O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! The lament over Jerusalem — one of the most poignant passages in the Gospels — is the mourning of the rejected lover. The hen-and-chicks image communicates the maternal tenderness of the divine pursuit: how often would I have gathered you — the repeated attempts throughout the prophetic history — and you were not willing. The unwillingness is the consistent human rejection that the divine love consistently pursues.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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