33rd Sunday Year C, 2019

May we, through this Eucharistic celebration, obtain the graces that will enable us transform our lives so as to be worthy of God's salvation at the end time. Happy Sunday!

DOCTRINE AND FAITH

(Malachi 3,19-20a;  2 Thessalonians 3,7-12; Luke 21,5-19: 33^rd Sunday Year C, 2019)

The first reading setting, Malachi 3,19-20a, is the Day of the LORD, the time of fulfilment of all God's promises and the realisation of the destiny of the world. It is the time when justice will be realised, the scales of righteousness will be balanced, the good will be rewarded and the evil punished. Initially, Israel believed that this day would be for her a time of vindication and rejoicing. However, the prophets set them straight on this matter, insisting that Israel herself would have to face God’s righteous anger. This is the scene depicted in the first reading of this Sunday. Israel would also have to pay for her sinfulness; there would have to be just recompense. On the other hand, the Day of the LORD, will rise majestically for the upright, like the sun in the eastern sky that shines forth in righteousness. The healing of this experience of God is the total reversal of the flaming destruction in store for the wicked.

The instruction Paul gives to the Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians 3,7-12, is meant to ensure both harmony within the community and a positive reputation, recognisable to those who do not belong to the community. Paul gave his own conduct as an example for them to follow. This should not be seen as an act of arrogance or self-serving pride. Rather, he is trading on the conviction that the values of Christian commitment are not taught only by word of mouth. They are also manifested through the witness of the lives of those who believe. Paul is saying that he has been faithful to the message he has been teaching and that the Thessalonians can learn from what he does as well as from what he says. There are implications to this for their lives as well. Just as he can serve as an example to them, they should be able to serve as examples to others. This is a very important way for the gospel to be taught to the world. It is also a measure of the authenticity of the word of the preacher. There are three lessons that Paul seeks to teach. First, he has not acted in a disorderly fashion as his behaviour has been above reproach. Second, he has not presumed upon the hospitality of others. This is an important point, because it was common for travellers to rely on the hospitality of those through whose villages and cities they passed. Paul's third lesson is found in his manner of living among the Thessalonians. He reminds his hearers that he worked long and hard so he would not be a financial burden to them. This suggests that besides the time and energy expended in preaching the gospel, he had other employment that enabled him to cover his own expenses while in their midst. He further reminds them that he, really, had a right to their support during the time he was ministering to them. However, he had waived this right for the sake of the reputation of the gospel itself. He did not want to give anyone the impression that ministers of the gospel are burden to the community. This leads him to condemn those, within the community, who have acted as busybodies rather than being actually busy. Paul counsels harsh treatment of such people. If they are unwilling to discipline themselves, then it is the responsibility of the community to discipline them. The community is told to withhold food from them. The community should no longer allow them to live off its generosity, because that generosity is then misplaced. Paul insists that if people want to eat, they must work like everyone else. Paul has offered himself as an example of this.

In the gospel reading, Luke 21,5-19, the admiration for the Temple expressed by some bystanders prompted Jesus to predict the destruction of that magnificent edifice. This Temple was, certainly, something in which the Jewish people could take great pride. This reading does not address the destruction of the Temple itself but, rather, the events that will precede it, signs that should alert the people to the impending doom. We must remember that a sign, whatever it is, points to a deeper reality, a reality that may not always be easily recognised or understood. For this reason it is often necessary to have an interpreter of the signs. Before Jesus identifies the signs, he warns his listeners against those who might appear claiming they have come in Jesus' name to interpret the meaning of the events that are transpiring. They might even proclaim, I am [ego eimi] he! Or The time (kairos) has come! {Kairos is an Ancient Greek word meaning the right, critical, or opportune moment.[1] The ancient Greeks had two words for time: chronos and kairos. The former refers to chronological or sequential time, while the latter signifies a proper or opportune time for action. While chronos is quantitative, kairos has a qualitative, permanent nature}. Jesus exhorts those around him not to follow these people. The signs themselves are demonstrations of upheaval. They include political unrest and violence as well as disturbances in the natural world, all experience people of the time believed would precede the end of the age. Once again Jesus warns his hearers. The end is not yet here. Something even more personal will transpire first. These long-expected signs portend the persecution Jesus’ followers will have to endure at the hands of the government, their friends, acquaintances, and even the members of their own families. The point is not that they will suffer-under such calamity all people will suffer. The point is that they will suffer because of the name of Jesus. In fact, the persecution (even death) they will be called upon to endure will itself be a witness to that name. It will be a testimony that fidelity to one's commitment to Jesus is a greater good than life itself. Faithful to the end, even if they are put to death they will be saved. While Jesus may be talking about the events that will precede the actual destruction of the glorious Temple and the beloved city within which it stood there are elements in his discourses that suggest eschatological dimensions of his teaching. We have to bear in mind that signs are often understood as pointing beyond this world to the next. We must also remember that Jesus is describing these horrors at a time when the Temple stood in all its glory. Only he knew what would transpire in the future, and he was preparing his followers for that future.

This Sunday we focus on the complex eschatological meaning of end-time. It has already dawned through the death and resurrection of Jesus, but it has not yet unfolded completely. There is an already-but-not-yet dimension of the end ­time. We believe we are living in the end-time, but are we at the beginning of it? In the middle? Or at its end? Some millenarians (millenarianism is the doctrine of or belief in a future (and typically imminent) thousand-year age of blessedness, beginning with or culminating in the Second Coming of Christ. It is central to the teaching of groups such as Adventists, Mormons, and Jehovah's Witnesses) insist we are at the end, and the manner of life they preach reflects this belief. All we have are only hints about the character of the Day of the LORD, the role God will play at this time, and our manner of living as we await the unfolding of the end-time. The Day of the LORD was believed to be the time when God would come in majesty and power to set all things right. The good would then be rewarded and the evil would be punished. In order to set things right, the distorted order of sin and unrighteousness that held sway would have to be overturned. This explains the disruption and turmoil that is always described as preceding the day of final fulfilment. Malachi describes it as a blazing fire that will consume whatever opposes the will of God. Jesus describes this disruption in greater detail. As he envisions it, both human society and the world of nature will, first, have to endure the upheaval so that they can then be transformed in the age to come. We must remember that these descriptions are metaphoric or symbolic in nature. As with all metaphors or symbols, we miss something of their profound meaning if we merely understand them literally. Belief in the Day of the LORD is a way of testifying to our faith in the righteousness of God. Although, the narrative readings for today concentrate on the disruptions that will accompany the coming of God, they also contain hints of the salvation that will finally arrive. Malachi speaks of the sun of justice that comes with healing rays; Luke promises that the faithful disciples will escape without a hair of their heads being destroyed. Just as the descriptions of the upheavals should not be understood literally, neither should these descriptions. It may be that the faithful followers of Jesus will suffer terrible agonies. The point here is that even in the midst of their pain, they will be protected. Just as the reason for the disruption is the offended righteousness of God, so the ground of their hope of protection is the same righteousness of God. 

The healing rays of justice and the rescue of the lives of the upright are references to salvation. God does not come at the end to condemn but to save. Furthermore, the suffering that precedes the end is intended for purification and refinement, not punishment. Christians are exhorted in this end time to upright living, that is to say, to live in this end-time with patient endurance of difficulties. They are instructed to carry their fair share of the work of the community lest they become a burden to others within the community or to the community as a whole. They must work diligently and conscientiously, awaiting the final coming of Christ without ever knowing precisely when that will be. Since both human society and the natural world will pass through the crucible of refinement, both human society and the natural world will be transformed. As the readings of last Sunday pointed out, Christians can enable this time of transformation to dawn by living transformed lives now. The suffering they will endure as a result of this way of living will act as the purifying fire that precedes fulfilment, if they persevere in this, they will secure their lives. May we, therefore, obtain in the Eucharistic celebration of today the graces that will enable us live transformed lives so as to be worthy of God’s salvation at the end time, Amen! 

+John I. Okoye

(graphics by chukwubike)

ReplyForward