Preview Mode Links will not work in preview mode

The BreadCast


Daily Exposition of the Readings for Catholic Mass...

as well as Prayers to the Saints on the General Roman Calendar (for the U.S.).  

From the books Our Daily Bread and Prayers to the Saints by James H. Kurt - both with imprimatur.

Jun 24, 2022

(Lam.2:2,10-14,18-19;   Ps.74:1-7,19-21;   Mt.8:5-17) 

“It was our infirmities He bore,

our sufferings He endured.”

And oh how deep are those sufferings; “great as the sea is [our] downfall.”  And graphically are they seen in the destruction of Jerusalem; sharply they pierce the flesh of the Son.

Yes, the Lord “has torn down in His anger the fortresses of daughter Judah…  On the ground in silence sit the old men of daughter Zion; they strew dust on their heads and gird themselves with sackcloth.  The maidens of Jerusalem bow their heads to the ground.”  And the children and infants “faint away like the wounded in the streets of the city, and breathe their last in their mothers’ arms.”  And so the prophet Jeremiah is “worn out from weeping”; and so his “gall is poured out on the ground because of the downfall of the daughter of [his] people.”

And is this weeping not Jesus’ own?  Does He not shed tears over Jerusalem for the suffering it has known, and its suffering to come?  Does He not indeed die for our sins?  Listen to the description of the destruction of the holy city offered by our psalmist today: “With chisel and hammer they hack at all the paneling of the sanctuary.”  Are these not the blows Jesus suffered; are they not the nails which pierced His hands and feet and side?  “They set your sanctuary on fire; the place where your name abides they have razed and destroyed.”  Is not Jesus the Temple of the living God, crucified by the hands of lust and greed and jealousy?  Have we not done such violence to our Lord?  And has He not endured all for our salvation?

Let the priest and all the children note the cause of such destruction of God’s chosen ones, the suffering of His only Son.  Is it not the prophets who proclaimed “false and specious visions,” who “did not lay bare [the people’s] guilt, to avert [their] fate”?  And note the Lord’s own words and attitude toward those who follow Him, to the children of Israel who press upon Him: “The natural heirs of the kingdom will be driven out into the dark.  Wailing will be heard there and grinding of teeth.”  Does Jesus fail to show those in His care the narrow gate?  And so should we continue to coddle faithless hearts unto their destruction?

He indeed bears all our infirmities, all the sickness our sin has wrought.  But we must indeed see ourselves as the centurion’s servant boy, “in bed paralyzed, suffering painfully,” to find His word of healing.  We must come with the faith of the centurion to know His saving touch.  For destruction indeed awaits the land, and so we must cry out to Him, “Turn your steps toward the utter ruins; toward all the damage the enemy has done in your sanctuary,” if we hope to be redeemed by His blood.

*******

O LORD, only Jesus could heal our ills,

only He could bear our suffering, for our guilt is great –

only He could take it away.

YHWH, how dire is the condition of your city this day; your people waste away on its streets, and none is there to help them.  Should we not call upon you; and would you not be faithful in carrying away our afflictions, in saving us from the destruction that surrounds us because of our sin?  We lie paralyzed before you; lift us up from our bed of pain.

Does not death surround us this day, O LORD?  Is there not little hope among your people – are not the walls of our city torn down?  Yet your Son would bear all our suffering; our infirmities He would take away.  Let us come to Him for healing.  Let us cry out to you for grace, for you are faithful to all sincere prayers…  Look upon us in our desolate state.

O LORD, the sanctuary has been torn down – your Son has been crucified in our midst.  But we know this death He endures with us will bring us new life if we but pour out our hearts like water in your presence.  O let us come to your banquet in the kingdom!