The Palisades

Perceiving the power of the words of the Word

11/22/2019

Luke 19:41-44 As Jesus drew near Jerusalem, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, "If this day you only knew what makes for peace– but now it is hidden from your eyes. For the days are coming upon you when your enemies will raise a palisade against you; they will encircle you and hem you in on all sides. They will smash you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another within you because you did not recognize the time of your visitation."

The dictionary defines the word “logophile” as a lover of words. And next to the word logophile is a picture of me! Not really, but I do love words, almost to the point of obsession. I feel such a strange and sublime pleasure in finding just the right word to express my thoughts. And if I cannot find just the right word, I sit there like an idiot with a blank stare on my face until I do stumble upon the right word. My deepest delight in discovering the right word comes from seeing how love for all words leads you to love for the original Word, the Word of God, the Word made Flesh (John 1:14), that is, Jesus Christ. In its deepest and most profound sense, a logophile is another word for a Christian, someone who loves all words because all words ultimately point us to the one true and eternal Word, Jesus Christ.

Today, let me help you fall in love with the word “palisade” which we find in both the first reading from 1 Maccabees and the gospel of Luke 19. If you ever visit New York City and drive over the Hudson River on the George Washington Bridge from Manhattan to New Jersey, you will see a striking geological wonder called “The Palisades.” Have you ever seen those or heard of them? The Palisades are a stretch of steep cliffs that roughly resemble stakes that form a fence line for 20 miles. The word “palisades” comes from the Latin word “palus” meaning “stake.” In effect, a palisade is a wall or fence made up of stakes for the purpose of defense against enemy attack.

In the gospel, however, Jesus uses the term “palisade” not to describe how Jerusalem will defend itself but how it will be attacked by the Roman armies. We read Jesus’ words, “For the days are coming upon you when your enemies will raise a palisade against you, they will encircle you and hem you in on all sides.” Our Lord goes on: “They will smash you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another within you because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.” And what happened? Almost exactly 40 years after Jesus uttered those prophetic and powerful words, they were fulfilled to the letter by the Roman armies that leveled Jerusalem in 70 A.D. forming a “palisade” or siege around the holy city, which had become an unholy city. When we carefully examine the word palisade we perceive the power of Jesus, the Word of God, who never wields his words carelessly.

We have to dig a little deeper to find the word “palisade” in the first reading from Maccabees. We hear about a heroic man named Mattathias, who killed a Jew committing idolatry. Listen carefully: “When Mattathias saw him, he was filled with zeal…he sprang forward and killed him upon the altar.” But then we hear how Mattathias’ zeal is compared to that of Phinehas, who in Numbers 25, also killed two people committing idolatry, engaging in sexual immorality, by using a palisade, a spear, to pin them both to the ground. In other words, a palisade is a weapon not only to erect a wall of defense, but also to wield in attack against enemies who deny or distort the worship of God by committing idolatry, false worship.

Mattathias may not have picked up a palisade like Phinehas, but both men were filled with a fiery zeal for true worship of God which is related in the Word of God in the Old Testament books of Numbers and Maccabees. That zeal for true worship is exactly what the people lacked in Jesus’ day and therefore “palisades” would be used against the Jews by their enemies because now it was the Jews who were guilty of idolatry, false worship. In other words, if the Jews had studied the history of the word “palisade” in their bible, they would learn how they had failed to offer God true worship, and therefore, they “did not recognize the time of their visitation,” the time of their destruction.

By the way, here’s a random thought. Do you know how to kill Dracula? Of course you do: you have to drive a wooden stake through his heart. You have to drive a palisade through his heart to kill him. Why? Because Dracula does not offer God true worship, rather he is an idolater, he worships false gods. Have you noticed what Catholics do at the beginning of every Mass when we confess our sins and ask for forgiveness? We strike our breasts three times as we ask for mercy and forgiveness. Symbolically, it is as if we are driving a palisade through our hearts for all the times we have loved others things – other false gods, like money, sex and power – more than the true God, for the times we have committed idolatry. A palisade is a great weapon against enemies, and our greatest enemy is within.

And that’s how loving a little word, like palisade, can help you love the Big Word, Jesus Christ. And that's why all good Christians are logophiles.

Praised be Jesus Christ!