“Some pointed out to him the beautiful temple buildings and the gifts dedicated there. But he said to them, ‘The days will come when you will look at this temple and not a single stone will be left on top of another. They will all be destroyed’” (Luke 21:5-6). Our gaze is always drawn to and struck by the beauty of things. But there is a beauty that comes from aesthetics, from the surface, and a beauty that comes from substance.
A man, for example, may be attracted to a woman’s beauty and even marry her, but love is continuing to see beauty in her even when wrinkles begin to appear on her face and her hair turns white. Love sees what the naked eye can no longer see. The temple admired in today’s Gospel passage no longer exists, but the beauty of that temple does, because it lives in the eyes of all those who continue to go and pray in front of the remains of a wall that we all call the “Wailing Wall,” but which for a Jew is the living memory of a relationship, of a connection, of a love.
Just go to that place and watch the people praying. I have always considered it a great delicacy and not an exaggeration to see the attention that Jews pay to that place, which perhaps means nothing to everyone else. Even when they leave, they try to do so by walking backwards, never turning their backs on it, a little like when you walk away from someone you love and try to look at that love for as long as possible, for as long as the distance allows.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus tries to teach those listening to him to look beyond appearances. With extraordinary realism, he does not hide the fate of the temple, but he does not use that fate to frighten, only to refocus attention on the most important, most decisive issue.
He also tells us that we will often feel as if we are on the brink of an end, but this is not the case: “See to it that you are not deceived, for many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not go after them” (Luke 21:8).
