33rd Sunday Year B 2015

  33^rd. Sunday (Year B)                                 (Daniel 12:1-3; Hebrews 10:11-14, 18; Mark 13:24-32)

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in the Scripture readings today we are encouraged to consider something the world wants to ignore, indeed, something the world fears to such an extent that it will not even entertain the possibility of it: namely, God’s coming Judgement of our human actions, intentions, and aspirations, not in some abstract and derisory inquisition with detailed, pernickety, proof and resulting condemnation, but in an immediately present and incontrovertible human awareness of personal failure: personal rejection of and alienation from the eternal glory and merciful goodness of God.

Jesus came among us some 2000 years ago and spoke as did people of His time using a vocabulary built up from the thoughts and experiences of ordinary human beings in ordinary human circumstances and with normal human aspirations and cares.  However, the message He brought was from God, His Father, and He spoke not only for His own time but also for humanity to come even to our 21st. century and beyond.  His words, therefore, are not scientific words but they are sublimely truthful words for human beings with a divine purpose and destiny to fulfil; they alone can give, convey to, human awareness a truthful apprehension of what, by its very nature, is both unimaginable because totally unique and inconceivable because sublimely spiritual.

We Catholic and Christian disciples of Jesus, being well aware that He once said:

Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away,

are today not only reminded of the eternal truth of Christian teaching concerning the fact of judgement to come, but are also re-assured that the righteous will be rewarded and fulfilled in that judgement.

The prophet Daniel, continuing our first reading (cf. Daniel 12:10), spoke words which we find verified by our own experience and that of Mother Church in our world today:

Many shall be refined, purified, and tested, but the wicked shall prove wicked; the wicked shall have no understanding, but those with insight shall.

It is, indeed, a fact today that we see all around us “the wicked proving themselves wicked”; we find that wisdom and understanding, far from being valued and sought after, are disparaged and disregarded, while the most abominable practices are openly flaunted and being covered over with a cloak of pseudo-respectability to such an extent that some simple Catholics are being troubled, as Jesus foretold:

False messiahs and false prophets will arise and will perform signs and wonders in order to mislead, if that were possible, the elect.   (Mark 13:22)

In our Gospel reading Jesus again mentions “the elect” as you heard:

Then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory,  and then He will send out the angels, and gather His elect from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of the sky.

Who are these “elect”?   Daniel told us in those words: "many shall be refined, purified, and tested”; because the elect are those faithful disciples who, throughout their life on earth, are being formed into a likeness of their Lord through the Scriptures, the sacraments of Mother Church, and the gifts of His Holy Spirit, whereby they are enabled to walk perseveringly and faithfully along the ways of Jesus.  A notable part of the purifying and forming of the faithful elect is accomplished by the sufferings they have to endure in order to remain true to Jesus despite the allurements and trials of life; and today mockery is one of the great trials Christians have to endure for Jesus, especially mockery of Jesus’ teaching about a future judgement:

After that tribulation (false messiahs performing their signs and wonders), the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

We can imagine something of the calamitous nature of such pre-judgement events, for today we are not unaware of the astounding forces at work in our own sun and Milky Way, and in the myriads of stars and countless galaxies around and beyond us: galaxies involving powers and occupying space and time we try to account for and measure but are utterly unable to comprehend. 

All this comes about because of the nature and extent of our scientific knowledge.  Every day new facts about the world around us are being discovered; but -- without understanding – facts, like statistics, are ultimately meaningless and empty.  As, over the decades and centuries, our probes into the secrets of nature have extended ever wider and deeper, scientists have found it increasingly difficult to gain a comprehensive appreciation of such an immense diversity of facts old and new that they can embrace and learn from.  Newton came up with one such an understanding, which we call a hypothesis, which seemed to embrace and unify the then known facts, and caused scientific circles great rejoicing.   But still more facts continued to come in and eventually there was so much that was new and inexplicable that a further hypothesis had to be found.  Einstein came up with another explanation, another new hypothesis, which again rejoiced the minds of scientists, and again led many to think “Now we can explain all things.”   The flow of new facts continues however, and not all fit into even our very-latest hypotheses and so, yet again, scientific thinkers seek to come up with still other working hypotheses that might seem to offer a unifying explanation of all the facts we think we know.  Understanding always lags far behind the facts for scientists; hypotheses can only try to explain our universe on the basis of present experience and observation, and today we are becoming increasingly aware that we experience very, very little of the totality of what is real. 

Think of it in this way: when it is light we see, and we then think that light shows us everything.  Normally, however, we only experience ordinary light, whereas science tells us that such ordinary light contains many, many, different wavelengths, each revealing different objects, such as infra-red light, ultra-violet rays, X rays, all opening different views of what we had thought we knew well enough.

Now, People of God, we are not really concerned with science here; but we Catholics and Christians live in God’s world and because it is God’s world created for us, we are interested in, admire, make great use of, and should respect, the world as such.  However, though we live in the world, we live that life in the world for God.  Ultimately therefore, all our knowledge of the world is desirable only in so far as thereby we learn to admire God’s wisdom and power, beauty (just look at the truly heavenly pictures sent us by Hubble!) and goodness, ever more and more and, above all, in so far as we are thereby helped to live our life-on-earth for Him more gratefully and fittingly, in a more truly and fully human -- that is, divinely-aware-and-responsive -- manner.

Some of the psalmists of old epitomize that life for us: to them the heavens did indeed speak most glowingly of the glory of God!  In those days, there were relatively few scientific facts available other than what our human senses could immediately discern; nevertheless, being filled with the gifts of humility and wisdom, the psalmists were able to understand and interpret appropriately what facts were known to them and wholeheartedly rejoice before God.  Today, however, for many moderns, the facts are so multitudinous and often so tenuous that the human mind is overwhelmed as it seeks to co-relate them into a comprehensible whole.  And where faith is lost and pride is embraced and acknowledged as an acceptable guide, many falsely interpret what they have correctly but only partially observed, with the result that their reading of the heavens proclaims not the Glory and the Goodness of God, but rather reflects their own purposeless appreciation of primeval and chaotic power, expanding and exhausting itself  in time and space – not indeed totally outside our knowledge, but far beyond the comprehension of minds unwilling to learn humility from what surpasses them.

We Christians, however, want to learn from the glory of God resplendent in the heavens above; and, from the goodness and mercy of God manifest in Jesus and in the Scriptures of Mother Church, we want to learn how we can prepare for that coming judgement so as to find eternal blessedness.  For, as our readings today warn us, when the Judgement Day comes:

Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some shall live forever, others shall be an everlasting horror and disgrace.

Now is the time of trial: even at this very moment, the process of choosing and preparing the elect is going on all over the world, going on in you and me.

But the wicked shall prove wicked; none of them shall have understanding.

It has always been so, the wicked rejoice in their wickedness and manage to persuade themselves that there is nothing that can happen to them after death by surrounding themselves with others who think likewise, by distracting their minds with ever-new projects, and by silencing their consciences with pleasures that can satiate but not satisfy.  Nevertheless, for those who seek to live before God and show themselves willing to be guided by Mother Church and her Scriptures,

Many shall be refined, purified, and tested (by the grace of the Holy Spirit and the light of Jesus’ teaching) and the wise shall have understanding.

There lies our vocation, People of God: whilst we have the time, we are called to seek understanding and urged to live wisely, for:

Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.

Therefore, dear People of God, do not let yourselves be troubled by scoffers who ignore the teaching of divine truth, who walk, indeed run, merrily, along ways that lead to destruction.  Let Mother Church guide you, let the Spirit of Jesus lead you, to righteousness and insight; for then you will come to know, even here on earth, something of the plenitude of peace and fullness of joy promised by Our Lord, before ultimately sharing in His transcendent glory when those other words of His find their ultimate fulfilment:

(You) will see ‘the Son of Man coming in the clouds’ with great power and glory,  and then He will send out the angels and gather (His) elect from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of the sky.                 

32nd Sunday of the Year (B) 2015

 32^nd. Sunday (Year B)

(1 Kings 17:10-16; Hebrews 9:24-28; Mark 12:38-44)

The national Temple in Jerusalem and the local synagogues scattered throughout the country were two quite distinct aspects of the worship of God in Israel: the Temple – built by King Herod in his attempt to woo the Jewish people -- was a magnificent, world-famous, national centre of Jewish, centuries-old, sacrificial worship carried out in accordance with the Law originally given by God to Moses.  It was the glory of Israel and the envy and admiration of all who knew her.  The synagogue, however, though a much more recent and humble institution, was nevertheless an intensely religious centre for spiritual worship based on the exigencies of the Ten Commandments, God’s Law given through Moses as a covenant with Israel, to be interpreted, promoted, and purified by the inspirations  of God-sent prophets during her history of blessings, unfaithfulness,  and suffering.  The synagogue was a centre of worshipful prayer, religious instruction, mutual comfort and strength, in local communities throughout the country and indeed all over the known world where Jews had congregated.   It might be said that the sacrificial worship offered in the Temple of Jerusalem was centred on the glorification of God and satisfaction for Israel’s national and individual sin; the synagogue worship was directed more expressly to growth in the Jewish people’s understanding of and obedience to God’s will and purpose for His Chosen Peoplen.

Priests served in the prestigious Temple where hundreds of thousands, indeed millions, would come from abroad to worship at the great festivals; scribes served the quiet synagogue assemblies gathered for Sabbath prayer and religious instruction; and while robes and finery were acceptable and indeed often required for priests, they were an undeniable affectation for scribes:

Beware of the scribes, who like to go around in long robes, and accept greetings in the marketplaces, seats of honour in the synagogues, and places of honour at banquets. 

Now, for those who claim understanding and profess virtue, faults indulged and failings cherished quickly develop into more serious matters; so also in Jesus’ day, the affectations of the scribes brought along with them ostentation, envy, and competition, all of which required finance to sustain them.  Therefore, it should not surprise us that such scribes were also keen on money.  However, the criminality which provoked Jesus’ promise of very severe condemnation ultimately came when such love of money led them to take advantage of the most vulnerable in society:

They devour the houses of widows.

From then on, their religiosity became nothing more than an empty shell:

Recit(ing) lengthy prayers as a (mere) pretext.

The Gospel contrasts such scribes with the unknown widow, who, without any ostentation, puts her whole living in the collection box of the Temple:

Jesus sat down opposite the treasury and observed how the crowd put money into the treasury.   Many rich people put in large sums.  A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents.  Calling His disciples to Himself He said to them, "Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury.  For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood."

She required no respectful greetings, she sought no honours.  Unnoticed and insignificant, she treasured what the scribes tended to abuse: God’s goodness and majesty.  The money they treasured to their own ruin, she -- totally forgetful of herself -- converted into God’s own currency with which she was most lavish: amazing and unfeigned charity, love of and respect for God, meriting her eternal reward.  Jesus pointed her out as a model for admiration and imitation to His disciples; and through His Church He still puts her example before us, His present-day disciples.

As we heard in our first reading, the Lord had of old performed a great miracle for Elijah the prophet involving another wonderful woman, again unknown, and this time on the point of starving: a widow of Zarephath.  It was a miracle whereby Israel had been ultimately saved from famine, because that unknown, God-guided, widow had the humility and devotion to accord Elijah – asking for a little food and drink – respect in the name of God:

She said, "As the Lord your God lives, just now I was collecting a couple of sticks, to go in and prepare something for myself and my son; when we have eaten it, we shall die."  Elijah said to her, "First make me a little cake and bring it to me.  For the Lord, the God of Israel, says: 'The jar of flour shall not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry, until the day when the Lord sends rain upon the earth.'"  She left and did as Elijah had said.   She was able to eat for a year, and he and her son as well.   The jar of flour did not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry, as the Lord had foretold through Elijah.

How long might that famine have continued in Israel had that destitute widow not shown such respect for God’s servant?

And so, we have two humble women – one in the Old Testament reading, the other in the NT experience of Jesus.  Two women utterly prodigal in their respect, reverence, for God in the person of His prophet and in the Temple of His glory.  In both cases, however, assumed abuse of these two women provides a welcome handle for atheistic critics: How could God, either with Elijah or in Jesus allow, accept, and even praise such abuse saying:

            She, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood?

Towards an answer for such a problem, here is another, not dissimilar, story concerning Elijah (2 Kings 1:9ss.):

The king (Ahaziah, king of Samaria) sent to (Elijah) a captain of fifty with his fifty men. So he went up to Elijah on the top of a hill and he spoke to him: "Man of God, the king has said, 'Come down!'"  So Elijah answered the captain of fifty, "If I am a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men." And fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.

Exactly the same happened a second time.  Finally, we are told:

The king sent a third captain of fifty with his fifty men. When the third captain had climbed the hill, he fell to his knees before Elijah, pleading with him.  He said, "Man of God, already fire has come down from heaven, consuming the first two captains with their companies of fifty men. But now, let my life count for something in your sight!"  Then the messenger of the LORD said to Elijah, "Go down with him; you need not be afraid of him." So he arose and went down with him to the king.  

The king, Ahaziah of Samaria, was showing no respect whatsoever for the Lord’s prophet in Israel who -- after first having been blatantly ignored in favour of Baalzebub, the god of Ekron -- was now to be publicly and forcefully dragged (from his own country across the river Jordan indeed!) into the king’s presence at Samaria like some malefactor.  For this, we are told:

The king died according to the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah;

not even having been allowed to leave the bed upon which he had sought relief.

The scribes of whom Jesus spoke in our Gospel reading, delighted in the respect shown them by the faithful in Israel to such an extent that they actively sought to further it by promoting themselves.  Elijah, on the other hand, had merely accepted what he knew should, and indeed must, be accorded to a prophet sent by the God of Israel. The scribes were wrong in their attitude because they sought respectful greetings for their own persons, “I am ME, a very learned man, an expert in my knowledge of the Law.  You should respect me very much for that!   Elijah expected respect only because he was the Lord’s commissioned prophet: “I am a prophet sent by the God of Israel; have sincere respect for the Lord’s prophet; but, as for me personally, I am no better than my fathers.”

The two women in today’s readings were prodigal with themselves in their respect and reverence for God; and in the last story God, through Elijah, expressly and most emphatically asserted the need for and admiration of such respect and reverence.

Now let me quote words of Jesus uttered before (Mk. 8:34-38) our Gospel story:

Whoever wishes to come after Me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.  For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses   his life for My sake and that of the Gospel will save it.  

There Jesus expresses in words for all what He admired and allowed in particular for one specially endowed woman.  Our trouble today is that some disciples are in danger of seeking to rob the Faith of any mystery or demands above most ordinary human understanding; to apologize for whatever cannot be immediately and easily explained.  God’s words are wisdom and truth expressing divine love, we should not try to change them into milk, saccharine, and water offering immediate and earthly satisfaction. We must never forget Jesus’ further words:

Whoever is ashamed of Me and of My words in this faithless and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of when He comes in His Father’s glory with the holy angels.

This is a most important lesson for us today for the fact is that many moderns have lost any respect for holy people and things, holy offices and functions, and we Catholics and Christians are becoming too prone to appease them with attempts to explain away whatever might seem hard in the demands of God.

We, however, have been given but one prayer of Jesus as a model of all our prayer, and it begins:

            Our Father Who are in heaven, HALLOWED BE THY NAME!

Our modern atheists and critics only honour those whom they personally consider to be admirable.  At times such personally chosen ‘admirable’ people are indeed a strange lot: today, for example, many young people have no respect for the elderly, but idolise pop stars regularly doped and/or drunk, and film stars notorious for their disgraceful and degrading sexual indulgences.  There are others who cheer footballers who get millions, but they will jeer at, and abuse as fat cats, business leaders who may earn half as much and provide needy work for many people.  Also in family life today, respect for parents is too frequently considered ‘out of date’ while children are over-indulged in their status as children.  That is quite wrong.  A mother or father is due the respect of obedience and attention from their children because they are those children’s mother or father.  Obedience due to parents comes to an end with adulthood; respect for God-given parents, however, should never come to an end.  Likewise, Mother Church, the Holy Scriptures, priests and religious, sacred vessels and church buildings, all deserve obedience and/or respect in varying degrees, because they belong to God and are called to do God’s work, to serve His purposes and give glory to His name.

Although God’s love is ever warm to succour, His power ever ready to save, today we must be aware that there can be no justice among nations, no equity in society, no peace in our homes or in our hearts, when respect for God is ignored or withheld; when His institutions (e.g. marriage and the family) for human development and fulfilment, and His order for harmony in personal relations and balance in the natural world, are sacrificed on the altar of human self-exaltation ever seeking to express and impose itself, be it in exploitation abroad (typically avoiding all local and national taxation) or dabbling in social engineering at home; all being done in the service of an ever-more intense personal pride and an unrestrained desire for extreme expressions of total freedom from any so-called divine prohibitions, or restraints from the form and make-up of our human nature or of the world we live in.

However, despite all such temporal trials, disappointments, and set-backs, our Catholic aspirations and expectations, our Christian hopes and prayers, will not wilt with time, nor will they ever prove futile and false for, as our reading from the letter to the Hebrews assures us:

It is appointed that Christ, offered once to take away the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to take away sin but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await Him.