ADVENT I Lectionary year C

1^st Sunday of Advent C

Readings: Jeremiah 33:14‑16  1 Thessalonians 3:12‑4:2  

 Luke 21:25‑28,34‑35

            In our activist culture waiting is something we grudgingly endure, but rarely do well.  Yet during Advent, we are asked to wait, not in meaningless boredom, but with active hope.  Today's readings proclaim the promises of the Messiah's coming to complete God's kingdom.  Let us pray in the words of the responsorial psalm: “To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul/. . . . Guide me in your truth and teach me,/ for you are God my savior,/ and for you I wait all day” (Ps 25:4‑5).

            In the Old Testament reading, Jeremiah's oracle promises a Messiah, a just shoot from the royal line of David who will do what is right and just in the land.  His rule will bring safety and security for Judah and Jerusalem.  The land will be renamed: "The Lord our justice.” “I will raise up for David a just shoot;/ he shall do what is right and just in the land./ In those days Judah shall be safe/ and Jerusalem shall dwell secure;/ this is what they shall call her: ‘The Lord our justice.’”

Jeremiah spoke this prophecy in the darkest hours of Judah's history.  Its recent kings had been corrupt and ineffectual, and now Jerusalem is under siege from Babylonian armies and is about to be destroyed, along with the Temple.  The prophet himself is imprisoned for warning of these disasters (see Jeremiah 32‑33).   Despite the bleakness of Judah's hopes, he boldly proclaims the nation will be reborn after its destruction and exile.  He even enacts this hope in symbol by buying a plot  of land that he had the right to purchase in the tribal system of  family land inheritance in order to say to discouraged in Judah: "homes and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this  land" (Jer 32:15).

            In the reading from Paul's First Letter to the Thessalonians, the apostle prays that this struggling young Christian community will endure in faith by living a life of love for one another, as it awaits "the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones."  Paul is trying to correct two extremes in the Thessalonian community.  Some are living morally irresponsible lives by indulging "lustful passion as do the Gentiles who do not know God" (1 Thess 4:4).  Others have neglected the needs of the poor and their daily duties of supporting themselves, because they believe that Jesus' triumphant return in glory is near (see 1 Thess 4:9‑12).  Paul exhorts both groups to conduct themselves "in a way pleasing to God" (1 Thess 4:1).

            The Gospel reading for the First Sunday of Advent always picks up the themes of the last Sundays of the previous church year by speaking of Jesus' second coming to complete God's  kingdom.  During this year's C cycle of readings, we will be reading Luke's Gospel, and so this Sunday presents us with Jesus' apocalyptic discourse from the end of Luke.

            Luke's version of Jesus' warnings about the apparent terrors of the apocalypse is consoling, rather than frightening.  He assures the disciples: “When these things (the signs of the end time) begin to happen, stand up straight and raise your heads, for your ransom is near at hand.”  Only if the community lapses into a life of indulgence, drunkenness and worldly cares will the day come upon it “like a trap.”  If the disciples live watchful and prayerful lives, they will have the strength ‘to stand secure before the Son of Man’ (Lk 21:36). “Be on guard lest your spirits become bloated with indulgence and drunkenness and worldly cares.  The great day will suddenly close in on you like a trap. . . .Pray constantly for the strength to escape whatever is in prospect, and to stand secure before the Son of Man.”

Christ, the King

Solemnity of Christ the King B

 Readings: Daniel 7:13-14  Revelation 1:5-8  John 18:33-37

On the last Sunday of the Church year, the feast of Christ the King, we are reminded of the ultimate triumph of God’s kingdom through Jesus, “the faithful witness, the first-born from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth” (Rev 1:5).  Although the readings may seem to have an almost triumphal tone, each hints at the conflict between God’s kingdom and the powers of evil in the world.  In the midst of our secular culture, we must take a leap of faith to pray today’s responsorial psalm: “The Lord is king/ He is robed in majesty” (Ps 93).

Daniel’s account of his apocalyptic vision in the first reading was originally meant to offer hope to the Jewish community experiencing a terrible pogrom from the wicked Seleucid king Antiochus IV in the years 168 through 163 B.C. (see 1 Maccabees).  In the first part of his vision Daniel sees four terrifying beasts coming out of the chaotic sea (7:1-8).  More detail is given to the fourth beast, especially to a boastful “little horn” (a symbol for Antiochus; see 7:19-27).  Daniel next sees the heavenly throne room of “the Ancient of Days,” God, and witnesses the destruction of the fourth beast and the removal of the dominion of others (7:9-12).  This is followed by our reading in which a human figure, “one like a son of man,” ascends “with the clouds of heaven” into the heavenly court and receives from the Ancient of Days “everlasting dominion and glory and kingdom” (7:13-14).  At this point an anxious Daniel asks a figure in the heavenly court (the interpreting angel of apocalyptic visions) to explain the vision to him.  He learns that the four beasts are four kingdoms which shall arise out of the earth (7:17).  These represent the nations who have dominated the Near East from 600-168 B.C., but have ultimately lost their great empires (Babylon, Media, Persia, and the Greeks under Alexander).  Daniel then learns that the human figure is a symbol of “the saints of the Most High,” who will receive God’s kingdom and possess it forever.  The angel also informs him that the arrogant little horn will “speak against the Most High/ and oppress the holy ones of the Most High” but will ultimately lose his power when kingship shall be given to the “holy people of the Most High.”  Despite the apparent triumph of the world’s evil powers, God’s faithful (the Jews dying for their faith) will be vindicated in the end.

The second reading from Revelation is also part of an apocalyptic vision offering hope for persecuted peoples: seven Christian churches in Asia Minor (Revelation 2-3) in the midst of trials to their faith and persecutions from the Roman government for failure to either recognize the Roman state-gods or to participate in the emperor cult.  Their hope rests in the triumph of the risen Jesus who has himself endured martyrdom but now reigns in heaven. Our reading is taken from the opening salutation to the seven churches, greeting them with grace and peace from the seven protective spirits before God’s throne and especially the triumphant Jesus, who was himself a faithful witness (martyr) and is now “the first born from the dead and ruler of the kings of the earth.”  The salutation continues with two doxologies consoling the churches with their status as a kingdom of priests, freed from their sins and awaiting the coming of Christ with the clouds (recall Daniel’s vision).  The final words are from God himself, who assures them that he is in control of all history.  “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the One who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

In the Gospel reading from John’s account of Jesus’ trial before Pilate, Jesus challenges the Roman procurator, and us, to accept “the truth of his kingdom that does not belong to this world.”  Throughout John, characters in dialogue with Jesus are asked to move from an earthly to a spiritual understanding of Jesus (see chs. 3, 4, 6, 9, 11).  This gives an ironic tone to the whole Gospel.  Pilate thinks he is putting Jesus on trial and begins his interrogation by asking, “Are you king of the Jews?”  In reality, Jesus is inviting Pilate to move from his earthly and political understanding of kingship to a spiritual one rooted in his act of love in laying down his life (see 10:14-18).  He tells Pilate: “My kingdom does not belong to this world.  If my kingdom were of this world, my subjects would be fighting to save me from being handed over to the Jews.  As it is my kingdom is not here.”  At this point Pilate shows some interest in Jesus’ kingship, asking, “So, then, you are a king?”  But Jesus brushes aside the implication that he is an earthly king and invites Pilate to believe in the truth of his heavenly kingship: “Anyone committed to the truth hears my voice.”  In John’s Gospel, “the truth” always refers to Jesus identity as the One who has come from the Father to reveal his love for the world by laying down his life (see 5:33; 8:40,45-46; 14:6; 17:17,19).  In the remainder of the trial, Pilate chooses the earthly kingship of Caesar and gives in to the demands for Jesus’ death (see 18:37-19:16).  We might ask ourselves if we are the subjects of the powerful earthly Caesars of worldly expediency or of Jesus, who says, “I am the good shepherd.  A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11).

33rd Sunday B

33^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time B

Readings: Daniel 12:1-3  Hebrews 10:11-14,18  Mark 13:24-32

On this next to last Sunday of the Church year the readings proclaim the ultimate triumph of God’s kingdom and the vindication of the faithful who serve God in the midst of evil and persecution.  As we dedicate ourselves to this fearless service, let each of us pray the refrain of the responsorial psalm: “Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope” (Ps 16).

The first reading is from Daniel, an apocalyptic book written during the violent persecutions of the Seleucid king, Antiochus IV Epiphanes (r. 174-163 B.C.), who was determined to destroy the Jewish faith and enforce Hellenistic culture and the worship of Zeus upon his Jewish subjects (see 1 Maccabees 1).  During this time of terrible suffering many Jews chose to die rather than abandon fidelity to God and the Torah (see 1 Maccabees 1-2 and the stories of the Jewish martyrs in 2 Maccabees 6-7).

Dan 12:1-3 is an apocalyptic vision announcing the future deliverance of the faithful.  It is the only unequivocal statement of a belief in the resurrection of the dead in the Hebrew Scriptures. (See also the belief in the immortality of the soul in the Greek Book of Wisdom, written slightly later).  For the author of Daniel the persecutions of Antiochus evoke thoughts about the sufferings at the end time, and he expects that those Jews who had died for their faith will be vindicated by a bodily resurrection as a part of the triumph of God’s kingdom.  In the vision, Daniel is assured that Michael, the protecting angel of the Jewish people, will arise to deliver the faithful “whose names shall be found written in the book.”  The faithful/wise “who turn many to righteousness” will awake to everlasting life and will shine like stars in the firmament.  But those who have been unfaithful will awake to shame and everlasting contempt.

The second reading from Hebrews continues the contrast between the permanently effective one sacrifice of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary which has achieved forgiveness of sin and the ineffectual sin sacrifices of the Levitical priesthood in the temple.  Using language drawn from the royal and priestly Psalm 110, the author describes the completion of Jesus’ work as being exalted to God’s right hand in the heavenly sanctuary where he awaits the defeat of his enemies.  This exaltation and battle language fits the situation of a community that has also known persecution (see 10:32ff) and now is in need of endurance in a time of testing (see 10:35-39; 11).

The Gospel is taken from the conclusion of Jesus’ apocalyptic sermon announcing to his disciples the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple.  Mark is the most apocalyptic of the four Gospels, and it may have been written for a persecuted Christian community in the midst of a crisis, possibly precipitated by the fall of Jerusalem and its Temple to the Roman armies in 70 A.D. (see especially Mk 8:34-38; Mk 13:3-23).  Many false messiahs and prophets apparently expected that the fall of Jerusalem and its temple would be the sign of the end, but according to Mk 13:3-23, the Roman Jewish War of 66-70 A.D. and the concomitant persecution of Mark’s community are only “the beginning of the birth-pangs.”  In this time of crisis, the community is called to endure in giving heroic witness to its faith and is assured that this is a time for the Gospel to be proclaimed to the Gentiles (Mk 13:9-13).

Our selection is meant to console this community by assuring it that Jesus, as the suffering Son of Man was also delivered up to death (15), but has now triumphed over death in his resurrection (16:1-8; see 8:31-38; 9:30-32; 10:32-34) and will return as the glorious Son of Man to gather his elect.  Mark’s picture of this event is similar to other apocalypses, including Daniel (see Daniel 7).  After the period of trials, the cosmos will be reordered and the Son of Man will come on the clouds of heaven with great power and glory to dispatch his angels to gather the faithful from the four corners of the earth.  Using the lesson of the fig tree whose branches run high with sap just before summer, Jesus says, “In the same way, when you see these things happening (the cosmic signs), you will know that he is near, even at the door.”  Although Jesus assures his disciples that the generation that witnesses these signs “will not pass away until all these things take place,” he ends by prudently reminding the disciples that the exact time of these events is known only to the Father. “As to the exact day or hour, no one knows it, neither the angels in heaven nor even the Son, but only the Father.” Because the ‘day or hour’ is unknown, Jesus concludes by commanding his disciples to be alert and watchful, like faithful and dutiful servants awaiting the return of their master. “Be watchful!  Be alert!  You do not know when the time will come.  It is like a man traveling abroad.  He leaves home and places his servants in charge, each with his work, and orders the gatekeeper to be on watch. Watch, therefore, you do not know when the lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning.  May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!’”

32nd Sunday B

32^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time B

Readings: 1 Kings 17:10-16   Hebrews 9:24-28  Mark 12:38-44

As the Christian community moves toward the end of the Church Year, this Sunday’s readings present us with two women, both poor widows, and Christ himself as models for the charity that leads to God’s life-giving victory over the forces of sin and death.

In the reading from 1 Kings the prophet Elijah is engaged in a life and death struggle with Queen Jezebel, the Phoenician wife of King Ahab, who has brought the cult of the Caananite god Baal into Israel.  In order to prove to Ahab that the Lord, not Baal, controls the life-giving rain which brings fertility to the earth, Elijah has announced to the king that there will be neither dew nor rain for the coming years except at his word.  In the ensuing drought, the Lord sustains Elijah with drink and food, first in the ravine of Kerith east of the Jordan through a stream and a raven (1 Kgs 17:2-7), and then by the widow of Zarephath, a village of Sidon in the very territory of Jezebel and her reputed god, Baal (1 Kgs 17:8-16). 

The widow’s generous hospitality to the prophet, despite her poverty, is life-giving and stands in sharp contrast to the destructive actions of the power-hungry and ruthless Jezebel.  Although she has only a handful of flour and a little oil in her jug and is about to die along with her son, the widow gives the prophet drink and food because she trusts his word that the Lord will provide flour and oil.  As a result, she and her son are sustained for a year.

The second reading continues the selections from Hebrews by contrasting the one and permanently efficacious sacrifice of Christ, the high priest after the order of Melchizedek, with the old sacrifices offered repeatedly by the high priests in the Temple each year.  Hebrews is addressed to a community that has endured great suffering because of its faith (10:32-34) and now is tempted to apathy or apostasy (see 3:7-4:13; 5:11-6:12; etc.).  The author interweaves theological exposition about the permanence of the salvation God has accomplished in Christ with moral exhortation to continue firm in the hope of salvation.  Throughout the theological exposition Hebrews contrasts the changing, repetitious and ultimately ineffectual rituals of the old covenant with the permanent, once for all, and lastingly effective saving actions of Christ.

In this section Christ’s saving death is contrasted to the ineffectual sacrifices of the high priests in the earthly temple.  Christ has entered the heavenly sanctuary, as opposed to the one made by hands, to offer his own blood once to take away the sins of the many, as opposed to the repetitious sacrifices of animal blood offered in the earthly temple.  For the author of Hebrews, Christians have already received the gift of salvation when Christ offered his sacrifice to take away the sins of the many; they now must eagerly and faithfully await the return of Christ who will bring salvation.

The Gospel story of the widow’s gift comes from Mark’s account of Jesus’ Jerusalem ministry (Mark 11-13).  In the midst of several hostile controversies with the temple leaders, Mark has two positive examples of proper responses to the kingdom of God: the scribe from last Sunday’s Gospel, who sincerely asks Jesus which is the greatest of the commandments (12:28-34) and the poor widow whose donation of two copper coins into the Temple treasury Jesus contrasts with the hypocrisy of the scribes (12:38-44).

The difference between the pompous religiosity of the scribes, as Jesus describes them, and the true spirituality of the widow could not be greater.  For the scribes, religion is a matter of public prestige.  They are the revered doctors of the law who parade through the streets in their long robes and receive signs of public respect: greetings in the street, the chief seats in the synagogues and places of honor at feasts.  But these doctors of the law are the same ones who undermine the true law by “devouring the savings of widows” and reciting long prayers simply for appearance sake.  In contrast, the poor widow is to all appearances a destitute failure who has only “two small copper coins” to donate to the temple treasury.  Yet, her generosity, like that of the widow in the Elijah story, is boundless, and Jesus holds her up to his disciples as a model for their charity. “I want you to observe that this poor widow contributed more than all the others who donated to the treasury.  They gave from their surplus wealth, but she gave from her want, all that she had to live on.”