Luke 23:28-31

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flatlanderjenn

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DH & I practice NFP. 👍

Whenever a Christian (either Catholic or non-Catholic) are in favor of contraception and/or abortion by stating it’s “the right choice” or “the Church needs to keep it’s nose out of our bedroom”, I always think of this passage in the Bible. Whenever any person believes our world is overpopulated w/ people and are in favor of population control for the sake of our planet and it’s resources, I think of this verse.

Luke 23:28-31…A large crowd of people followed Jesus, including many women who ourned and lamented him. Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and for your children, for indeed, the days are coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed.’ At that time people will say to the mountains, ‘Fall upon us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us!’ for if these things are done when the wood is green what will happen when it is dry?”

Does the Catholic Church have an official interpretation of this passage?

What is your thought on this passage?

I found at catholic.com/thisrock/1996/9603fea4.asp this:

*All along the Via Dolorosa, Jesus had been knowingly living out Hosea’s prophetic words. Swimming into his vision is a group of women who stand out because they are not gloating over his agony. Rather, these women wail and beat their breasts in anguish for him. His response is to stop and quote from Hosea, adding a last, vivid, prophetic pronouncement:

“Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never gave suck!’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us’; and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ For if they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?” (Luke 23:28-31).

Rejection and rebellion has come to this-God’s chosen Bride has betrayed him.

“Ah,” says Jesus (to paraphrase), “this is not the worst of it. This generation’s rebellion against God is like a fire in the green wood; it is slow burning, without much heat. The time will come when the wood will be dry. You women, who so revere God’s creative and nurturing power in your bodies, will not believe those times. Then women like you will rebel against their very meaning. Fruitfulness will be spurned. In those days women will be happier to have abortions than to bear children; they will feel blessed to use contraception and deny birth. These will be the days of dry wood! Beware the fire of those days.”*

The author describes the passage much more eloquently than I ever could. Is this the official interpretation of the passage? I’d like to think so. Jesus’ words seem incredibly prophetic! 😦
 
I don’t know about an official interpretation.

Jesus was warning the women that Jerusalem would be destroyed soon. Even being barren would seem like a blessing. They were warned to flee to the mountains before it’s judment. It would be especially tough for those who were with child or nursing, and they were told to pray that their flight wouldn’t be in the winter or on the sabbath (Mt 24:19-20). Fall on us. . .cover us: was an expression of agony and despair drawn from (Hos 10:8). In the original context the doomed northern kingdom of Israel were crushed by the Assyrians in the 8th century B.C. and Jesus redirects this oracle from Samaria to Jerusalem, which will be devastated for not repenting.

The wood: is a symbol of Jerusalem. As long as the city is like green wood, and not ready for making a fire, there is still time to repent and embrace the Messiah. Persistent rebellion, would make Jerusalem dry and fit to be burned. Jesus was citing (Ezek 15:1-8; 20:47)

Thus the word of the LORD came to me: Son of man, what makes the wood of the vine better than any other wood? That branch among the trees of the forest! Can you use its wood to make anything worthwhile? Can you make even a peg from it, to hang on it any kind of vessel? If you throw it on the fire as fuel and the fire devours both ends and even the middle is scorched, is it still good for anything? Why, even when it was whole it was good for nothing; how much less, when the fire has devoured and scorched it, can it be used for anything! Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD: Like the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest, which I have destined as fuel for the fire, do I make the inhabitants of Jerusalem. I will set my face against them; they have escaped from the fire, but the fire shall devour them. Thus you shall know that I am the LORD, when I turn my face against them. I will make the land a waste, because they have broken faith, says the Lord GOD. . .Hear the word of the LORD! you shall say to the southern forest. Thus says the Lord GOD: See! I am kindling a fire in you that shall devour all trees, the green as well as the dry. The blazing flame shall not be quenched, but from south to north every face shall be scorched by it.

By addressing the faithful daughters of Jerusalem, he may be identifying them with the righteous daughters of the city who will escape the catastophe by the mercy of God and become a source of consolation for others. (Ezek 14:21-23)

Thus says the Lord GOD: Even though I send Jerusalem my four cruel punishments, the sword, famine, wild beasts, and pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast, still some survivors shall be left in it who will bring out sons and daughters; when they come out to you, you shall see their conduct and their actions and be consoled regarding the evil I have brought on Jerusalem (all that I have brought upon it). They shall console you when you see their conduct and actions, for you shall then know that it was not without reason that I did to it what I did, says the Lord GOD.
 
I haven’t seen anything that claims to be an official interpretation. In his book An Illustrated Stations of the Cross Father Jim Nisbet provides an interpretation which agrees with that found by the OP.

We tend to regret the results of our sins and try to ignore the sins. I would contend that much of our current grief is because of our rejection of Humanae Vitae. I am reminded of Psalm 95:7-11
…O that today you would hearken to his voice! 8 Harden not your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, 9 when your fathers tested me, and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. 10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who err in heart, and they do not regard my ways.” 11 Therefore I swore in my anger that they should not enter my rest.
This is also quoted in Hebrews. The Temple was destroyed forty years after the Crucifixion.

Humanae Vitae’s 42 anniversary was last Sunday. We have had little rest in that time…
 
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