Thursday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
Driving into work this morning, I had the radio on. I was listening to reports from Paris, now five days after their attacks, reports from Syria and updates on ISIS. I wanted to turn it off and deny that any of it was happening, but it is the reality of our world today. We are living in uncertain, tumultuous, scary times. And then I went to read the gospel for this reflection - it tells a story of Jesus looking over his beloved Jerusalem and weeping. I imagine that Jesus has a similar reaction when he sees our world today.
If Jesus were to look at our world today, I imagine that he again would weep. When he sees the pain we are causing one another. As he is weeping, we are told that Jesus speaks for Jerusalem. And he speaks words that we need to hear today as well. "If this day you only knew what makes for peace - but now it is hidden from your eyes!" Open our eyes Lord. Show us! We need peace. We need to know what makes for peace.
It's easy to get disheartened and discouraged in our world. We all can ask, "What good can I do? I am only one person." But we need to stay focused on our mission - on peace. Peace needs to be our mission - we need to work to make peace. And it starts in our day to day interactions. We need to think intentionally about how we treat those in our family, at work, at the grocery store and everyone we meet. Are we working to be a person of peace or are we continuing the discord, the strife and tension? As we heard on the sermon on the mount, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God." As we each work to be peacemakers let us remember that we are each children of God and that we each deserve to be treated as such.
Amanda Grimm