Thursday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
Weep With Me, My People
Liturgical Cycle: C | Lectionary Cycle: I
Introduction
The priest and leader Matthatias turns down the honors and power promised him if he renounces his faith and offers sacrifice in honor of King Antiochus IV Epiphanes of Syria. He starts the open revolt of the Jewish people, a revolt that is both religious and political.
Luke wrote his gospel when the Temple had already been destroyed. How come that the Jewish people, God’s own, who had been so zealous to fight for loyalty to the God of the covenant, did not recognize Christ, the expected one? It is not up to us to condemn, as Christians have often done in the past. With Jesus we weep over the city and its people and pray and work that Jews too may find their Messiah. And in the meantime, let us too know the paths of peace of God’s people, and recognize the time the Lord visits us.
Opening Prayer
Lord our God,
we seek the road to peace
of Jesus Christ your Son.
Let us be your chosen people
recognizing day after day
the time of your visitation.
Let this very day be the time
when we are open to your coming
in the words you speak to us,
in the people we meet,
in those who cry out for compassion
and a bit of warmth.
We ask you this in the name of Jesus the Lord.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (23b) To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
God the LORD has spoken and summoned the earth,
from the rising of the sun to its setting.
From Zion, perfect in beauty,
God shines forth.
R. To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
“Gather my faithful ones before me,
those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”
And the heavens proclaim his justice;
for God himself is the judge.
R. To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
“Offer to God praise as your sacrifice
and fulfill your vows to the Most High;
Then call upon me in time of distress;
I will rescue you, and you shall glorify me.”
R. To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
Alleluia Verse
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
If today you hear his voice,
harden not your hearts.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
When Jesus came into view of the city, he wept over it
and said, “If only today you knew the ways of peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.
Yet days will come when your enemies surround you with barricades, shut you in, and press on you from every side.
And they will dash you to the ground, along with your children, and will not leave a stone upon another within you, because you did not recognize the time and the visitation of your God.”
Prayers of the Faithful
– Lord, we regret and ask pardon that at times we have been negligent and cold to your love; forgive us, we pray:
– Lord Jesus, that those who have heard your call to follow you and refused to respond may again be ready to journey with you, we pray:
– Lord Jesus, that our communities may again heed your call to be one of heart and mind, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
God our Father,
as a pledge of our faithfulness
to the bonds of the covenant
we bring bread and wine before you.
Accept us with your Son,
and keep us united in him
as the people you love.
This we ask in the name of Jesus the Lord.
Prayer after Communion
God our Father,
your Son wept over the people
from which he was born
and which he loved with all his heart.
Let him not weep over us
but by the strength of this eucharist
make us seek what brings us your peace:
you and your kingdom
of integrity and goodness.
Grant us this through your faithful servant,
Jesus Christ our Lord.
Blessing
We are asked to recognize the coming of the Lord not in a long ago past but now, today, in our lives and our communities. May God give you this grace and bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
REFLECTIONS
20 November 2025
Luke 19: 41-44
As Jesus approached Jerusalem, He stopped, looked over the city, and wept. He saw not its beauty, but its coming destruction — the suffering and loss that would follow because His people refused the way of peace. In those tears, we glimpse the very heart of God — a God who does not condemn from afar, but weeps for His children when they lose their way.
Jesus’ tears were not just for the city of stone and walls; they were for hearts hardened by pride and blindness. They were for all the needless pain humanity brings upon itself when it turns away from God’s love. His weeping continues today — for cities where violence and corruption rule, for nations divided by greed, and for hearts that have forgotten how to love.
But Jesus’ tears are not only of sorrow — they are also a call to conversion. He invites us to love our country, not with empty pride, but with generous hearts ready to serve. It is not enough to be mere inhabitants who occupy space; we are called to be citizens who take responsibility for the common good, who work and pray for justice, peace, and dignity for all.
God continues to visit us — in our families, our communities, and even in the struggles of our nation. His visitation may come quietly, through the poor, through acts of kindness, through those who still hope for renewal. The question is: will we recognise His presence, or let it pass us by?
Today, let us ask for hearts that can still weep — for our world, for our homeland, for all who suffer. And may those tears move us to action, to love as Jesus loved, and to help build the peace He longed for.
The Visitation of God
Evangelist Luke wrote the Gospel ten or more years after the Roman armies destroyed Jerusalem in the year 70. He intends to convey to his readers that the destruction was not a punishment from God, but the result of their refusal to obey God's command to love.
Jesus wept over Jerusalem because God's chosen people failed to recognize God's visitation. The Jews did not recognize or accept Jesus but instead regarded him as a heretic. They believed they had good reasons to reject Jesus because he disagreed with their understanding of the law of Moses.
In explaining the Gospel, Pope Francis suggested that Jesus wept as he experienced what his own parable describes: the Master of the Vineyard sends his servants to his tenants in order toask for the fruit of his vine, but the tenants beat the servants and even killed some. Finally, they even killed his son. Jesus is the son of the Master of the vineyard, whom the Father sends, but soon will be despised, rejected and be killed!”.
In John’s Gospel, we read: “He came to them, and they did not accept him”, and “the light came, and the people chose darkness”. Pope Francis explains that “What causes pain in the heart of Jesus is this story of infidelity, this story of not recognising God’s embraces, the love of God.”
This drama of refusing to accept God’s visit is repeated daily, says the pope. We can ask ourselves: “Do I know how to recognise the time in which God visits me?” How prepared is my heart as I await the visit of Jesus? The Gospel today is a reminder that we can fall into the same sin as the people of Israel: not knowing the time of God’s visitation in our lives”.
The Word of God invites us to examine our conscience. Has the Lord visited me today? Did I feel inspired to follow him more closely, do some charity, and pray a little more? Jesus wept not only for Jerusalem, but also for all of us, giving his life to enable us to recognise his visitation. We will never know whether or not Jesus is visiting us if we do not pay attention to our hearts."