What are we doing now?

 

The time for our visitation is now.

Reflection on Today’s Readings, Thursday of 33rd Week in Ordinary Time, Year I, November 23rd, 2023
Texts: 1 Maccabees 2:15-29; Psalm 50:1-2,5-6,14-15; Luke 19:41-44 

What are we doing now? Is it the right thing? Is it what I want? Jesus Christ shows, today, that it is possible to be doing what is against our desire. He wept, today, over Jerusalem because the people did not know the things that make for peace. What are these things that make for peace which the people did not know? Jesus Christ did not tell us in the gospel reading. Certainly, it is having faith in Him and living His gospel. Things that make for peace include being just, righteous, merciful, humble, peacemakers, poor in the spirit, etc.  

Jesus Christ also said the people did not know the time of their visitation. In his words: “because you did not know the time of your visitation." When is the time for our own visitation? The time for our visitation is now. It is not in the past or future but now. The people refused Jesus Christ and continued to look into future for their Messiah.  

The past is over and the future we have never lived

Some of us still live in the past as we recount various opportunities we had missed. Some people are also living in the future, expecting or wishing something done before repenting. The past is over and the future we have never lived. Living either in the past or future makes us far from the self, Jesus and God. The self, Jesus and God are here and now. It is here and now that we encounter the self, Jesus and God; it is never in the past or future. Jesus is always with us everywhere; God is also with us everywhere; the self is what we are now. 

Jesus Christ foresaw the people’s misfortune as result of their ignorance of what make for peace and time of visitation. In His words: “For the days shall come upon you, when your enemies will cast up a bank about you and surround you, and hem you in on every side, and dash you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another in you; because you did not know the time of your visitation." 

Prayer 

God our Father, grant that we may know what makes for peace and do it; may the time of our divine visitation never elude us. Amen  

Fr. Andrew Olowomuke