Luke 21.5-11 – Tuesday of the XXXIV Week of Ordinary Time – Odd Year
In today’s song, Jesus dismantles one of the most deep-rooted illusions in the human heart: the search for securities that will never collapse. The disciples admire the temple, its grandeur, the solidity of the stones. It’s understandable: we need to lean on what seems stable. But Jesus says of all this: “Not one stone will be left upon another.” It’s not a threat, it’s an invitation. It’s as if he were saying: “Stop putting your trust in what is destined to pass.”
We all have a “temple” like this: a project, a relationship, an idea of ourselves that we believe is indestructible. And when Jesus announces its fragility he doesn’t want to scare us, but to free us. Because when we cling to what passes, sooner or later we are disappointed. True stability is not in stones, but in the relationship with Him. The disciples ask “When will it happen?”, as we do every time we feel threatened. We would like to know, control, prevent. But Jesus doesn’t give dates.
Instead he offers an attitude: “Don’t be fooled”, “don’t be terrified”. It is God’s pedagogy: he does not avoid crises, but teaches us to go through them without losing ourselves. Wars, revolutions, earthquakes, signs in the sky… Jesus not only describes apocalyptic scenarios, but also those internal earthquakes that shake our life when everything seems to tremble: an illness, a loss, a disappointment, a sudden change. What shocks us is not so much the event itself, but the feeling of no longer having a fixed point. The Gospel, however, reminds us that faith is not the guarantee that nothing will collapse, but the certainty that we will not collapse if we remain united to Christ.
When what seemed solid to us crumbles, it’s not the end. It is often the beginning of something truer. Because the Lord builds on the ruins, but he does it with stones that do not wear out: trust, freedom, abandonment. He wants to tell us that we must not seek salvation in walls, but in His love. Everything else can fall away. Not him.
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