Advent II B

2^nd Sunday of Advent B

Readings: Isaiah 40:1-5,9-11    2 Peter 3:8-14            Mark 1:1-8

Semper paratus! “Always prepared!” This motto describes the mood of the readings for the Second Sunday of Advent.  John the Baptist, the messenger and herald in the wilderness, alerts us to be prepared for the arrival of the One who will bring God’s creative Spirit to make all things new.  With confidence, let us pray the lyrics of the responsorial psalm.  “The Lord will make us prosper/ and our earth shall yield its fruit.  Justice shall march before him/ and peace follow his steps” (Ps 85:14).

The first reading is the commissioning of the prophet scholars call Second Isaiah.  He is given the task to prepare the weary Jewish exiles in Babylon for God’s glorious action in bringing them home to Jerusalem.  Without the preparatory message of this “herald of glad tidings,” the exiles might never have understood that their release from Babylon by Cyrus, the King of the Persians, was God’s saving action in their behalf.  The prophet is called to ready this people by proclaiming “comfort” to Jerusalem which has paid double for her past sins and will now see her Lord God bringing home his flock like a shepherd gathering his lambs.  In the imaginative poetry of the prophet, the way home from Babylon to Jerusalem will be a super highway across the Arabian desert.  “In the desert prepare the way of the Lord!  Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!”

Sometimes an event which we most eagerly anticipate is delayed by circumstances beyond our control, causing us to lose the fervor of our initial anticipation.  The Second Peter reading challenges those who are disappointed by the delay of Jesus’ expected return in glory.  Some Christians, concluding that Jesus will never come in judgment, are leading dissolute lives (see 2 Peter 2).  Second Peter reminds them that God’s time table is different from humans and that what appears as a “delay” should be grasped as an opportunity for “all to come to repentance.”  In the time of waiting, the letter exhorts Christians to be people of exemplary conduct whose lives hasten the arrival of God’s kingdom, the “new heavens and new earth where, according to his promise the justice of God will reside.”

Mark’s presentation of John the Baptist in our Gospel both calls us to repentance in preparation for the arrival of God’s kingdom and alerts us to expect the mighty action of God’s Spirit with the coming of Jesus.  Although Mark attributes the opening prophecy to Isaiah, it is actually a combination of elements from Exodus 23:20, Malachi 3:1, and Isaiah 40:3.  John the Baptist is identified with Elijah, the messenger expected in the apocalyptic Book of Malachi, who will return to prepare the way for God’s final judgment by his sudden appearance in the Temple.  Contrary to Malachi’s expectations, John appears in the Judean wilderness where his message is like that of Second Isaiah: “Make ready the way of the Lord,/ clear him a straight path.”  But John’s “baptism of repentance which led to the forgiveness of sins” is only preparatory to the theme of his preaching. John proclaims: “One more powerful than I is to come after me. I am not fit to stoop and untie his sandal straps. I have baptized you in water; he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit.”

John’s proclamation is the beginning of the “gospel,” the good news of Jesus the Christ, the Son of God.  It prepares us for the powerful wonders Jesus will perform in the early chapters of Mark’s Gospel where he will authoritatively gather a group of apostles and begin to attack the evil dominion of Satan with the healings, exorcisms, and the proclamation of forgiveness to outcasts.  At this stage, the initial reader would never guess that the story of this gospel will entail the violent deaths of both John, at the hands of Herod Antipas, and Jesus, at the hands of Pilate.  Later in the Gospel, Jesus will explicitly link his fate with John’s.  When Peter, James and John descend from the mount of transfiguration, they ask Jesus, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?”  Jesus answers, “Elijah will indeed come first and restore all things, yet how is it written regarding the Son of Man that he must suffer greatly and be treated with contempt?  But I tell you that Elijah has come and they did to him whatever they pleased, as it is written to him.”  In choosing to follow John and Jesus we choose the path that leads to the cross.

A New Liturgical Year - Advent I B

Year B - the gospel of Mark

1^st Sunday of Advent B

Readings: Isaiah 63:16-64:7   1 Corinthians 1:3-9     Mark 13:33-37

We all know what it’s like to await the return of a loved one.  During Advent the whole Christian community waits in partial darkness, but also in hope and trust, for the Second coming of our light: Jesus the Messiah.  The liturgy for the First Sunday of Advent in the B Cycle confronts us with our sin and need for God but also challenges us to await Christ’s return in hope.  We pray in the words of the Entrance Antiphon: “No one who waits for you is ever put to shame.”

The Isaiah reading is a lament pleading that God save the Jewish community which has just returned from exile in Babylon.  Haunted by guilt over their sin, the returning exiles, through the voice of the prophet, beg in desperation that the Lord come in a mighty theophany as on Mount Sinai: “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,/ with mountains quaking before you. . .”  They pray that the Lord will find them living justly.  “Would that you might meet us doing right/ that we were mindful of you in our ways!”   Although tortured by guilt over sin, the exiles must have a deep confidence in the Lord who has saved them in the past.  The prophet both confesses the nation’s sins and places absolute trust in God’s care: “We have all withered like leaves,/ our guilt carries us away like the wind./ . . . O Lord, you are our father;/ we are the clay and you are the potter;/ We are all the work of your hands.”

The second reading from the thanksgiving section in Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians captures the mood of the Church during Advent.  We Christians live in hope because of the gift of salvation brought by Jesus’ death and resurrection, but we also confidently await his future return in power.  We, like the Corinthians, have been “richly endowed with every gift of speech and knowledge,” and therefore we can trust that we will “lack no spiritual gift” as we “wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus.”  But our challenge is to be found “blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The Gospel reading for the First Sunday of Advent always dove tails with the readings at the end of the previous Church year because they are about Jesus’ second coming to complete the Kingdom of God.  During this year’s B cycle of readings, we will read Mark’s Gospel, and so this Sunday gives us part Mark’s version of Jesus’ apocalyptic sermon to his disciples at the end of his public ministry in Jerusalem.

The setting is ominous.  Jesus has just cleansed the temple and been engaged in violent controversy with the temple leaders over his authority for this prophetic action (see Mark 11-12). Now he and his disciples have left the temple, and when they express admiration for its building, Jesus announces, “Do you see these great buildings?  There will not be left here one stone upon another, that will not be thrown down.”  When Mark is writing his gospel, these events have probably already happened, as the Romans destroyed the Jerusalem temple in 70 A.D. during the Jewish-Roman war.

In the first part of his sermon Jesus warns his disciples about wars and persecutions that will threaten them from without and the false prophets and Messiahs from within the community who will attempt to lead them astray.  Despite the apparent signs of the end time, Jesus insists that the day or the hour is known only to God.   Therefore he urges the disciples to be alert and watchful like servants put in charge by a master who travels abroad or like a doorkeeper who is to open to the master of a house upon his return at some unknown hour of the night.  Although these images emphasize the need for being watchful, they do not provoke anxiety.  The completion of the kingdom will be the work of the returning Son.  Each disciple is only expected to be doing the assigned task.  There may be no better way to keep Advent than to be attentive to our assigned duties as we long for the return of our Master.

Christ The King A

Christ the King A

Readings: Ezekiel 34:11‑12,15‑17  1 Corinthians 15:20‑26,28  Matthew 25:31‑46

            The Feast of Christ the King marks the end of the liturgical year with readings that speak of Christ's triumph over sin and death and the final judgment in which he as shepherd will separate the nations, like sheep and goats, on the basis of their kindness to his suffering brothers. With confident faith, let us pray for the completion of Christ's kingdom of peace and justice in the words of the responsorial psalm: "The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want" (Ps 23).

            Ezekiel's shepherd allegory speaks of the Lord God coming to rescue the strayed and lost sheep and to destroy "the sleek and the strong" who have abused them.  The prophet was living with the Jewish exiles in Babylon, and in the first part of his allegory he denounces Judah's latest kings and leaders as "shepherds . . .  who have been pasturing themselves" and fleecing the flock entrusted to them.  Because of their selfish rule, the nation has gone into exile; its people have been "scattered for lack of a shepherd and become food for the wild beasts."  But now, through Ezekiel, God announces, "I myself will look after and tend my sheep."  God will restore the nation from exile; the lost and strayed sheep will be sought out and brought back; the injured and sick will be bandaged and healed.  "The sleek and the strong," who have taken advantage of their weaker brethren, will be destroyed, as the Lord God judges "between one sheep and another, between rams and goats."

     In the 1 Corinthians reading, Paul is responding to those who claim that Christians already live in a resurrected state and that there will be no resurrection of the body at the end time.   Paul argues that Christ's bodily resurrection is the heart of the Christian good news, and, in this section, he insists that the resurrected Christ is like the first fruits of a harvest which will affect all humanity.  Paul understands Christ as the new Adam: as "death came through a man (Adam)," so resurrected life has come through the new man, Christ.  In the interim between Christ's resurrection and the final resurrection, "Christ must reign until God has put all enemies under his feet . . ."   The greatest and "last enemy to be destroyed is death" which has already been defeated in the resurrection of Christ.                                                                                      

            Jesus concludes his final discourse in Matthew with the scene of the Last Judgment (Mt 25:31-46) in which acts mercy will be the criteria by which all will be judged. When the nations are assembled before him as the glorious Son of Man seated upon his throne, they will be separated like sheep from goats and blessed or cursed by the mercy or neglect they have shown to the hungry, thirsty, strangers, naked, sick, and prisoners—the traditional corporal works of mercy in the Jewish and Christian traditions.    The surprising feature of the judgment is that in showing mercy for or neglecting these needy they have been encountering Jesus himself who in his public ministry has identified himself with the poor and suffering and who has come “not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (20:28). “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”  Jesus is truly Emmanuel, God with us, present in the neediest of all until he returns in glory.

33RD Sunday A

33^rd Sunday of Ordinary Time A

Readings: Proverbs 31:10‑13,19‑20,30‑31  

1 Thessalonians 5:1‑6   Matthew 25:14‑30

As we approach the close of the liturgical year, the readings continue to remind us that we are to be "children of the light," engaged in wise and productive activity in anticipation of our Master's return.  The responsorial psalm promises that those "who fear the Lord" by walking in his ways will be happy and will enjoy the fruit of their labors (Ps 128).

The reading from Proverbs is part of an alphabetic acrostic poem (each verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet) in praise of the worthy wife.   It is the conclusion of Proverbs and echoes the themes of the entire book where Wisdom is personified as a Lady who is to be courted by young men.  The "worthy wife" is the practical and concrete "incarnation" of the divine and exalted figure of Lady Wisdom (see Proverbs 1‑9). 

The poem begins by praising her inestimable value to the husband who finds her: "When one finds a worthy wife,/ her value  is beyond pearls."  Her gifts come from her ceaseless activity in providing clothing, food, economic security, and wise counsel for both her own household and the needy.  Such concrete and practical care for others is what Proverbs means by "fear of the Lord."  The poem ends by contrasting the deceptive and fleeting character of charm and beauty with the enduring worth of "the woman who fears the Lord."

In the reading from 1 Thessalonians, Paul continues to address their concerns about "the day of the Lord" when Jesus will return in glory.  Paul does not want them to speculate about "specific times and moments."  They already know "that the day of the Lord is coming like a thief in the night."  Jesus' sudden return, however, should not cause anxiety.  Using an apocalyptic contrast between darkness/night and light/day, Paul reminds the Thessalonian Christians that they are different from the children of darkness who live with a false sense of security, like people who are asleep or drunk.  As the "children of the light and day," Christians should not be caught "off guard," because they are "awake and sober."  Paul goes on to describe this sobriety as living a life of faith, love and hope‑‑ the very virtues he praised the Thessalonians for at the beginning of the letter (see  1 Thess 1:2‑3).

The Gospel parable of the talents continues Matthew's theme of the need for responsible behavior by the church when the Master's return is delayed.  The disciples are challenged by a parable about servants who are entrusted with funds by a very demanding master while he goes on a long journey.  They are to see themselves in the servants, because they too have been left in charge of the Christian community after Jesus' resurrection.

The three servants are given amounts of money ‘according to each man's abilities,’ but they are judged on the basis of whether they prove to be ‘industrious and reliable’ while the master is gone.  The servants who received five thousand and two thousand talents ‘invest’ their money and thereby double the master's funds.  Upon his return, he praises and rewards them: “Well done! You are an industrious and reliable servant. Since you were dependable in a small matter I will put you in charge of larger affairs.  Come, share your master's joy.”  The third servant, however, is paralyzed by fear of failure and brings the master no return upon his gift.  He really condemns himself in his speech to the master.  “My lord, I knew you were a hard man.  You reap where you did no sow and gather where you did not scatter, so out of fear I went off and buried your thousand silver pieces in the ground.  Here is your money back.” He is summarily condemned by the severe master as a "worthless, lazy lout."  His money is taken away, and he is thrown "into the darkness outside."

In Matthew's earlier missionary discourse to the disciples (Matthew 10), we learn that the threat of persecution and suffering for the preaching of the gospel may cause the disciples to fear (Mt 10:16‑33), but Jesus consoles them with the following words. “And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.  Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin?  Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father's knowledge. . . . So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” (Mt 10:28‑31).

32nd Sunday A

32^nd Sunday of Ordinary Time A

Readings: Wisdom 6:12‑16  1 Thessalonians 4:13‑18  

Matthew 25:1‑13

          As the Church year draws to a close, the liturgy reminds us of the return of Jesus in glory to complete the Kingdom of God in judgment.  Our readings stress the need for vigilance and preparedness as we await the arrival of the Master.  Let us pray for the coming of God's kingdom in the words of the responsorial psalm: "My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God" (Ps 63).    

The first reading from the Book of Wisdom is a praise of Lady Wisdom who personifies the justice and power of God which rules the universe and human affairs.  This section is part of an exhortation to the kings and magistrates of the earth to act justly in behalf of the lowly and oppressed (Wisdom 6:1‑21).   Those in authority will be judged severely if they do not "keep the holy precepts" of Wisdom.  In this context, the ruler is urged to love and seek for Lady Wisdom who is "resplendent and unfading."  "She makes her rounds, seeking those worthy of her."   Only those who are "watching for her at dawn" and prudently "keeping vigil" will be found worthy of her gifts.

     In the reading from the First Letter to the Thessalonians, Paul addresses their fears that loved ones who have died before Jesus' return in glory will be forgotten by God.  Paul initially expected Jesus' triumphant coming within his own lifetime, but this apparently led some to conclude that only those "who survive until his coming" would partake in the completion of Jesus' victory over sin and death.  Lest they "yield to grief like those who have no hope,"  Paul reminds them that Christian hope is founded upon the belief "that Jesus died and rose, (and) God will bring forth with him from the dead those also who have fallen asleep believing in him."  Speaking as if he were the Lord himself, Paul assures the Thessalonians that the living "will in no way have an advantage over those who have fallen asleep."  Paul tells them to console one another with the message that "those who have died in Christ will rise first," and then the living will "meet the Lord," and all "shall be with the Lord unceasingly."

     The Gospel parable of the wise and foolish bridesmaids is part of Jesus' final apocalyptic discourse in Matthew.  In this section Jesus is warning his disciples that his return will both be delayed and will come suddenly.  He uses an image from prophetic literature where the final age is often depicted as a wedding feast (see Hos 2; Isa 62:1‑5; and Matt 22:1-14). 

In the parable the ten bridesmaids, who are to welcome the groom, are judged by whether or not they are prepared for the delay in his coming to the wedding feast.  The foolish bridesmaids “brought no oil along,” while the sensible ones “took flasks of oil.”  When “the groom delayed his coming” and suddenly arrived at midnight, the foolish virgins had no oil to keep their torches burning and frantically asked the sensible ones, “Give us some of your oil; our torches are going out.”  The wise, however, replied, “No, there may not be enough for you and us.  You had better go to the dealers and buy yourselves some.”  At this point, the groom arrived, and only those “who were ready went in to the wedding with him.”  When the foolish bridesmaids return, the door has already been barred.  Their cry, “Lord, lord, open the door for us,” only brings the master's sharp reply: “I tell you I do not know you.

Elsewhere in Matthew's Gospel we learn very specifically what it means to be prepared for the hour of the master's return.   At the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warns that  “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the  kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my  Father in heaven” (Mt 7:21).  The Father’s will is spelled out very clearly in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus teaches the demands of God's law including the command to “love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and unjust” (Mt  5:43‑44).     

31st Sunday A

31^st Sunday of Ordinary Time A

Readings: Malachi 1:14‑2:2,8‑10  1 Thessalonians 2:7‑9,13    Matthew 23:1‑12

            This Sunday's liturgy is concerned with leadership in the community of God's people.  The reading from Malachi is a stinging indictment of the Levites for careless neglect of their duty to instruct Israel in Torah, while Paul provides a positive example of a leader who was willing to share his very life in preaching "God's good tidings."   Finally in Matthew, Jesus attacks the teaching of “the scribes and Pharisees” because “their deeds are few” and “all their works are performed to be seen.”  Let us be mindful that true leadership in the Christian community is service to God and others, as we sing the  responsorial psalm, "In you, Lord, I have found my peace" (Ps  131).

            The prophecy in the Book of Malachi was spoken after the Jewish people returned from their captivity in Babylon and rebuilt the temple.  Unfortunately in the post‑exilic community the Levitical priests did not provide proper leadership.  The prophet castigates them for their failure to "lay . . . to heart" the glory of Lord's name and for "turning away from the path" of the Torah which they were obligated to teach.  Because the Levites were partial in their judgments in legal matters, the prophet condemns them in the name of the Lord of hosts: “You have made void the covenant of Levi/. . . I, therefore, have made you contemptible and base before all the people . . .”

            In sharp contrast to the negligent leadership of the post‑exilic Levites, Paul defends his preaching of the gospel among the Thessalonians by recalling how he and his apostolic co‑workers "were as gentle as any nursing mother fondling her little ones."  Rather than being a financial burden on the Thessalonians, Paul's group "worked day and night" while they were preaching the gospel.  Paul can look back at his preaching to them with gratitude to God because they did not confuse it with "the word of men" who use rhetoric and teach for a fee; rather, they received his message as "the word of God."

            In the Gospel Jesus tells "the crowds and his disciples" not to follow the example of leadership set by “the scribes and Pharisees.”  This means that Matthew intended this warning for his own Christian church.  Although the scribes and Pharisees are to be respected because their teaching office goes back to Moses, they are not to be imitated because of their hypocrisy in using their authority to oppress others and to advance themselves.   The first example Jesus cites is that “Their words are bold, but their deeds are few.”  Rather than teaching a heartfelt love for the important commands of the Torah, the scribes and Pharisees “bind up heavy loads . . ., while they themselves will not lift a finger to budge them.”   Secondly, Jesus laments that “all their works are performed to be seen.”  They have made religion a matter of prestige rather than service.  Jesus cites several examples of their concern for status symbols: their wide phylacteries and huge tassels which give them higher visibility at prayer and their fondness for places of honor and for obsequious greetings and titles.

            In contrast to the oppressive and pompous hierarchy of the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus tells his disciples that there is to be no rank and hierarchy among them.  The reasons are simple.  They have only one teacher, “the Messiah,” and they have only one father, “the One in heaven.”  Greatness in the community of Jesus' followers is based on service and humility rather than prestige of office. “The greatest among you will be the one who serves the rest.  Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, but whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.”

30th Sunday A

30^th Sunday in Ordinary Time A

 Readings: Exodus 22:20‑26                                  

1 Thessalonians 1:5‑10            Matthew 22:34‑40

            In today's Gospel Jesus, facing an extremely hostile situation, teaches that the whole of the Jewish Torah and the teaching of the prophets can be summarized in the twofold command to love God and neighbor.  Because the love of God cannot be separated from the command to love the neighbor, the Lord's Torah is a source of protection for the weak and needy.  Let us thank God for the gift of the Torah in the words of the responsorial psalm: "I love you, Lord, my strength" (Ps 18).

            The laws in our Exodus reading are from the Book of the Covenant which is a law code designed for Israel's settled agricultural life in the land of Canaan.  They all protect the rights of the weakest members of ancient society.  Israelites are forbidden to molest resident aliens; they are not to wrong widows and orphans, and they are not to demand interest from the poor who are forced to go into debt.  Two reasons are given for these laws.  First of all, the Israelites should remember their own experience of being oppressed aliens in Egypt.  Secondly, God is compassionate, and therefore he hears the cries of the oppressed and will act to vindicate them.

            In the reading from Thessalonians Paul continues his defense of his apostolic work in that community by recalling the great success that his preaching of the gospel had among them.  He goes on to praise them for "receiving the word despite great trials."   He notes that they have become a model for the churches in Macedonia and Achaia because of their sincere conversion from idolatry to the service of the one "living and true God" as they await the return of the resurrected Jesus.

            The Gospel continues the controversies between Jesus and the religious leaders in the Temple which have been the subject of our readings from Matthew for the last several Sundays.  In this week's gospel reading the Pharisees, having heard Jesus silence the Sadducees in a debate about resurrection, "attempt to trip him up" on a matter of major concern to them: the importance of the Mosaic Torah.  A lawyer, representing the Pharisees, asks him, “Teacher, which commandment of the law is the greatest?”   One must remember that the Torah contains 613 precepts.  Some rabbis held that all were equally important, while others offered some sort of summary or gradation of the commands.  Jesus' answer is deeply rooted in the traditions of his people.  He names as the greatest command the love of God demanded in the greatest Jewish prayer, the Shema`: "Hear, O Israel . . . You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, with your whole self, and with all your mind" (Deut 6:4‑5).  Jesus then goes on to link this to a second command taken from  the Holiness Code in the Book of Leviticus: "You shall love your  neighbor as yourself" (Lev 19:18).  For Jesus these commands are the two pegs on which hang the whole of the Torah and the prophets.  All their teachings are founded on these two commands, and all the details of the Torah legislation are reducible to them.  When we are confused by the endless controversies and hostilities that tend to swirl around religion, Jesus' simple and straightforward teaching provides a welcome guide.