Wednesday, November 29, 2023

Wednesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

(Daniel 5:1-6.13-14.16-17.23-28; Luke 21:12-19)

In today’s gospel Jesus warns his followers that some of them will be put to death before he comes again.  Short of that, they will be betrayed and persecuted.  Yet, he says, they are not to lose courage or give up.  He promises to assist them in their trials.

Jesus’ prediction has proved true until the present day.  Christians in different parts of the world are being harassed, injured, robbed, and even killed. Numbers are disputed.  Some say as many as 100,000 a year.  In any case persecutions are distressingly many.

As most of us live in areas without systematic persecution, we tend to think that Christians everywhere live in peace.  After all, Christ taught us to love, not to hate our neighbors.  However, whether it be from others’ religious zealotry or in reaction to our failure to follow Christ, Christians are suffering violence today.  Our response must not be to prepare ourselves for battle.  Rather, as much as possible, we are to give testimony to Jesus’ own long-suffering, peace, and love.

Tuesday, November 28, 2023

Tuesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

(Daniel 2:31-45; Luke 21:5-11)

Scholars claim that Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream is not entirely accurate.  Although there has been disagreement in the past about which empires the different parts of the statue’s body represent, today experts are convinced that the golden head is the empire of the Assyrian-Babylonians; the silver upper body, that of the Medes; the bronze lower body, the Persian Empire; and the iron and tile feet, Alexander’s Greek domain.  The historical mistake in Daniel’s interpretation is that the Persians, not the Medes, conquered Babylon.

Most likely the writer of the Book of the Prophet Daniel was using the popular Jewish understanding of events when he wrote in the second century before Christ.  Obviously, this writer was not the prophet who lived in the time of Nebuchadnezzar, four centuries earlier.  Rather he was an interpreter of history seeing the great empires leading up to the recreation of Israel’s monarchy.  This was “the stone hewn from the mountain...which broke in pieces the tile, iron, bronze, silver, and gold.”

Christians have taken Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream as realized in Jesus.  He inaugurated another kind of kingdom that, we believe, will be eternal.  It is a kingdom unlike all others because it does not claim rule over land nor does it tax people’s pocketbooks.  Rather, it moves us interiorly to love God above all and our neighbors as ourselves. 

 

Monday, November 27, 2023

Monday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

(Daniel 1:1-6.8-20; Luke 21:1-4)

The Book of the Prophet Daniel is an anomaly.  It was not written during the time of the kingdom or during the century following the restoration of Jerusalem.  Rather it comes from the second century before Christ after Alexander the Great conquered Palestine and left for one of his generals its rule.  Also, it is not so much a book of prophecies as it is a narrative about a young man named Daniel with the gift of prophecy.

The Greeks tried to force the Jews to change their religious practices.  The writer of Daniel described his main character as a young man who refused to compromise his religious tradition. Daniel and his companions would not eat from the pagan’s table.  Their diet, which sounds healthy by today’s standards, included only vegetables, no meat, and water, no wine.   Their resistance showed the people of Israel four hundred years later that fulfilling the Lord’s commands brings health to both body and soul.  In this way they encouraged rejection of the Greek overlords.

We must do the same.  In many ways our society has largely given itself back to paganism.  Young couples commonly choosing to live together exemplifies this trend.  We must be careful not to show approval of this kind of behavior.  We should further practice modesty in our dress and choice of entertainment. 

Sunday, November 26, 2023

Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

(Ezekiel 34:11-12.15-17; I Corinthians 15:20-26.28; Matthew 25:31-46)

The prophet Ezekiel draws our attention for several reasons. He uses exotic images like the dry bones that form a new people. Also, Ezekiel's prophecies are almost always narratives of his personal relations with God. Furthermore, Ezekiel speaks of the new Temple in Jerusalem as the focus of the encounter with God. Finally, Ezekiel reveals that God will not judge nations but individuals according to their deeds. This last thing is the message of the first reading today.

Ezekiel speaks of the personal care that God provides for his sheep. He says that God will seek out the lost and bind up the wounded. More to the point of the gospel, he emphasizes that God will judge his sheep, one by one. He will not reward or punish the whole nation for the sum of their deeds.  Rather, as a judge in court judges one for one’s personal crimes, God will judge each man and woman according to his and her own acts.

In the gospel Jesus indicates that at the end of time this prophecy of Ezekiel will be fulfilled. He himself will come as the shepherd-king. As king, one of his duties will be to act as the final arbiter in the affairs of his subjects. Therefore, he will judge everyone in his kingdom which now includes the entire world. He will use our good works as individuals as the criterion of his judgment. If you have continually fed the hungry and given drink to the thirsty, if you have welcomed strangers and clothed the naked, and if you have visited the sick and the imprisoned, you will be rewarded with a place in the Kingdom. But if you have ignored those in these and other precarious situations, you will be thrown into hell.

In his coming Jesus will not only fulfill the prophecy of Ezekiel but also the parables that we have heard the last two Sundays. We remember how only the young women who kept their lamps lit signifying their good works participated in the Lord's wedding. Also last Sunday Jesus spoke about the servants who used their talents for the good of the Kingdom as entering into the joy of the Lord.

We should be relieved that Jesus is not going to judge everyone globally because our generation would likely be judged among the most depraved. An example of the depravity that exists today is our profanation of the Incarnation of the Lord. During the Christmas season, many do not share the peace and joy of having the Savior of the world in our midst. Rather they make it a time of greed and overindulgence. “Black Friday” fully indicates the corruption. On this day people mostly think about new acquisitions for their own homes. May we rather show good to all with our mind’s eye fixed on the baby born in the stable and adored by the shepherds.

With this passage about the final judgment we finish our reading of the Gospel according to Matthew on Sundays. We have learned how Jesus is the Son of God, who has come to save all men and women from sin. We have also seen how he founded his Church to be a righteous and egalitarian community with Peter as its principal mainstay and the apostles and their successors as its leaders. Finally we have heard his command for us to go throughout the world as the light of his truth and his love.

Friday, November 24, 2023

Memorial of Saint Andrew Dung-Lac and Companions, martyrs

 (I Maccabees 4:36-37.52-59; Luke 19:45-48)

Today Vietnamese Catholics celebrate their heroes.  St. Andrew Dung-Lac and companion martyrs gave up their lives rather than their Catholic faith.  These “ultimate sacrifices” have made it possible for their descendants to look forward to eternal life.  The celebration is like that described in the mass’s first reading.

The passage tells of how the Jews burnt offerings and sang hymns of praise for eight days.  They were celebrating the rededication of the Temple that had been desecrated by their pagan rulers.  Many valiant Jews died in the hostilities that liberated the land from foreign hands.  In his day Jesus too celebrated the feast, which is commonly known as Hanukkah.

More important is Jesus’ great sensibility for the Temple.  As the meeting place of God and humanity, he chases the money changers from its confines.  Later his followers will note how Jesus replaces the Temple with his own body.  His flesh becomes the principal place of encounter between God and human beings.  Nevertheless, because we Christians still need places to pray, we construct churches.  But our churches do not replace Jesus; they glorify him.