Today's gospel is a serious statement about loss ... loss because of sin. In the words of St. Luke, Jesus wept as he made his final journey into Jerusalem. Because of his own painful future? Not so much that but because he could see the future and he knew the past history of the city and the Jewish people.
He wept because he could see the loss of life, surely some of his friends and acquaintances he made during his lifetime, that would occur with the destruction, yet again, of the temple in Jerusalem. The Temple and the city would be leveled by the Roman Emperor Titus in the year 70 AD. Likewise Jesus could recall the 587 BC destruction of the Temple and the loss of life and the loss of the glory that was the Jewish people. Jesus wept because he also could see the final dispersal of the Jewish people ... and sure what has become of the Temple area ... where a mosque is built upon the site of the leveled Temple. He also wept because he knew that the people, his people, the Jewish people, had sinned. How ironic: Jerusalem, the last half of the word is a part of the Jewish word for "peace." And there has not been peace for them there. Jesus also wept because his people did not see in his coming God's coming to them. The Wailing Wall ... the only part of the Temple that remains ... the place where the Jewish people lament their lost glory.
Where is the Temple today for the Jewish people and for all Christians? Each person is a temple of the Holy Spirit. "Where two or three are gather in my name, I am there with them." For us today there is the challenge: do I see in all other God created people the very presence of the Holy Spirit, the very presence of Jesus Christ? Jesus wept for the Jewish people. We might consider this: would he weep today if he were to visit our cities, our homes? Interesting!
