Thursday in the 28th Week of Ordinary Time, October 19, 2023

Luke 11, 47-54

The Lord said: “Woe to you who build the memorials of the prophets whom your fathers killed. Consequently, you bear witness and give consent to the deeds of your ancestors, for they killed them and you do the building. Therefore, the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and Apostles; some of them they will kill and persecute’ in order that this generation might be charged with the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who died between the altar and the temple building. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be charged with their blood! Woe to you, scholars of the Law! You have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves did not enter and you stopped those trying to enter.” When Jesus left, the scribes and Pharisees began to act with hostility toward him and to interrogate him about many things, for they were plotting to catch him at something he might say.

“Woe to you who build the memorials of the prophets whom your fathers killed.”  “Memorials”, that is, tombs.  The Lord may be referring to a tomb complex either recently built or still undergoing construction on the western edge of the Mount of Olives outside Jerusalem for the relics of the Prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.  It still exists.  In considering the meaning of this Gospel Reading we should keep in mind that the Jews identified themselves in their ancestors and in their descendants.  For them, ancestors was both identity and destiny.  In building the tombs of the Prophets, without publicly rejecting the wickedness of those ancestors who shed the blood of the Prophets, they confirm themselves to be as guilty of their murders as their fathers were: “Consequently, you bear witness and give consent to the deeds of your ancestors, for they killed them and you do the building.”

“Therefore, the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and Apostles; some of them they will kill and persecute’ in order that this generation might be charged with the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world.”  The Lord speaks now of the present time in which the Father will send to the rulers of the Jews the Apostles and other witnesses of the Gospel (“prophets”).  The Father sends the Apostles to them in order to offer them further opportunities to convert so as to be saved.  We see in the Lord’s words how greatly he desired the salvation of the people who would kill him even after they do so.  At the same time, he foresees that the majority of them will remain steadfast in their hatred of the Gospel and that they will persecute them and all who profess Christ.  Many would die at their hands, including the deacon St. Stephen.

“Zechariah who died between the altar and the temple building.”  Some of the Fathers took this to mean the priest Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, and others to mean the Prophet Zechariah whose book is included in the Holy Scriptures.  Some scholars this was the priest Zechariah who was killed in the manner the Lord describes in the 800’s B.C. as recounted in 2 Chronicles 24, 21, in the roughly three hundred feet between the altar of holocausts on the Temple porch and the Temple itself.  Of these, the canonical prophet seems most likely since St. Matthew reports in his Gospel that Jesus gave his full name, Zechariah the son of Berechiah, which is the name found in Zechariah 1, 1.  

“Yes, I tell you, this generation will be charged with their blood!”  The Lord’s warning expresses to the Jewish rulers that he indeed is the Messiah whose coming they have awaited, and that this is their moment of decision: to stand with Jesus and the Prophets or to stand against them.

“Woe to you, scholars of the Law!”  That is, the Pharisees and scribes. “You have taken away the key of knowledge.”  They have so imposed their misinterpretation of the Scriptures on the people that their true meaning is lost for them: “You yourselves did not enter and you stopped those trying to enter.”  Their sin is double, for they read the Law and the Prophets not in order to search out the truth of God’s message but in order to justify their practices, their teachings, and their promulgation of man-made customs (Mark 7, 8) such as their insistence on purity rituals.

“When Jesus left, the scribes and Pharisees began to act with hostility toward him and to interrogate him about many things, for they were plotting to catch him at something he might say.”  That is, later, after Jesus left them on this occasion, they treated him with open hostility when they encountered him again.  On these later occasions, only a few of which are recorded in the Gospels, they “interrogated” him regarding his teachings and his claims.  

The Lord Jesus showed such mercy for these Jewish authorities who pretended to greater knowledge of the Law than they possessed, who daringly set themselves up as its arbiters without any approbation from the chief priests, who were themselves illegitimate as not of the Line of Aaron and having obtained their positions through bribery.  He allowed these unworthy people to question him in their malice so that they would have this chance to hear from him the words of the Father’s love for them.  Up until the last moment of our lives on earth we have the capability of giving ourselves to him, repenting of our sins, but how much joy we can have by doing this now and spending the rest of our lives in intimate communion with him!