With these readings, the liturgical year comes to a close. The themes during these weeks appropriately center on the many aspects of "the end time," God's reign, the inbreaking of the kingdom. This was the central aspect of Jesus' mission, even before he himself came on the scene: "In those days John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea and saying, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!'" (Matthew 3:1-2). For the person of faith, this promise stands at the very core of life and action. We pray constantly "thy kingdom come" and act "as if" that peaceable reign were increasingly actualized within, among, and around us. Hope tells us that it is.
November 1: Signs of Hope
Haggai 2:1-9; 2 Thessalonians 1:5-12; Luke 19:1-10
Our modern understanding of the world as an interdependent global village makes it imperative to read the Zacchaeus story in structural terms. The little rich man in the sycamore tree, to whose house Jesus invites himself, is every well-to-do person and nation that, like Zacchaeus, has sometimes done injustices to attain status. One sign of God's reign appears when their questionable privileges are given back to those whom they have cheated: "If I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over." What a difference it would make in this world if rich governments and banks were to apply this Zacchaeus principle--for example, to Third World debt and debt service.
The first reading from Haggai provides a further challenge with regard to the promise. At a chaotic postexilic moment in the life of Israel--when Jerusalem is in ruins, the Promised Land consists of some 20 square miles, crops fail, poverty is rampant, and debtors are sold into slavery by fellow Israelites--a word of hope comes from God. "Greater will be the future glory of this house than the former, says the Lord of hosts; And in this place I will give you peace, says the Lord of hosts" (Haggai 2:9).
Finally, Paul assures the faithful portion of a suffering and confused Thessalonian community: It is "the Kingdom of God for which you are suffering" (2 Thessalonians 1:5).
November 8: Totally Transformed
Zechariah 7:1-10; 2 Thessalonians 2:13-3:5; Luke 20:27-38
Certain historical events carry such consequences that humanity is never the same afterward. The discovery and development of nuclear energy with its awful capacity for destruction was such an event; the Resurrection is another. Jesus highlights the totally transformative nature of resurrected human life in Luke's gospel today.
A group of religious leaders who deny resurrection ask him a wildly speculative question. Jesus replies by opening to them the vision of a transcendent human condition that could not have been imagined before. "Those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. They can no longer die for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise" (Luke 20:35-36). Some have taken Jesus' words as a repudiation of marriage. Far from that, they point to the coming of God's kingdom, that final state where God is all in all.
On a much more worldly, though no less religious plane, a prophet in Israel, this time Zechariah, once again holds kingdom values high above those of ritual. Confused returnees from the cataclysmic experience of Israel's exile from the land and the Temple ask if they must continue their 70-year practice of periodic fasting in reparation for the destruction of that sacred place of worship. In answer the prophet speaks for God: "Render true judgment, and show kindness and compassion toward each other. Do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the alien or the poor; do not plot evil against one another" (Zechariah 7:9-10). Tragically, the people refused to listen.
Finally, Paul links the vision of resurrected life and the need to remain faithful as he admonishes his community at Thessalonica: "God has called you through our gospel to possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught..." (2 Thessalonians 2:14-15).
November 15: Work and Wait
Malachi 4:1-6; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13; Luke 21:5-19
Paul is often criticized for placing himself in front of his writings, offering himself as the model, an example for others to follow. In virtually every line of his letters, the apostle writes in the first person, a style that jars us. In today's passage, however, this technique strikes the reader as acceptable, even necessary. The apostle reminds the community that he did not burden them financially while he was with them, choosing rather to earn his own livelihood "in toil and drudgery, night and day."
Paul goes on to use that example as a lesson to those in the community who would sit around idly waiting for the Second Coming: "If anyone is unwilling to work, neither should that one eat." He pushes the lesson still further, advising the community to refrain from associating with those who refuse to work.
The lesson has serious implications for Christian communities today. There come times when a member is deemed incorrigible, out of the pale, incapable--at least for the moment--of reform, be the problem laziness, or any attitude which violates the common good. The community has the right, indeed the duty, to separate that member from its number, hard as that may be and un-Christian as it may appear. The Friends (Quakers) have a precise word for this kind of ultimate warning. They call it "shunning."
In the gospel today, Luke continues the theme of the promise of God's reign, citing the many evils that will surely befall those who guide their lives by that covenant. No matter the severity of the test or the harshness of the persecution; no matter who is doing the wrong to us, including "parents, brothers, relatives, friends"; even should death itself ensue, Jesus assures us "by your perseverance you will secure your lives" (Luke 21:16,19).
So many followers of Jesus are living in belief of the promise today, in places such as South Africa, Peru, Haiti, and America's inner cities.
November 22: A Subversive Glory
2 Samuel 5:1-5; Colossians 1:11-20; John 12:9-19
The last Sunday of the liturgical year offers a culminating reflection on the primacy of Christ in this world and the next. Indeed, in the Roman Catholic tradition this day is called "Christ the King Sunday." Many theological insights are wrapped in these scriptures, even in the light of modern discomfort with the notion of king and kingship.
The passage from 2 Samuel recalls David's anointing as sovereign over both kingdoms of Israel, thus unifying them in his person. This prefigures Christ's anointing by God as priest, prophet, and king--the One who will unify all the nations and tribes of the world.
In one of his amazing Christocentric flights of inspiration, Paul strikes the central chord of the day. Christ is the "image of the invisible God" and the "firstborn of all creation." In him "were created all things in heaven and on earth." He is the "head of the body," the "firstborn from the dead." In him "all the fullness was pleased to dwell" and through him God "should reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in the heavens, making peace through the blood of his cross" (Colossians 1:15-20).
All of this, nevertheless, has its roots in the incarnation, in the historical events of Jesus' life. John's gospel tells of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, as he is acclaimed by the crowds as their leader. He would be such a leader, but as events would show and as Paul would verify, that leadership came "through the blood of the cross" only five days later.
Christ's pre-eminence in the one history of salvation is manifested in many ways: his total humanness; his deep awareness of the time and place in which he lived; his revolutionary teaching from within the Jewish tradition; his inexorable movement toward Jerusalem and Calvary; his acceptance of suffering and death as the means of overcoming all human oppression; his rise from the dead as the hope of humanity; his return in glory to God to await his final coming when the reign of the Almighty breaks in on human history.
We are part of Christ's body, the church. Our sharing in his vocation is stated in a little-read line from 2 Peter: "What sort of persons ought you to be, conducting yourselves in holiness and devotion, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God?" (2 Peter 3:11-12).
Joe Nangle, OFM, was outreach director of Sojourners when this article appeared.
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