Blowing in the wind ? Friday, 29^th Week in ordinary time – Lk 12:54-59

Yesterday we heard the Lord declare how stressed he was until His mission was completed. There was no doubt that the Lord himself felt hemmed in at times. Perhaps for many, the journey of Jesus to Jerusalem was like walking between a rock and hard place; damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Yet He was not deterred by popular opinion as He resolutely walked to Jerusalem.

We know that Jesus faced criticism from the Jewish religious establishment. He declared this himself in 12:1 when He asked His disciples to beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, namely their hypocrisy. In today’s Gospel reading Jesus condemns the hypocrisy of the people because they see God’s key moments of salvation history present in Jesus’ kingdom ministry (12:56) and yet they ignore the message of salvation.

The people of antiquity were earthy people in tune with nature and in tune with society. They had no need of a weatherman; their sheer experience of the seasons had made each one of them meteorologists. Ironically, they who have sufficient intelligence and can interpret the appearance of sky and earth, stubbornly resist the interpretation of the present time of grace ushered in by Jesus.

And so Jesus warns the people to judge their behaviour; for the truth of salvation is evident to all. Yet the Jews continue to be delusional as they walk with Jesus (their accuser) to the court of the magistrate, who is none other than the Father himself. Jesus exhorts the crowds to settle their case, to come to their senses while ‘on the way’ lest they be confronted by the righteous judge who will pass sentence.

Today, accepting Jesus as our saviour is a given. Unlike the Jews at the time of Jesus, we have no difficulty in accepting the Lord. Perhaps the challenge today is accepting His teachings in our life. There are a growing number of Christians who ‘profess their faith in Jesus’ but find convenient and clever arguments not to keep His word; the two are inseparable.

Unfortunately, ‘buffet Christianity’ is the order of the day as we pick and choose what we like and discard or ignore those that we construe as being inconvenient to our way of life. Yet the moral compass of our hearts can gauge the coming storm of judgment. Like the Jews, we too are clever enough to read the signs of the times though we may choose to ignore them. Jesus exhorted the Jews to change their hearts as He exhorts us to do the same today.

Fr Warner D’Souza