Homily for Tuesday, Week 26 of Ordinary Time

Homily for Tuesday
26th Week of Ordinary Time

Sept. 28, 2021
Luke 9: 51-56
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Home, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“When the days for Jesus to be taken up were fulfilled, he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem…” (Luke 9: 51).

(James Tissot)

With this passage we begin a new phase in Jesus’ story.  He leaves Galilee to head toward his destiny in Jerusalem.

Luke’s telling us that God is in control of what’s happening.  “The days were fulfilled,” i.e., God’s plan is unfolding day by day and step by step, and Jesus is acting according to what his Father desires.

“For Jesus to be taken up” is a passive voice, again indicating that God is the actor, directing what will befall Jesus.  He’ll be “taken up” upon a cross, raised up to new life, and ascend on high—all God’s plan for the redemption of the world.

All this will happen in Jerusalem, not in Galilee, where Jesus has preached and healed and prayed till now.  Jerusalem is the center of Jewish life—which comes up in today’s 1st reading (Zech 8:20-23)—and the central events of our salvation must happen there.  From Jerusalem the followers of Jesus will go forth to proclaim the Gospel.  And the 1st place, ironically, will be in Samaria, which, again ironically, will welcome Deacon Philip (Acts 8:4-8).

Jesus “resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem.”  The text is literally “he set his face” for this journey.  Luke’s alluding to the Servant of the Lord, who “set his face like flint” (Is 50:7) to announce God’s ways to his people and who suffered for that.  Jesus deliberately chooses to go forward with what his Father wants.  He’s already predicted his passion, death, and resurrection; he’s not going blindly or haphazardly.

Going this way—to Jerusalem, as well as “the way of God”—means meeting opposition, as Jesus already has at Nazareth and from scribes and Pharisees, as he will in Jerusalem from Jewish leaders and the Romans, and as his disciples will meet when they go forth from Jerusalem following his “way”—a term used in Acts to refer to Christian discipleship.

There we have in a verse and a half Jesus’ story and our own story.  The way of salvation is to do what God has in mind for us, to let his plan for our redemption unfold or be fulfilled, and to be resolute in walking our journey toward our destination, our destiny.  It involves our being taken up, captured by God for death, resurrection, and a place alongside Jesus.