On a hill opposite the city of Jerusalem, a Church commemorates today's Gospel passage: Dominus flevit ['The Lord wept']. While many visitors, perhaps even pilgrims, go there for the magnificent view of Jerusalem, the little Church in its beautiful setting should appeal to us for deeper reasons. Recalling all that has passed in the Holy Land, and indeed in the whole world, since the time Jesus wept over Jerusalem, we too should be driven to tears, tears for all the sorrows and suffering of the world, but also tears of consolation for all the great good that there has been in the world because of the presence of Jesus and his saints.

Then let us think, as mystics sometimes have done, of our own soul as the city of Jerusalem in which God has taken up residence through the mystery of our Baptism. Looking at this Jerusalem which is our soul, would Jesus weep? If we are honest with ourselves we would have to acknowledge the tears which Jesus sheds for us, since we, too, frequently forget the path to peace or stray from the light and the truth.