The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite contemplation of our role as prophets who live in the joy of sharing the Word and the pain of witness to rejection of love.
Truth and rejection
The reading from the Book of Revelation is the vision of consuming a bittersweet scroll.
* [10:9–10] The small scroll was sweet because it predicted the final victory of God’s people; it was sour because it also announced their sufferings. Cf. Ez 3:1–3.1
Psalm 119 praises the glories of God’s Law.
* [Psalm 119] This Psalm, the longest by far in the Psalter, praises God for giving such splendid laws and instruction for people to live by. The author glorifies and thanks God for the Torah, prays for protection from sinners enraged by others’ fidelity to the law, laments the cost of obedience, delights in the law’s consolations, begs for wisdom to understand the precepts, and asks for the rewards of keeping them.2
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus cleanses the Temple.
* [19:45–46] Immediately upon entering the holy city, Jesus in a display of his authority enters the temple (see Mal 3:1–3) and lays claim to it after cleansing it that it might become a proper place for his teaching ministry in Jerusalem (Lk 19:47; 20:1; 21:37; 22:53). See Mt 21:12–17; Mk 11:15–19; Jn 2:13–17 and the notes there.3
Mark Latta comments about receiving God's Word for life-nourishment that is needed and essential for us to survive and thrive. It is for sustenance and maximizing joy.
Why are they bitter? God's ways go deep within us, changing us from the inside out. His teachings encourage and even exhort us to move from our ways to His Way. The Gospel reading reinforces another facet of John’s experience. Without realizing it, we frequently clutter up our internal space with less important interests and even sinful predispositions and Jesus has to try and drive them out. It’s a great gift to communicate with the Lord and to try and cooperate with him in making space for what really matters in our life.4
Don Schwager quotes “The home of sanctity,” by Saint Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.
"God does not want his temple to be a trader's lodge but the home of sanctity. He does not preserve the practice of the priestly ministry by the dishonest duty of religion but by voluntary obedience. Consider what the Lord's actions impose on you as an example of living... He taught in general that worldly transactions must be absent from the temple, but he drove out the money changers in particular. Who are the money changers, if not those who seek profit from the Lord's money and cannot distinguish between good and evil? Holy Scripture is the Lord's money." (excerpt from EXPOSITION OF THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 9.17-18)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on Revelation 10:8-11 comments that perhaps we have heard a message from the Lord. It can be stirring, even exciting, at the time. But the reality of living out that “word” can be bitter or “sour” in our stomach.
Most of us will hear the Lord on the subject of smaller things: forgiving someone, having a sensitive conversation with one of your children, or encouraging a friend or coworker with a verse from Scripture. To be given a word for someone else, to be given a direction by the Lord, is exhilarating! Right up until you actually have to act. Then you might find yourself with that nervous, sour stomach. But take heart! Remember that God loves you and entrusts you with his word, whether it is a message for someone else or some guidance for your own life. Take time as well! The Lord is patient and understanding. He knows you might need a while to digest what he says. Finally, take courage! Your Father promises, “[I] . . . will never fail you or forsake you. So do not fear or be dismayed” (Deuteronomy 31:8). “Lord, thank you for the sweet words you speak to me. I trust you to help me through whatever might follow.”6
Friar Jude Winkler connects the sweetness and sour of our prophetic action to the experience of Ezekiel. Necessary purchase for worship had become a marketplace system for profit in the Temple. Friar Jude reminds us of the role of the prophet to tell the truth in spite of consequences.
Brian McLaren views the “Kingdom of God” as synonymous with the Gospel itself.
The term kingdom of God, which is at the heart and center of Jesus’ message in word and deed, becomes positively incandescent in this kind of framing. As a member of a little colonized nation with a framing story that refuses to be tamed by the Roman imperial narrative, Jesus bursts on the scene with this scandalous message: The time has come! Rethink everything! A radically new kind of empire is available—the empire of God has arrived! . . . Open your minds and hearts like children to see things freshly in this new way, follow me and my words, and enter this new way of living. At every point, the essence of his kingdom teaching subverts the “common sense” of the Roman Empire and all its predecessors and successors.7
Mc Laren summarizes a few actions in western civilization that we don’t find in the “Kingdom of God”. The Spirit acting in the Word calls us to our Baptismal role as a prophet who lives sweet love and bitter rejection in our journey with Christ.
References
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