And they began to act with hostility toward him

Gospel of the Day (Luke 11:47-54)

Woe to you! You build the memorials of the prophets whom your ancestors killed.

Consequently, you bear witness and give consent to the deeds of your ancestors, for they killed them and you do the building.

Therefore, the wisdom of God said, 'I will send to them prophets and apostles; some of them they will kill and persecute' in order that this generation might be charged with the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who died between the altar and the temple building. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be charged with their blood!

Woe to you, scholars of the law! You have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves did not enter and you stopped those trying to enter."

When he left, the scribes and Pharisees began to act with hostility toward him and to interrogate him about many things, for they were plotting to catch him at something he might say.

***

Reflections:

"And they began to act with hostility toward him"

«God so loved the world that he gave his only Son» (Jn 3,16). This only Son «was offered», not because his enemies overcame him but because «he surrendered himself» (cf. Is 53,12). «He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end» (Jn 13,1). This «end» was the death he accepted on behalf of those whom he loved; this was the end of all perfection, the end of perfect love, for «there is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends» (Jn 15,13).

This love of Christ's was more stronger in the death of Christ than his enemies' hatred, for hatred could only do what love permitted it to do. Judas - or the enemies of Christ –delivered him up to death through wicked hatred. The Father delivered his Son, and the Son delivered himself to death through love (Rom 8,32; Gal 2,20). Love, however, is by no means guilty of betrayal; it is innocent even when Christ dies of it. Since love alone is able to carry out with impunity whatever it pleases. Only love can constrain God and, as it were, give him orders. This it was that caused him to descend from heaven and placed him on the cross; this it was that shed Christ's blood for the remission of sins in an act that was as innocent as it was salutary. All our thanksgiving for the salvation of the world is thus owing to love. And it constrains us, with inescapable logic, to love Christ as much as people were able to hate him.