And they were overwhelmed with grief
Dt 10,12-22; Ps 147; Mt 17,22-27
12 AUGUST
Jesus always announced the disciples his death as a necessary way not only for the redemption of humanity, but also so that He could send the Holy Spirit upon them and above all so that He could be in every place and time with each of them. If we add to this the mystery of the Eucharist, then the fruits that ripen from the death of Jesus are exceedingly great. But the disciples do not understand the mystery. They do not know the truth. Sadness is always the fruit either of absence of truth or non-acceptance of it in fullness of faith. The Psalms and also the Word of Jesus help us to understand the mystery. Jesus accepts the truth of his death, after an intense prayer in the Garden and his soul moves on towards the cross.
As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” These things I remember and I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go along with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God, With the voice of joy and thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival. Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him For the help of His presence. O my God, my soul is in despair within me; Therefore I remember You from the land of the Jordan And the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterfalls; All Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me. The Lord will command His loving-kindness in the daytime; And His song will be with me in the night, A prayer to the God of my life. I will say to God my rock, “Why have You forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” As a shattering of my bones, my adversaries revile me, While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God (Ps 42 (41) 1-12).
Vindicate me, O God, and plead my case against an ungodly nation; O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man! For You are the God of my strength; why have You rejected me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? O send out Your light and Your truth, let them lead me; Let them bring me to Your holy hill And to Your dwelling places. Then I will go to the altar of God, To God my exceeding joy; And upon the lyre I shall praise You, O God, my God. Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God (Ps 43 (42) 1-5).
Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Are you discussing with one another what I said, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’? Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy. When a woman is in labour, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived; but when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy that a child has been born into the world. So you also are now in anguish. But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. On that day you will not question me about anything (Jn 16,19-23).
Today the world, having been deprived of the truth and light of Christ Jesus, is in the great sadness that often becomes either despair or drowning of the body in the greatest immorality. It lacks the science of the Most High. Without this science there is no true hope. This is happening because the builders of hope have become wreckers of it. Those who demolish the truth demolish hope. They deprive the soul of God’s breath. They remove the oxygen of true life from the heart. A serious sin.
As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.” And they were overwhelmed with grief. When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the temple tax approached Peter and said, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?” “Yes,” he said. When he came into the house, before he had time to speak, Jesus asked him, “What is your opinion, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take tolls or census tax? From their subjects or from foreigners?” When he said, “From foreigners,” Jesus said to him, “Then the subjects are exempt. But that we may not offend them, go to the sea, drop in a hook, and take the first fish that comes up. Open its mouth and you will find a coin worth twice the temple tax. Give that to them for me and for you.”
Jesus is the Eternal Son of the Father. To avoid scandal, he pays the temple taxes.
Mother of God, Angels and Saints arrange that every Christian is a builder of true hope.