The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today present
the struggle which exists for believers to continue to be walking in the truth.
Friar Jude Winkler comments that the second Letter of John is advice to members
of a believing community to continue to love as Jesus in the face of teaching
from Gnostic group known as the Docitists, who did not accept that Jesus
(human) was also the Christ (Divine). The Gnostic sense of the corruption of
the created world is an easy argument for their point of view. Friar Jude
defines the anti-Christ as those who are opposed to the truth of the Divine
nature of Jesus. The personification of the anti-Christ as a creature of the
apocalyptic battles is not a Roman Catholic approach. The yearning for the
relationship with God in the Word of the Lord and in the wisdom of His
commandments expressed by the psalmist is an expression of ongoing love of God
with the sacred understanding that certainty in the understanding of humans
about the domain and plans of the Divine is not given to mortals. The text from
the Gospel of Luke also looks to the time when the Jesus returns. The message
of Luke advises to prepare for this time. Our meeting with the Lord will come
as a surprise to most of us. The concept of the “rapture” which is sometimes
linked to the text today is not the interpretation of Roman Catholic theology
of the glorious triumph of Jesus in the celebration of the end times.
Friday, November 16, 2012
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