Monday, October 26, 2015

Feast of All Saints

All Saints (November 1)

Readings: Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14       1 John 3:1-3    Matthew 5:1-12

            The feast of All Saints marks a shift in the character of the readings proclaimed in Ordinary Time from the theme of the Christian community’s growth in grace to a concern with the last things.  The readings for All Saints reflect the feast’s original character as a celebration of Christian martyrdom in connection with the Easter season; they present the challenge of a way of life modeled on Jesus and the great heroes of the faith in the context of belief in the ultimate triumph of God’s kingdom over sin and death.
            The reading from Revelation 7 offers a consoling vision of the future that awaits the saints who have endured trial and persecution from the powers of evil in the present world order.  Revelation is an apocalyptic work written in the late first century C.E. by the prophet John of Patmos for seven churches in Asia Minor who were faced with Jewish hostility, public suspicion, sporadic Roman prosecution, imprisonment and even execution.  Many believers were tempted to renounce their belief in Christ and conform to the decadence of Roman society.  John’s visions of God and the lamb’s ultimate triumph over the forces of evil, especially Rome, are meant to strengthen Christian whose faith was wavering, by assuring them that death for Christ is not defeat but victory.
            Revelation 7 is part of the vision of the seven seals (6:1-8:6).  In an interlude between the sixth and seven seals, John describes two visions which assure the faithful that they are protected from God’s judgment.  Following a pattern found in Ezekiel 9, John describes the instructions for sealing the servants of God (the faithful) before the four angels ravage the land and sea.  A symbolic full number of 144,000 from every tribe of Israel are so marked.  In the second vision, John sees a huge crowd from every nation, race, people and tongue joyfully participating in the heavenly liturgy before the throne of God and the lamb (the crucified and resurrected Jesus).  They are dressed in long white robes of glory and are holding the palm branches of victory in their hands.  The vision’s climax comes when John learns from one of the elders that “these are the ones who have survived the great period of trial; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
            The second reading from 1 John 3 is a theological reflection and exhortation based on what God has bestowed on Christians through the act of divine love given in Christ.  In the tender language of first-person plural address, the author reminds us that we are already “children of God,” and though the mystery of what we shall later be has not yet come to light, we may be confident that we shall see God as God is.  This hope should give us the assurance to keep ourselves pure, that is, to love one another as Christ has loved us, in the face of the world’s hostility which does not recognize us just as it failed to recognize the son.
            The Gospel is the beginning of Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount, the first of the evangelist’s five great discourses proclaiming the prophetic fulfillment of God’s law (Matthew 5-7).  The setting and tone are solemn and apocalyptic.  Jesus goes up a mountainside, a place of revelation like Sinai in the Book of Exodus (Exodus 19-40).  Seating himself in the position of teacher, he proclaims the fulfillment of the law in the way the Lord first announced the law on Sinai (Ex 20:1-17).  His disciples will have the role of Moses: handing down the revelation to the nations (Matt 28:16-20).
            Jesus’ proclamation begins with the beatitudes, a joyful announcement of God’s final blessing for the `anawim who totally depend on God for their vindication.  Five of the beatitudes reflect what might be called “passive” qualities: being spiritually poor, mourning, hungering for justice and being persecuted.  Three are more active: showing mercy, being single-hearted and making peace.  All mirror Mathew’s Jesus, the truly happy person who embodies the joy the kingdom brings and, obediently trusting his Father, suffers death for the sake of the kingdom (see Matt 10:24-42; 11:25-30).

Monday, October 19, 2015

30th Sunday B

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time B
Readings: Jeremiah 31:7-9      Hebrews 5:1-6    Mark 10:46-52

As Jesus completes his journey to Jerusalem in Mark, we are called to join with the blind beggar Bartimaeus in following Jesus in faith.  Each of us has only to ask, with Bartimaeus, “Rabboni, I want to see,” and the master will give us the healing gift of faith, and then we can joyfully thank the Lord in the lyrics of the responsorial psalm.  “The Lord has done great things for us;/ we are filled with joy,/ we are filled with joy!  (Ps 126)
Jeremiah sets the tone for this Sunday’s celebration with an oracle promising salvation for the remnant of Israel left after Assyria’s invasion over a century earlier.  As God’s messenger, he calls upon the nations to thank the Lord in anticipation of his deliverance. “Shout with joy for Jacob,/ exult at the head of the nations,/ proclaim your praise and say: ‘The Lord has delivered his people, the remnant of Israel.’”

The following promise prepares us for the healing of the blind Bartimaeus in the gospel story.  “Behold I will bring them back from the land of the north;/ I will gather them from the ends of the world/ with the blind and the lame in their midst . . .”  Although “they departed in tears,” the Lord promises to “lead them to brooks of water,/ on a level road, so that none shall stumble.”  The basis for this second Exodus is the Lord’s covenant bond with this people: “For I am a father to Israel,/ Ephraim is my first-born.”
The second reading continues the selections from Hebrews by reminding its readers, and us, that in Jesus we have a compassionate high priest who “is able to deal patiently with erring sinners.”  Although Jesus did not sin like the high priests did, he was tempted and faced death with fear as we do (see Heb 2:14-18).  He earned his call to the heavenly high priesthood “according to the order of Melchizedek” through being perfected by suffering (see 2:17-18).  “Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered; and when he was made perfect, be became the source of salvation for all who obey him, declared by God high priest according to the order of Melchizedek (Heb 5:8-10).
The Gospel completes Mark’s account of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem with the joyful and highly symbolic healing of the blind Bartimaeus.  Throughout Mark’s journey section Jesus’ disciples have been blind both to his destiny to suffer, die and rise in Jerusalem and to the demands of following him (see Mk 9:31-38; 9:30-37; 10:32-45).  The journey began with Jesus healing a blind man at Bethsaida who was brought to him by others and gradually came to his sight.  Now it concludes with Jesus giving sight to blind Bartimaeus who himself repeatedly begs, “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!”  Because of his persistent and faith-filled request, Jesus “calls” him, not simply to be physically healed from blindness, but to become a believing disciple who will follow him on the road to his suffering and resurrection in Jerusalem.  Notice how frequently variations of the word “call” occur in the story.  When Jesus hears Bartimaeus’ cry, he says, “Call him over.”  We are told, “they called the blind man over” with the words, “You have nothing whatever to fear from him!  Get up!  He is calling you!”  With that the blind man throws aside his cloak, jumps up, comes to Jesus and begs: ‘Rabboni, I want to see.’  The account does not end simply with Jesus restoring Bartimaeus’ sight, but with his invitation to follow him in a life of faith as a disciple.  “Jesus said in reply, ‘Be on your way.  Your faith has healed you.’

Immediately he received his sight and started to follow him up the road.”

Monday, October 12, 2015

29th Sunday B

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time B

Readings: Isaiah 53:10-11  Hebrews 4:14-16  Mark 10:35-45

Today’s readings challenge us with the cost of Christian discipleship, modeled on Jesus, who identifies his mission with the suffering servant of Second Isaiah.  For the followers of Jesus greatness consists, not in lording it over others, but in selfless service in imitation of “the Son of Man,” who “has not come to be served but to serve and to give his life in ransom for the many” (Mk 10:45).
The first reading is taken from the fourth so-called Servant Song of Second Isaiah. It begins with the confession of a group that has witnessed the ignominious life and death of the servant but now realizes that his sufferings were borne, not for his own sins, but for theirs.  In the verses before our reading they confess: “We had all gone astray like sheep,/ each following his own way;/ but the Lord laid upon him the guilt of us all.”  This new understanding of God’s servant was undoubtedly influenced by the suffering of prophets like Jeremiah and possibly Second Isaiah himself.  In retrospect, they now realize: “The Lord was pleased to crush him in infirmity.”  But the servant’s suffering and death are not the last words here.   They have come to realize that “If he (the servant) gives his life as an offering for sin/ he shall see his descendants in a long life,/ and the will of the Lord shall be accomplished through him.”   By voluntarily offering his suffering and prophetic mission as a sacrifice to atone for the nation’s sin, the servant brings salvation for others.  Clearly Jesus, who “has not come to be served but to serve and to give his life in ransom for the many,” has modeled himself on this servant.  In the last lines, the Lord himself speaks of his servant’s triumph and the salvation his innocent suffering will bring.  “Because of his affliction he shall see the light in fullness of days;/ through his suffering, my servant shall justify many,/ and their guilt he shall bear.”
The Epistle continues the selections from Hebrews with an exhortation to the community to hold fast to its original profession of faith because it has in Jesus a sympathetic high priest who knows weakness and temptation.  Although Hebrews presents the resurrected Jesus as the great high priest who has passed through the heavens, it also stresses that in his earthly existence he was perfected through suffering, obedience, and testing (see 2:10-18).  Therefore, he is able to sympathize and offer mercy and favor to the readers who have also endured great suffering because of the faith (see 10:32-34) and may now be tempted to apathy or apostasy (see 3:7-4:13; 5:11-6:12; 10:35-39).
The gospel reading follows Jesus’ third and most explicit passion and resurrection prediction in Mark, as he deliberately completes his journey to Jerusalem to fulfill his destiny (Mk 10:32-34; see 8:31; 9:30-31).  For the third time, the obtuse disciples fail to grasp the harsh reality and significance of Jesus’ passion for his Messianic destiny, and he must teach them that discipleship means a life of self-sacrificing service modeled on his own life (see Mk 8:32-38; 9:32-37). 

Despite the fact that Zebedee’s sons, James and John, have been a part of the inner circle of disciples from the beginning (see Mk 1:19-20; 5:35-43; 9:2-13), they ignore their master’s words and impertinently request positions of honor at his right and left when he comes into glory in his Messianic kingdom (10:35-37).  In exasperation, Jesus exclaims, “You do not know what you are asking!”  He then asks, “Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?”  With complete misunderstanding, they confidently respond, “We can.”  This answer is bitterly ironic in light of their cowardice in Gethsemane, where they will sleep in Jesus’ hour of agony and then desert when he is arrested (Mk 14:32-50).
The other disciples are not spared in this selection.  They had previously argued about greatness after the second passion prediction (9:33-37), and now are indignant at James and John’s request.  Jesus has to teach them all about the revolutionary nature of God’s kingdom.  Just as they had learned that worldly riches are a hindrance for entrance into the kingdom (10:17-31), now Jesus proclaims that greatness in the kingdom is not based on a powerful exercise of authority, making its “importance felt,” but on humble service (diakonia), like that of a servant (doulos) who serves the needs of all.  This service is rooted in Jesus’ own mission as the servant spoken of in Second Isaiah, who give his life as a ransom for many (Mk 10:45; Isa 53:11-12). “You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among you.  Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be slave of all.  For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Monday, October 5, 2015

28the Sunday B

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time B

Readings: Wisdom 7:7-11      Hebrews 4:12-13         Mark 10:17-30

“My sons, how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!  It is easier for a camel to pass through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. (Mk 10:24-25)

As Jesus continues his journey to Jerusalem in Mark’s Gospel, he challenges us to abandon whatever may hinder complete devotion to the kingdom.  He offers the call of discipleship “with love” and assures us that the reward is a full community life, but with persections, “in this present age” and everlasting life “in the age to come.”
In the first reading the author of the Book of Wisdom takes on the persona of Solomon and prays for the gift of wisdom, rather than power, riches or health (see 1 Kings 3:6-9).  The Book of Wisdom personifies God’s wisdom as a woman who is God’s eternal spirit, creating and directing the universe and history according to a loving plan.  She is the only reality which lasts; “scepter and throne,” “gold” and “silver,” “health and comeliness” are ephemeral in comparison with her.  “Yet,” Solomon assures us, “all good things together came to me in her company.”
The Epistle reading from Hebrews is a warning to a lapsing community that it is called to union with God whose word is both “living and effective” and “sharper than any two-edged sword.”  Faced with the awesome prospect of being judged by this word that “penetrates and divides soul and spirit,” we should remain steadfast in our fidelity to our original calling.
The Gospel is divided into three sections: Jesus’ encounter with the rich man, his teaching to the disciples on the danger of riches for those who would enter the kingdom of God, and his assurance to Peter that those who have sacrificed for the kingdom will be blessed in this life and the next.  In his dialogue with the rich man, Jesus lovingly offers him “treasure in heaven,” the kind of lasting wisdom that Solomon prayed for in the Wisdom reading.  When the man claims to want a “share in everlasting life” and insists that he has observed the commandments of the law for that purpose, Jesus challenges him to sell his merely temporal goods and give them to the poor.  But sadly he cannot part with his “many possessions.’
After the man has gone away “sad,’ Jesus warns his disciples that earthly riches are a hindrance for entrance into the kingdom.  To illustrate the folly of trying to enter “the kingdom of God” with earthly possessions Jesus pictures a camel, loaded with baggage, trying to squeeze through a needle’s eye. But then he concludes the dialogue on a hopeful note.  When the disciples express their doubt that anyone can be saved under such demanding conditions, Jesus assures them: “For man it is impossible but not for God.  With God all things are possible.” 
At this point, Peter reminds Jesus that the disciples, in sharp contrast to the rich man, “have put aside everything to follow you!”  Jesus then assures him that, although a life of discipleship will involve persecution, it will be blessed with rich community fellowship in this world and the everlasting life of the kingdom in the next. “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.”