The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to contemplate the tension which we encounter when our way of living and acting toward others is rejected.
Endurance in conflict
The reading from the Book of Revelation is a vision of the Angels with the Seven Last Plagues.
* [15:2] Mingled with fire: fire symbolizes the sanctity involved in facing God, reflected in the trials that have prepared the victorious Christians or in God’s wrath.1
Psalm 98 is praise for the Judge of the World.
* [Psalm 98] A hymn, similar to Ps 96, extolling God for Israel’s victory (Ps 98:1–3). All nations (Ps 98:4–6) and even inanimate nature (Ps 98:7–8) are summoned to welcome God’s coming to rule over the world (Ps 98:9).2
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus describes the coming persecution and how by our endurance we will gain your souls.
* [21:12] Before all this happens…: to Luke and his community, some of the signs of the end just described (Lk 21:10–11) still lie in the future. Now in dealing with the persecution of the disciples (Lk 21:12–19) and the destruction of Jerusalem (Lk 21:20–24) Luke is pointing to eschatological signs that have already been fulfilled.3
Carol Zuegner reflects that we are often told by the world to look out for No. 1, to think only of ourselves, that being selfish is seen as an attribute, not a failing. Jesus knows what we face. By becoming human, living and then dying at the hands of those who rose up against him, Jesus offers us more. In today’s Gospel from Luke, Jesus tells us to persevere. He will provide wisdom and make sure we are safe.
Sadly, it seems this isn’t one battle, one fight. We will be tested again and again and often we will do the opposite of what society seems to tell us in streams of social media and words spilling out of TV screens. Care for your neighbor and for the world, now and in the future. Do the right thing especially when no one can see. Plant seeds of respect and trust. Stand up for what is those whose voices aren’t often heard over the clamor. Find God in all things.4
Don Schwager quotes “The faithful Christian is recognized by belief in the resurrection of the body,” by Saint Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.
"We should have no doubt that our mortal flesh also will rise again at the end of the world... This is the Christian faith. This is the Catholic faith. This is the apostolic faith. Believe Christ when he says, 'Not a hair of your head shall perish' Putting aside all unbelief, consider how valuable you are. How can our Redeemer despise any person when he cannot despise a hair of that person's head? How are we going to doubt that he intends to give eternal life to our soul and body? He took on a soul and body in which to die for us, which he laid down for us when he died and which he took up again that we might not fear death." (excerpt from Sermon 214.11-12)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on Revelation 15:1-4 comments that Revelation unwraps the mystery of Christ and draws back the curtain to reveal Jesus in new ways. In every chapter it uses distinctive names to describe different facets of Jesus’ calling and his attributes. Today, for instance, we read about Jesus as a lamb.
In fact, you sing it at every Mass: Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world. It’s so important, in fact, that you sing it three times! And by doing so, you sing of what Jesus has already done, what he is doing right now, and what he will do when he returns. You sing this song in faith, but one day you will sing it in nothing but pure joy. “Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world. Grant us peace.”6
Friar Jude Winkler connects the sea of glass with the triumphed martyrs to a feature of the palace of Solomon. In persecution, our ultimate hope is Christ. Friar Jude recalls the message of Revelation that they may kill us but will never harm us because Christ is with us.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments that we see in politics in the United States, most people only know how to love people who are like themselves with regard to their race, their nationality, their religion, or their political party. Thomas Merton especially warned about the phenomenon we know in our day as “Christian nationalism.”
The great question then is one of clarification. We can no longer afford to equate faith with the acceptance of myths about our nation, our society, or our technology; to equate hope with a naive confidence in our image of ourselves as the good guys against whom all the villains in the world are leagued in conspiracy; to equate love with a mindlessly compliant togetherness, a dimly lived and semi-radiant compulsiveness in work and play, invested by commercial artists with an aura of spurious joy. [1]7
When we reflect on rejection and persecution, we need to heed the warning of Thomas Merton about our possible narrow “Christian nationalism.”
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