The WORD in Other Words by Fr Florencio Lagura SVD (USA)
Tuesday Week 26 Ordinary Time, Zec 8:20-23, Lk 9:51-56
“Boanerges” (sons of thunder), the two brothers were aptly named, and their hard fisherman‘s lives further made them impatient and furious at the much despised Samaritans blocking their way to Jerusalem. They asked the Lord for permission to wipe out their foes by calling down fire on them.
Seeing their frustration and fury, Jesus hesitated not a moment to rebuke them. He did not want any confrontation, much less the destruction of foes.
Years later, the much mellowed “son of thunder,” John would write. “For God is love.” (1 John 4:8) “Anyone who says, “I love God,‘ and hates his brother is a liar since a man who does not love the brother that he can see cannot love God whom he has never seen.” (1 John 4:20)
Many years later, a young lovely and sweet-tempered girl from France would show her love for God and similar devotion to His people, especially as a young Carmelite nun. When gravely ill with tuberculosis, then considered incurable, and learned that God was calling her home, she was asked how she would spend her heaven. The young Therese of Lisieux promptly replied, “I will spend my heaven doing good here on earth.”
St. John, his brother St. Andrew will no longer rain down fire on their foes, but like sweet St. Therese of the Child Jesus, they will surely spend their heaven doing good, and much good, here on earth.
