Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint 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 us
1. Build. Sometimes you build tombs, things that are dead, and you keep wishing for something that no longer works or simply doesn’t produce results anymore. Maybe it was useful or helped you back then, but today it’s of no use any more. How often do you still spend time building things that are dead and have nothing more to give? Stop wasting time on things which deep down you know are already dead and buried.
2. They will persecute. It’s worth remembering that some people are waiting for you to fail. But you can also become obsessed with a situation or with people who’ve hurt you, and you might keep bringing up old issues and conversations just to destroy things. Don’t let your wounds keep splashing onto innocent people. Every wounded person splatters, and every hurt person can hurt others.
3. Be charged. Everything you do in this life has consequences, and remember that, at some point in life and in eternity, you’ll have to account for what you’ve done in this world. But no one can harvest if they haven’t sown anything. The problem is that many people look for a harvest of things they never planted. You can’t expect peace if you haven’t sown peace. You can’t expect others to trust you if you haven’t generated trust in the first place. Life itself makes you account for everything you do, and that helps you realize what you’ve done for yourself, for God, and for others.
Something good is on the way!
