33rd. Sunday (Year C)
(Malachi
3:19-20; 2 Thessalonians 3:7-12; Luke
21:5-19)
The Lord of Hosts declared to the prophet
Malachi:
The day is coming, blazing like an oven,
when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble, and the day that is
coming will set them on fire, leaving them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear My name, there will
arise the sun of justice with its healing rays.
Though terrible events be taking place all
around them, God’s People were not be afraid, indeed they were not to be
disturbed in any way because, ‘fearing the name of the Lord’ in spirit and in
truth would lead them to fear naught else.
The Lord of Hosts’ picture – ‘published’
thus by the prophet Malachi-- of a people set apart from all others agrees with
St. Peter's description of the true disciples of Jesus:
You are a chosen generation, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, (the Lord’s) own special people, that you may
proclaim the praises of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvellous
light. (1 Peter 2:9)
Catholic Christians are indeed, as we hear
in the canon of the Mass, intended to be ‘a chosen generation, a people set
apart’ for the glory of Him Who called them to Jesus.
In what respect are they set apart from others? Surely, not because they are aloof from, or
indifferent to others, for charity is the very essence of the great commandment
that rules their way of life, while the Lord and Saviour they worship and
follow Himself gave the supreme example of fraternal love. Nor are individual Christians to set
themselves apart by flamboyance or exuberance, for St. Paul told us that
Christians ought to be quiet in their life-style:
We command and exhort (you) in the Lord
Jesus Christ to work in a quiet fashion and eat (your) own bread.
So we realize that Christians are to be
"different" from others, above all, by their spiritual strength
of character: fearing the name of the Lord, they will fear no other, naught
else; always trusting in the power of the Spirit and trying by moral discipline
to bear witness to the teaching and love of Christ and His Church in all
circumstances and before all people. To
that end ‘fear of the Lord’ is an absolutely fundamental virtue because it alone
can save us when our mind cannot comprehend or our heart appreciate. How many of those choosing to commit suicide
would be saved by an authentic ‘fear of the Lord’! To have no fear of the Lord is indeed a great
sin and an extremely dangerous one!
Moreover, it can also merit the condemnation of Jesus Who said:
Occasions
for stumbling (scandals) are
bound to come, but woe to anyone by whom they come! It would be better for you if a millstone
were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea than for you to
cause one of these little ones to stumble.
(Luke 17:1-2)
If we now turn our attention to Jesus
Himself we can see Him forming the character of His disciples along those
lines:
As some spoke of the temple, how it was
adorned with beautiful stones and donations, (Jesus) said, “These things which
you see -- the days will come in which not one stone shall be left upon another
that shall not be thrown down."
Here He would seem to be weaning them from
such false supports as national pride, or a vain-glorious enthusiasm which
could be sparked off by external stimulants such as the magnificent Temple
recently built by King Herod in Jerusalem; for He then went on to give them yet
more serious counsel for storms that would soon threaten to destroy them:
Take heed that you not be deceived. For
many will come in My name, saying, 'I am He,' and, 'The time has drawn
near.' Do not go after them!
‘Take heed not to be deceived’ even though
many others be misled; ‘do not go after’ the crowd, do not yield yourselves to
the inebriation and excitement of mob emotion.
There Jesus is clearly seeking to form in His disciples a characteristic
attitude that will distinguish them in the future: choosing to walk resolutely
with Him rather than chase after the crowd, never fearing to be alone with
their Lord. That was not to be all,
however, for Jesus went on to warn of yet greater trials:
When you hear of wars and commotions, do
not be terrified; for these things must come to pass first, but the end will
not come immediately.
Mature Christians must be able to stand
resolute amidst widespread anxiety and contagious panic: having sufficient
spiritual courage and moral discipline to wait for and confidently trust in the
Lord, though everything else might seem to be falling apart:
There will be great earthquakes in various
places, and famines and pestilences; and there will be fearful sights and great
signs from heaven.
Fear is instilled in us above all by
imminent and urgent threat to self: to one's life, one's reputation, one's
family, one’s possessions; and only the supernatural virtue of fear of the Lord can
overcome the effects that such natural terrors can trigger off.
Here, People of God, we should most carefully
notice that Christian fear of the Lord is no ordinary gift from God but such an
outstanding sign of His blessing that, according to the prophet Isaiah, the
Messiah Himself would take special delight in it:
There shall come forth a Rod from the stem
of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the
Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. His delight is in the fear of the Lord. (Isaiah 11:1-3)
Isaiah was a great prophet of the Lord God
inspired by His Spirit, but Isaiah was just a man and he used a language he
understood and knew his hearers in Israel would understand; he was not the
beloved Son of God revealing the full beauty and wisdom of God His Father to
disciples called to become, in Himself, adopted children of God.
Therefore whereas Isaiah spoke of:
A Rod coming forth from the stem of Jesse,
and a Branch growing out of his roots; and His delight being in the fear of the
Lord;
Jesus spoke rather of His Father being
always with Him; and though all others might leave Him alone, that abiding Presence of His Father was
Jesus’ delight, which He treasured above anything and everything else, a
delight He ‘feared’ to lose:
The ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over Me, but the world must
know that I love the Father and that I do just as the Father has commanded Me. Get
up (My disciples) let us go (to meet those sent to
arrest Me). (John 14:30)
So, dear People of God, for us ‘fear of
the Lord’ is no trembling acquiescence with impersonal demands from ‘on high’
made on us ‘against the grain’, it is a personal spiritual awareness of a
‘presence’ within us, a presence we fear to lose because we trust it, and
humbly, quietly, and so very deeply rely on it, to such an extent that we can
be said to delight in that ‘whose’ loss we fear would be to our enduring
spiritual ruin.
Fear of the Lord, therefore, is a supreme
sign of God’s love and favour, meant to be our special delight and ultimate
defence against anything this world can throw up against us or the devil devise
to ensnare us.
And that is just the final situation which
Jesus puts before His disciples now:
They will seize and persecute you, they
will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons, and they will have you led
before kings and governors because of My name.
Then, indeed, fear of the Lord and trust
in His mercy and power must be seen to be the disciple’s great delight and sure
shield. Jesus insists that at such times
they look neither to men nor rely on themselves, but rather turn to Him:
Settle it in your hearts not to meditate
beforehand on what you will answer; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom
which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist.
People of God, recognize what Jesus is
looking for in His disciples, appreciate the sort of character He wishes us to
have; and with such things in mind, recall the command Paul gave his
Thessalonian converts when he was with them:
When we were with you, we instructed you
that if anyone was unwilling to work, neither should that one eat.
Notice those words, “we instructed you”: this order – it was
more than advice -- was not given, mentioned, just once or twice in passing, it
was his usual and repeated teaching.
Moreover, here we should remember that Paul was the apostle who suffered
most for Christ, one who was also supremely conformed to Christ in his mind and
heart, as the following texts show:
From now on let no one trouble me, for I
bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. I
have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives
in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of
God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me. (Galatians 6:17; 2:20)
In our modern Church too many are
influenced by no-longer-practicing Catholics or Christians who choose to put
themselves forward as popular ‘ethicists’ and proclaim personally-chosen bits
and pieces of their former belief and exalt them out of all proportion to the
balanced and living fullness of Christian faith; they have, for example, an
idea of holiness that is not only sugar-coated but also carefully conformed to
worldly standards, set up for the acceptance of people around, and against the
‘unfeeling’ teaching of Mother Church.
True holiness however, is not worldly, but Christian and personal, being
God’s gift by the Spirit, given only to the committed disciple of Jesus.
Therefore we should appreciate that Paul’s teaching, though it does indeed
reflect his own character and his personal appreciation of Christ,
nevertheless, since Paul was most deliberately chosen by Jesus and uniquely
endowed by God for his role as teacher of the nations, he was supremely one
with Christ, and we should in no way presume to suspect, let alone criticise,
the intentions which inspired his mind and heart to write those words:
If anyone was unwilling to work, neither
should that one eat.
St. Paul was following the example and
purpose of Jesus Himself by preparing and promoting in his converts, as best he
could, that moral discipline and spiritual strength essential for disciples who
would, inevitably, have to carry the Cross with their Lord for God's glory and
mankind's salvation; and such strength is never acquired through indulgence,
nor is mere encouragement or comforting exhortation sufficient to promote
it. Of course St. Paul recognized
sickness, but he would not allow the ‘popular immorality’ encountered today
that castigates Christian teaching for aiming to form and develop strength of spiritual character in
all called by the Father to believe in and obediently follow His Son become
incarnate for us. We need to be trained
as Christians and prepared as disciples if we are to appear with Jesus
before the God of all holiness.
Today we find desires for quick,
sugar-coated, easily seen and popularly appreciated, pseudo-holiness still
preventing the wholesome teaching of the Scriptures and Mother Church from
finding practical acceptance: how many parents, for example, wanting to appear
well in human eyes, ‘don’t like’ to correct, let alone discipline, their
children; with the result that the children suffer many and more serious future
difficulties and dangers resulting from emotional indiscipline and moral
weakness. Likewise, how often are the
Scripture and Gospel warnings of eternal punishment, along with Mother Church’s
doctrines and disciplines, watered down for public acceptance rather than proclaimed
with apostolic zeal? The result is that,
even among Catholics, discipline is being gradually downgraded, while sin --
even depravity at times -- is passively passed-over or regularly excused for
‘medical/psychological’ reasons, all because it doesn’t ‘seem nice’ to speak
of, people don’t like to hear of, God punishing sin; punishing it, above all,
with eternal, physical punishment and :
If anyone sees his brother sinning, if the
sin is not deadly, he should pray to God and he will give him life. This is only
for those whose sin is not deadly. There is such a thing as deadly sin, about
which I do not say that you should pray. (1 John 5:16–17)
If your hand causes you to sin, cut it
off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go
into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire ….
where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. (Mark 9:43, 48)
Jesus’ final words in today’s Gospel
reading have special significance for those called to be witnesses to Him In
today’s world. They are not soft words
to coax, for He wants all who are called and aspire to become His disciples in
truth, to be strong enough, in Him, to glorify the Father by the Spirit; and to
this end He chooses to help us with clear words that give inspiration and offer
strength:
You will even be handed over by parents
and brothers, relatives and friends; and some of you will be put to death. You will be hated by all for My name's sake,
but not a hair on your head will be lost.
By your perseverance you will secure your lives.
