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.” (Lk 11:47-48)
We often think of Jesus as this warm, fuzzy kind of guy who went around loving everyone, doing miracles, and generally freeing people from all their ills.
So, when we hear the kinds of passages that we get in today’s Gospel, the little hairs on the back of our necks rise.
We sweat a little. Maybe a lot.
We worry.
Because we are faced with one of the questions that we do not want to ask ourselves: “Is Jesus happy with me?”
Jesus was hurling a lot of “woe to you’s” in the Gospel. We need to take the “woe to’s” seriously, lest we begin to feel as if they do not, should not, apply to us.
Jesus does not want us to feel down. But, He also does not want us to feel smug or above everyone else. We need to get our priorities straight. We need to get our houses in order. We need to be busy about the work of the Kingdom.
FAITH ACTION: Is there someone whom you tend to ignore? Treat them today as you wish to be treated.