| Wednesday, February 27, 2013 Lenten Weekday |
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"Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem"
In the “Psalms of the Ascents” the psalmist yearns for Jerusalem and says he wishes to go up. Go up where? Does he want to reach the sun, the moon, the stars? No. It is in heaven that the eternal Jerusalem is to be found, there where the angels, our fellow citizens, dwell (Heb 12,22). While on this earth we are in exile and far away from them. Along exile's road we breathe sighs; in that city we shall leap for joy.
During our voyage we find companions who have already seen that city and who encourage us to run there. In the psalmist they have inspired a cry of happiness: “I rejoiced when they said to me: Let us go to the house of the Lord” (Ps 122[121],1)... “We will go up to the house of the Lord”: let us run, then, let us run, for we shall arrive at the Lord's house. Let us run without wearying; over there is no weariness. Let us run to the house of the Lord and rejoice with those who have called us, those who have been the first to behold our homeland. From far ahead they call to those following them: “We will go up to the house of the Lord; come along, run!” The apostles saw this house and summon us: “Run, come on, follow us! We will go to the house of the Lord!”
And what are we all to answer? “I rejoiced when they said to me: We will go to the house of the Lord.” I rejoiced in the prophets, I rejoiced in the apostles, for each one of them has said to us: “We are going to the house of the Lord.”