Thursday in the 30th Week of Ordinary Time, October 31, 2024

Luke 13, 31-35

Some Pharisees came to Jesus and said, “Go away, leave this area because Herod wants to kill you.” He replied, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and I perform healings today and tomorrow, and on the third day I accomplish my purpose. Yet I must continue on my way today, tomorrow, and the following day, for it is impossible that a prophet should die outside of Jerusalem.’   Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how many times I yearned to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were unwilling! Behold, your house will be abandoned. But I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”

“Go away, leave this area because Herod wants to kill you.”  These Pharisees present that they have information that Herod wanted to kill the Lord Jesus.  They come to him as though doing him a favor.  However, evidence makes it unlikely that they speak the truth. In Luke 23, 8 we read that Herod “was desirous for a long time of seeing him, because he had heard many things of him; and he hoped to see some sign wrought by him.”  It seems, then, that the Pharisees were merely trying to get him to leave their area.  Thus the darkness hates the light (cf. John 1, 5).  According to St. Cyril of Alexandria (d. 444), in the Lord’s response, “Go and tell that fox”, the fox” is the Pharisee who gave him the false warning.  In fact, the Greek word translated here as “that” actually means “this”.  “That” refers to someone over there; “this” refers to someone close at hand.  In addition, by calling the Pharisee a “fox” the Lord intimates that he knows very well that he is trying to trick him.  The Lord’s treatment of the Pharisee is like that of his treatment of the Nazarenes who tried to kill him: he did not speak to them but went his way.  

“Behold, I cast out demons and I perform healings today and tomorrow, and on the third day I accomplish my purpose.”  Here the Lord tell the Pharisees to give a message to their lying colleague, but the message is meant for them as well.  The Lord is telling them that he will continue to work where and when he wants until he “accomplishes his purpose”.  The Greek for this last phrase means “I am perfected” or “I am completed”.  That is, until the Sacrifice of his life on the Cross.

“I must continue on my way today, tomorrow, and the following day, for it is impossible that a prophet should die outside of Jerusalem.”  The Lord’s “way” is his journey towards his Passion, a journey that began at the moment of his Incarnation in the womb of the Blessed Virgin.  He makes it clear that he shall face the unjust hatred of the authorities suffered by the Old Testament Prophets, especially Jeremiah, and will die at Jerusalem.  We should note that the Lord refers to himself as a “prophet”.  The primary work of the old Prophets was to warn the people to repent from their sins or that they would be destroyed.  This was at the heart of the Lord’s preaching:  “Repent and believe in the Gospel” (Mark 1, 15).

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the Prophets and stone those sent to you.”  This brings to mind the lament over Jerusalem of the Prophet Jeremiah: “Your ways and your doings have brought this upon you.  This is your doom, and it is bitter; it has reached your very heart. My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain!” (Jeremiah 4, 18-19).  “How many times I yearned to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were unwilling!”  That is, how many times, as a hen gathers her chicks, he would have gathered — saved — his people from “foxes” like the lying Pharisee.  Yet the people were unwilling to reject their false gods and to adhere to the Law.  “Your house will be abandoned.”  They will be offered the way to eternal life but they will reject it and live without it.  Their house will be abandoned not because the Lord has left them, but because they will leave him.  “But I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”  St. Cyril teaches that this time will come at the end of the world, when the Son of God returns for judgment.  It cannot mean the time when Jesus enters Jerusalem the Sunday before he dies on the Cross because he is still in the world then and can be seen by anyone who looks.

The wicked attempt to scare away the faithful so that they may not give witness to Christ through the example of their lives.  They also seek to entice us with the distractions and pleasures of this passing world.  Let us hold fast to our mission of witnessing to Christ so that we will be among those who celebrate when he returns.