＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

Revelation 5:1-10

 Then I saw in the right hand of him

Who was seated on the throne a scroll written on both sides, sealed with seven seals. A mighty angel exclaimed in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open this and break the seals?”  But no one in heaven or on earth or in the netherworld was found able to open the book and read it. 

I wept much when I saw that no one was found worthy to open the book and read it. Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Look, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Shoot of David, has conquered; he will open the book of the seven seals.”

 And I saw next to the throne with its four living creatures and the twenty-four elders a Lamb standing, although it had been slain. I saw him with seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out to all the earth.

The Lamb moved forward and took the book from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. When he took it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders bowed before the Lamb. They all held in their hands harps and golden cups full of incense which are the prayers of the holy ones.

This is the new song they sang: You are worthy to take the book and open its seals, for you were slain and by your blood you purchased for God people of every race, language and nation;  and you made them a kingdom and priests for our God and they shall reign over the land.

 

Ps 149 1b-2, 3-4, 5-6a & 9b

The Lamb has made us a kingdom of priests to serve our God.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊

Luke 19:41-44

When Jesus had come in sight of the city, he wept over it and said, “If only today you knew the ways of peace! But now your eyes are held from seeing. Yet days will come upon you when your enemies will surround you with barricades and shut you in and press on you from every side.

And they will dash you to the ground and your children with you, and leave not a stone within you, for you did not recognize the time and the visitation of your God.”

 

Gospel Reflection：

The word translated “wept”is the Greek verb klaio, “weep, cry, bewail."[1] Jesus bursts into sobbing. He weeps for their blindness, just observed in the Pharisees who would still the praise of his followers.

But is the blindness their fault? The word translated “hidden”is the Greek verb krupto (from which we get the English word”cryptography”), meaning “to keep from being seen, ‘hide,’specifically here ‘withdraw from sight or knowledge, hide, keep secret.’”[2]

Does God hide the truth from them? The Apostle Paul writes, “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2Corinthians 4:4).

Jesus calls the Pharisees “blind guides" (Matthew 23:24; see Luke 6:39). There is a sense in which God has blinded them (John 12:40), but only those who are willfully rebellious against the truths he is teaching. Willful blindness has caused a greater blindness still.