GOD MAKES JERUSALEM JOY

Monday, Fourth week of Lent/2024
Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke,OP

Theme: God makes Jerusalem Joy

The prophecy of Isaiah concerning the new and spiritual Jerusalem is the first reading. When Cyrus the King asked the exiled Israelites in Babylon to go up to Jerusalem for its restoration and rebuilding of the Temple, many did not see the point because they were already mingled with the nations and had lost faith in the promise of Yahweh to his people. Only those who kept their faith and hope in Yahweh rejoiced at the proclamation and returned to Judea to rebuild the Temple of God in Jerusalem. If faith was necessary to inherit the temporal promise made to Israelites, it is indispensable to inherit the heavenly Jerusalem that is an eternal promise. The heavenly Jerusalem is an eternal reality that the Jerusalem in Judea foreshadowed. The first reading contains this comparison. “Be glad and rejoice forever and ever for what I am creating, because I now create Jerusalem ‘Joy’ and her people ‘Gladness.’ I shall rejoice over Jerusalem and exult over my people. No more will the sound of weeping or the sound of cries be heard in her.” The eternal joy and gladness is the essential difference between the terrestrial Jerusalem and the spiritual Jerusalem, for all that the human soul desires will be found there. So, her people will be the definition of gladness. This kind of joy is possible only through the beatific vision of God. Faith in the Saviour Jesus Christ offers this promise of joy and gladness.  

Without faith, it is impossible to enter the new Jerusalem, for the path or way leading to it is the humanity of our Lord. Thus, the people in Judea had no faith in him because they knew him only as a man and his family; they failed to see beyond his physical appearance. Without faith, it is impossible to penetrate the reality of the new Jerusalem present in Jesus Christ. It would be difficult to draw water of life, joy, and gladness from the well of salvation accessible through his humanity. Thus, while they were waiting for him to perform miracles for their entertainment, he left them and travelled down to Galilee where people believed in him. The court official drew healing and well-being for his servant at home. “Now there was a court official there whose son was ill at Capernaum and, hearing that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went and asked him to come and cure his son as he was at the point of death.” The court official received what he asked for in faith. Because the people in Cana of Galilee believed in him, they received many gifts of consolation and healing from him. In Cana of Galilee he turned water into wine, a gesture that symbolized the joy and gladness which would characterise the new Jerusalem. The prophecy of Isaiah about the new Jerusalem was being fulfilled in Galilee and not in Judah because of their faith in Jesus Christ. Where the Lamb of God is, there is the new Jerusalem. The Church of God gathers around the Lamb. We must all hasten with eager faith to the paschal celebration of the Lamb.

Let us pray: Grant us, Lord, the grace to believe firmly in Jesus Christ, that we may know your love and experience consolation.  

 

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