“If Only…”

By Bishop Rocco Florenza

"If only..." We’re all familiar with these two words. We say them or think them many times during the course of our lives. We say and think them because of those regrets in life all of us experience. If only we did things differently. If only we had listened to the wise advice we were given by our parents. If only we had studied harder in school. If only we invested some of our income when we were younger. If only we had a dime for every time we said or thought the words, “if only.”

But it’s not possible to replay history. We don’t get to re-visit the past and fix it. However, there are always some things that can still be put right: healing old or existing wounds, mending fences, working towards building a better future. It's always worth a try. Indeed the Christian faith is all about new beginnings and fresh starts. Perhaps this is why the Book of Genesis, the beginning of the Bible, is called a book of beginnings.

The Gospel reports that Jesus wept on two occasions. Once, at the tomb of Lazarus. As he entered the city in which Lazarus’ body was entombed, his sisters, Mary and Martha reproached him in anger, saying “if only you had been here our brother would be alive today.” “If only.” And Jesus wept. (John 11:21,32,35). “The second time he cried was on Palm Sunday. Descending the mount of Olives, and making his way to Jerusalem, he stopped and sat down on the hill side, looked out over the city beneath him, and wept openly. “If only.” Our Lord wept because he knew what nobody else knew at the time.

It was hidden from them. “If only you knew,” he cried, “this very day, things you can’t begin to imagine will come into being, bringing about the very peace you long for.” (Luke 19:42). But, Jesus was in command, he knew what he was doing and where he was going, he knew what would happen next. “Go into the village,” he ordered two of his disciples, “there you will find a colt .. Untie it and bring it here to me. If anyone questions you tell them the master needs it.” These are the words of someone who is clearly in control. (Luke 19:29-31). This should come as no surprise to anyone.

As the journey into the city took its course, Jesus was no less in control, though he appeared more passive and sad. "They put him on the colt... people spread their cloaks on the road," Wrote the apostle (Luke 19:35-36). Saints Mark and John report, they cut down palm branches and waved them as they sang their "Hosannas" and "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord" (cf. Mk 11:8, John 12:13). Jesus knew the meaning of their words, even if the people did not fully grasp what they were saying. Typically, the Pharisees complained but he paid them no mind.

And yet his knowledge, his control, never interfered with the right, the ability and the responsibility of people to respond to him as they chose. The Pharisees chose to criticize and the disciples chose to praise. The people were free to celebrate, and claim him as their King - and before the week ended that same freedom of choice would take a new direction and call for His crucifixion.

God never forces His will. His use of the words "if only..." was no slip of the tongue; he said it more than once.

When he was still teaching in the villages on his way to the city He had cried out: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often have I longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!" (Luke 13:34).

Human choice is real. God does not force contrition or conversion or salvation on anyone. He was in control - and He knew that he was going to die in Jerusalem. He said as much to His Apostles on at least three occasions. They knew that was his mission, but they didn’t fully understand it. At the Passover Supper, he told them that one of them would betray him: “The Son of Man will go just as it is written of him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man" (Mt 26:24).

Always remember that the ways of God’s heaven are not the ways of this world. What if I were to tell you that God's purpose and Judas' sin, went hand in hand. Does that surprise you?

In the mystery of God's providence, without ever removing human responsibility or compromising divine sovereignty, the willing and even sinful behavior of men and women is made to serve God's purpose. God used human sin, in this case, his betrayal, as a means to open the gates of heaven and everlasting life. The crucifixion, or death to sin and death itself, brought about the resurrection, or forgiveness and the way back to God, taking us from a life in darkness into his indescribable light. In God’s plan death and resurrection cooperate in demonstrating the power good has over evil. Satan is already chained to a leash. He bites only those who approach him.

That is why we can call the day Christ died, Good Friday. Good triumphing over evil. It is a mystery, that a sovereign, wise and loving God can allow us to choose freely. As parents or grandparents or bosses, we would have stepped in long ago to restore order, demand respect, punish the evil-doer. But God patiently lets the wheat and the weeds grow together until harvest, knowing that one day they can be cleanly separated - while now, they are mixed together and intertwined in every human life. So he waits for us to learn, through it all, to love and trust him freely.

But the mystery goes even deeper, for God does not just watch impassively as we make our choices. He weeps. "If only you had known" said Jesus to Jerusalem (Luke 19:42). Known what? What would truly make them "the city of peace" (for that is what Jerusalem means) - in reality, and not in name only. But they remained blind to reality, and deaf to the truth. They didn't know they needed a Savior. Maybe they didn’t want one.

What they wanted was a King - and when he rode into the city like one, they cheered. Some may have thought there was something a little strange about the animal - a young colt! What, no great war-horse? The important thing to many, was where this would lead. Could the Jewish people finally be free of Rome? returned to nationhood and sovereignty? The leaders - the priests and the Council - wanted it no less than the people, but were more pragmatic: they had learned to get along with the Romans, and would make their move only when they thought their chances of success were high.

Meanwhile they helped keep the peace, arresting trouble-makers like this Galilean.

"It is better that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish" said Caiaphas the High Priest. And in those words he said far more than he could ever imagine. (John 11:50).

In rejecting Jesus, the city and its leaders took a direction that would prove fatal. Instead of embracing Christ, the leaders opted for influence, hoping one day for real power. "If only you had known what would lead to peace," said Jesus, as he wept. He knew that they were choosing a way of political nationalism, which would lead not to peace, but to war with Rome, and devastating destruction. This is why Jesus cried. But he would not interfere with their choice to self-destruct. What they got over the next 30 years were riots that grew in number and intensity, the founding of the Zealot Party, Revolt among their own people and eventual capture and bondage.

And so came what Josephus the historian called "The Jewish War," as 60,000 Roman legionaries under Vespasian and then Titus brutally recaptured towns and territory, and by AD70 sacking and burning Jerusalem and tearing down all but one wall of the Temple - which you can visit to this day. During that brutal walk to Calvary, with the beam of the cross strapped to his back, Jesus approached a group of women who were openly crying for him. “Do not weep for me,” he told them, “weep for your children.” He was referring to the destruction that would come within forty years.

What the leaders could not grasp was that in Jesus' arrival the city was visited by God. From the earliest days of Jesus' ministry, this theme had resounded.

"Blessed be God, who has visited and redeemed his people" Luke 2:68). "God has come to help his people" said the crowds, after Jesus raised a widow's son (Lk 7:16). It’s all there in the biblical record. But now, on Palm Sunday, as the Passover festival began, once again it is Saint Luke who tells us Jerusalem "did not recognize the time of God's coming" (Lk 19:44). It was a moment of crisis, a moment of opportunity, a moment of choice. "If you only knew," said Jesus.

One wonders today if we are not presently embarked on the same path towards a similar end result Jerusalem underwent. Systematically removing God from the public square, our schools, halls of justice and even in some of the churches, throwing him over board, rejecting Him once again, in order to live out a host of selfish lies in what is often called an “easy disobedience.” Does such behavior carry consequences? You bet. For one thing self-deceit is no friend of truth. Neither is calculated ignorance. Only a blind and deaf person would not notice. In moments of choice, God comes to his people gently and graciously. That is the truth of the present age. But, one day he will come to visit his world in judgment. But when Jesus first visited us, he came with "grace and truth" (Jn 1:17). Not with force, or overwhelming power, but with patience, and tenderness, and quietness; with a quiet invitation, a gentle persuasion, and always with calm dignity. This is the gentle King, the one who cries over lost cities, the one who weeps over lost people and says "if only you knew..."

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