The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today resonate with three R’s; resurrection, rejection, and rapture.
Eternal Life
The reading from the First Letter of Paul to the Thessalonians offers hope for the Christian dead in the Coming of the Lord.
* [4:17] Will be caught up together: literally, snatched up, carried off; cf. 2 Cor 12:2; Rev 12:5. From the Latin verb here used, rapiemur, has come the idea of “the rapture,” when believers will be transported away from the woes of the world; this construction combines this verse with Mt 24:40–41 (see note there) // Lk 17:34–35 and passages from Revelation in a scheme of millennial dispensationalism.1
Psalm 96 offers praise to God Who Comes in Judgement.
* [Psalm 96] A hymn inviting all humanity to praise the glories of Israel’s God (Ps 96:1–3), who is the sole God (Ps 96:4–6). To the just ruler of all belongs worship (Ps 96:7–10); even inanimate creation is to offer praise (Ps 96:11–13). This Psalm has numerous verbal and thematic contacts with Is 40–55, as does Ps 98. Another version of the Psalm is 1 Chr 16:23–33.2
The Gospel of Luke details the rejection of Jesus at Nazareth.
* [4:16–30] Luke has transposed to the beginning of Jesus’ ministry an incident from his Marcan source, which situated it near the end of the Galilean ministry (Mk 6:1–6a). In doing so, Luke turns the initial admiration (Lk 4:22) and subsequent rejection of Jesus (Lk 4:28–29) into a foreshadowing of the whole future ministry of Jesus. Moreover, the rejection of Jesus in his own hometown hints at the greater rejection of him by Israel (Acts 13:46).3
Jeanne Schuler comments that a jaded mindset does not countenance possibility. Seeds surround us but all we see are empty shells. Like the petulant sounds of Nazareth, we spew objections: either everything is possible or else nothing is possible. But real possibility is the breath of faith. Without breath, the spirit dies.
The early Christians in Thessalonica pondered Paul’s words. Do not say he has died. Rather he has fallen asleep. Resurrection is a promise. We trust Jesus’ words that we will “meet the Lord in the air” and never be apart. Without the spirit, the community descends into a bilious state. Schools ask children to wear masks to keep them safe. Some parents erupt about infringements on their liberty. Where are the glad tidings? What happens to the common good? With the spirit, the oppressed go free. Here is new life. It is a dazzling promise.4
Don Schwager quotes “By reading Isaiah, Jesus shows he is God and Man,” by Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD).
"Now it was necessary that he should manifest himself to the Israelites and that the mystery of his incarnation should now shine forth to those who did not know him. Now that God the Father had anointed him to save the world, he very wisely orders this also [that his fame should now spread widely]. This favor he grants first to the people of Nazareth, because, humanly speaking, he had grown up among them. Having entered the synagogue, therefore, he takes the book to read. Having opened it, he selects a passage in the Prophets which declares the mystery concerning him. By these words he himself tells us very clearly by the voice of the prophet that he would both be made man and come to save the world. For we affirm that the Son was anointed in no other way than by having become like us according to the flesh and taking our nature. Being at once God and man, he both gives the Spirit to the creation in his divine nature and receives it from God the Father in his human nature. It is he who sanctifies the whole creation, both by shining forth from the Holy Father and by bestowing the Spirit. He himself pours forth his own Spirit on the powers above and on those who recognized his appearing. (excerpt from COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 12)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 notes that this passage gives death new meaning. It is no longer a “hard stop” to life that we should fear; it’s a gateway to a new and even better life. The happiness we will experience in heaven will far surpass any of our greatest joys here on earth. That’s why Paul’s words today aren’t gloomy—they’re uplifting!
So let Jesus lessen whatever fears you may have about death. Ask him instead to fill you with a greater sense of hope and expectation for that day when you awake to new life with him! “Jesus, thank you for opening the gates of heaven for me and my loved ones!”6
Peter Edmonds SJ, a member of the Jesuit community in Stamford Hill, uses the Acts of the Apostles and the two letters that Paul wrote to the Thessalonians to introduce us to these early Christians who ‘received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit’.
Paul’s habit was to approach pastoral problems theologically, and he does so here. He reminds his converts of his basic gospel: that ‘Jesus died and rose again’. What God had done for and with his Son, he would do for them, too. They too would share in the resurrection. This is the start of Paul’s argument. His conclusion is equally relevant: their destiny was to be with the Lord forever, and this was a truth they were to repeat for mutual comfort and encouragement. If the beginning and end of Paul’s paragraph are easy to assimilate, the same is not true of its centre, because here Paul uses the language of apocalyptic, a way of speaking familiar in his time but not in ours. This is a poetic way of speaking which is not to be taken literally, as it often is by biblical fundamentalists. If we are to meet Christ after being taken up in the clouds, it means that we will share with Christ the same sort of heavenly journey which the apostles saw Jesus take on Ascension Day (Acts 1:9). In a modern scientific age, we do not take such language at its face value, but look for the theological truth that it expresses.7
Friar Jude Winkler comments on the efforts of Paul to comfort the Thessalonians about the fate of believers who had already died before the return of Christ. Rapture is connected with texts in Paul’s letters and the Book of Revelation. Christ defeated Satan on the cross so we now live in the “millenium” before His return. Friar Jude notes the pollyanna style of Luke in his message about Christ to the Gentiles.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments that before Vatican II, the Catholic Church was still law-based, disconnected from experience, and not incarnational. It all circled around priests and their ministrations.
Suddenly, I knew that God’s love did not depend on me following all these laws and mandates or being worthy. I knew I wasn’t worthy, and yet here I was experiencing absolute grace and absolute acceptance. The whole system I’d grown up with had implied that God will love us if we change. That day I realized God’s love enables and energizes us to change. I already had that boyhood secret discovered gratuitously in front of the Christmas tree: where I felt I had been taken over to another world, which was really this world as it truly is. I’d realized, “My God, this is inside of what everybody is living, and they don’t see it!” Now once again, I somehow knew that I was good, God is good, life is good. And I didn’t have to achieve that goodness by any performance whatsoever. At that point, I was—like a good Lutheran—saved by grace. Grace was everything! In one moment, I got the Gospel! And I knew it had nothing to do with legalism, priestcraft, or punitiveness. I hadn’t studied theology yet, so I had no intellectual foundation by which to justify it, but I just knew that everything was grace. I was very free—inside—after that.8
The role of the Church in the modern world continues to include the witness of the followers of Jesus in proclaiming and enacting the grace of the year of Jubilee for everyone we encounter.
References
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