“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered together thy children, as the hen doth gather her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldst not? Behold, your house shall be left to you, desolate. For I say to you, you shall not see me henceforth till you say: ‘Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.’”
Just as a lover keeps the beloved’s name upon the lips, Jesus calls out to Jerusalem with repetition, His love so intense that it overflows into calling out twice. In this is a beautiful lesson, Theophila, that when your heart is magnificently inflamed with divine love, you cannot help but speak of your Beloved: “I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise shall be always in my mouth” (Psalm 33:2), and to speak on Him gives you the grace to love all the more, for just as a falling object speeds up the more it falls, the more you fall in love, the more quickly you will continue to fall in love. His name is like breath, where the presence of it indicates life and gives life, whereas its absence shows the opposite, so too do the names of Jesus and Mary show the love in your heart, while reminding you of your Beloved and your Mother, which inflames your heart all the more: “My heart grew hot within me: and in my meditation a fire shall flame out” (Psalm 38:4). He laments the deep sickness of the people of Jerusalem, who, when physicians were sent to cure them of the spiritual maladies that afflicted them, killed them instead: “Is there no balm in Galaad? Or is there no physician there? Why then is not the wound of the daughter of my people closed?” (Jeremias 8:22). Consider, Theophila, the reckless love of Jesus, who, though those in Jerusalem murdered His prophets, still desired to take them to Himself, for to sin gravely against all the commandments of God throughout one’s life is but a drop of water being flung into a burning furnace of merciful love when this love is then sought: “I will be merciful to their iniquities, and their sins I will remember no more” (Hebrews 8:12). Now, when a chick is sick, the hen becomes sick also, and a mother’s happiness is that of her least happy child, and so Jesus, seeing the struggles, sins, wounds, and failures of man, takes on mortal flesh and goes to a most horrific death, that His deep affection for all may be displayed, and that He may be one with you in all your adversities: “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written: ‘Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree’” (Galatians 3:13). He then says that the house would be left desolate, for as a body without the soul is desolate and devoid of life, so too He prophecies the temple to fall without God’s presence, His presence instead given to the hearts of the faithful, being the animating spirit of love within them: “I indeed baptize you in water unto penance, but he that shall come after me, is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; he shall baptize you in the Holy Ghost and fire” (Matthew 3:11). Thus, the house can also refer to people that are not animated by this Spirit, for the one that truly loves and knows how loved they are is fully alive, their love a shining halo about them: “And when Moses came down from the mount Sinai, he held the two tables of the testimony, and he knew not that his face was [shining] from the conversation of the Lord” (Exodus 34:29), not hindered by sin, doubt, worry, scruples, or any such thing, but moving from one act of love to another as a spritely deer: “Thy two breasts like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies” (Canticle 4:5). When anxieties, sin, or attachments hinder a soul, however, it is a painful slog in love, lacking the freedom and exuberance of one in love: “So then, brethren, we are not the children of the bondwoman, but of the free: by the freedom wherewith Christ has made us free” (Galatians 4:31), whereas the one that truly knows God’s love moves in an enchanting manner, following the flame of love wherever it leads: “And the Lord went before them to shew the way by day in a pillar of a cloud, and by night in a pillar of fire: that he might be the guide of their journey at both times” (Exodus 13:21). To leave the wings of Christ, His loving protection, the shade by which one is sheltered: “The Lord is my firmament, my refuge, and my deliverer” (Psalm 17:3) is to stray from the perfect source of love: “They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water” (Jeremias 2:13), which renders a soul dry, arid, and unhappy: “In a desert land, and where there is no way, and no water: so in the sanctuary have I come before thee, to see thy power and thy glory” (Psalm 62:3). Thus, being removed from the source of all goodness, they will not see what is truly good, truly beautiful, truly love until, repenting, they confess the name of the Lord, whereupon He will return to their heart with eagerness and joy: “His father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and running to him fell upon his neck, and kissed him” (Luke 15:20).