian; what matters is the fact that we must accept the graces offered us in baptism
and confirmation, in Mass and Holy Communion, and that we be faithful members of the
Church, denying ourselves ever more that the kingdom of God may be perfected within us.
“All these things happened to them in figure, and they are written for our correction, upon whom
the ends of the world are come. Wherefore he that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed
lest he fall,” lest he meet the fate of Jerusalem, which did not make use of the graces given to it.
“Thou hast not known the time of thy visitation.”
The baptized must be tempted, too, that their fidelity to God and Christ be tested and
strengthened. Temptations threaten us from within and from without: from concupiscence,
love of the world, and our self-love, which cause us to follow our own desires and oppose the
working of grace and the Holy Ghost.
Prayer
Let Thy merciful ears, O Lord, be open to the prayers of Thy suppliant people; and that Thou
mayest grant them their petitions, make them ask such things as shall please Thee. Through
Christ our Lord. Amen.
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