Anticipating Judgement

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to ponder the images of the Final Judgement prior to the vision of the New Heaven and the New Earth to increase our awareness of the signs on our journey of truth, love, and compassion.

Our Journey to Life

The reading from the Book of Revelation presents a vision of the “Thousand Years” before the Dead are judged and the New Heaven and the New Earth are realized.

* [20:1–6] Like the other numerical values in this book, the thousand years are not to be taken literally; they symbolize the long period of time between the chaining up of Satan (a symbol for Christ’s resurrection-victory over death and the forces of evil) and the end of the world. During this time God’s people share in the glorious reign of God that is present to them by virtue of their baptismal victory over death and sin; cf. Rom 6:1–8; Jn 5:24–25; 16:33; 1 Jn 3:14; Eph 2:1.

* [20:11–15] A description of the final judgment. After the intermediate reign of Christ, all the dead are raised and judged, thus inaugurating the new age.

(Revelation, CHAPTER 20 | USCCB, n.d.)

* [21:1–22:5] A description of God’s eternal kingdom in heaven under the symbols of a new heaven and a new earth; cf. Is 65:17–25; 66:22; Mt 19:28.

 

* [21:1] Sea,no more: because as home of the dragon it was doomed to disappear; cf. Jb 7:12.

* [21:2] New Jerusalem,bride: symbol of the church (Gal 4:26); see note on Rev 19:7 (Revelation, CHAPTER 21 | USCCB, n.d.)

Psalm 84 praises the Joy of Worship in the Temple.

* [Psalm 84] Israelites celebrated three pilgrimage feasts in Jerusalem annually. The Psalm expresses the sentiments of the pilgrims eager to enjoy the divine presence. (Psalms, PSALM 84|USCCB, n.d.)

The Gospel of Luke presents the Lesson of the Fig Tree.

x. [21:29–33] Mt 24:32–35; Mk 13:28–31.

y. [21:32] 9:27; Mt 16:28.

z. [21:33] 16:17. (Luke, CHAPTER 21| USCCB, n.d.)

Mirielle Mason brought these quotes together to say that when faced with biblical apocalypse or “unprecedented times” Christ is the hope we can cling to. This is especially pertinent as we approach Advent, where we will prepare for the birth of Jesus Christ and all the hope that He represents for the world.

This state of mind is easier on paper than it is in practice. I can tell myself to follow Christ’s example and to believe in the hope He represents. It is simple to say that I will lay my anxiety at His feet, but oh how difficult it is in practice. Every day I fight to pray and place my trust in God and His word. I know there are those who find this easy, and to them I say I am happy for their good fortune. To me, this is something I must work for every day. In closing, I would like to pray for all those who feel like Frodo in the above quote. That we may remain steadfast in the fight to lay our troubles at the feet of our Lord, and do our best each and every day to embody the hope Christ represents and let it be shown in our world. (Mason, n.d.)

Don Schwager quotes “My words will not pass away,” by an anonymous early author from the early Greek fathers.

"'This generation' refers both to those who suffer temptation and to those who cause it. It refers to sinners among men and to the demons who are at work in them. For neither group will cease being in the world until its consummation. For Christ said, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels' (Matthew 25:41). Moreover, it is necessary that the source of temptation be preserved as long as there is faith which needs testing. It is also possible, however, that 'this generation' refers to those mortal Christians who would not pass over into eternal life and be made immortal and impassible 'until' all the events about which Christ was speaking had taken place.

"'Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away' because heaven and earth were created to serve you, but my words were uttered to govern you. Both heaven and earth are subject to vanity, as the apostle said, 'Creation is subject to vanity' (Romans 8:20). Truth, however, is by nature unable to deceive and can never die." (excerpt from INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW, HOMILY 49, the Greek fathers). (Schwager, n.d.)

The Word Among Us Meditation on Revelation 20:1-4, 11–21:2 comments on why Jesus died, and why he rose. It was so the ancient powers of sin and death could be destroyed and their hold over us could be dissolved forever.

Spend time in prayer today marveling that the One who conquered death itself is with you. Marvel that he has written your name in his book of life!

“Jesus, I rejoice that by your cross and resurrection, you have raised me to new, eternal life!” (Meditation on Revelation 20:1-4, 11–21:2, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler comments on the visions of Revelation as Satan is definitely defeated after the symbolic “1000 years” after Jesus Resurrection. The understanding of “rapture” by some is contrasted with Friar Jude’s explanation. Friar Jude reminds us to be aware of the signs of our invitation to convert prior to our “End Time”.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, considers how Jesus’ parables reveal the realm of God. Fr. Richard can think of many contemporary examples of how people have risked security to share lives and seek God’s realm: prayer groups, peace and justice ministries, social agencies and shelters, communities of contemplation and action. Living in this sacred dimension may be spiritual, but it’s also very real, and it’s very attractive when we discover it. 

In the seventh parable, (Chapter 13 of Matthew’s Gospel) Jesus reiterates the idea that the realm of God has little to do with the ego-based expectations of our culture or religion (13:47–50). No church, community, or individual is perfect. We humans are always turning away from the realm of God and then undergoing a new conversion to return. To turn toward the kingdom, we must turn away from our smaller selves. To say, “Thy kingdom come,” we must say in the next breath, “My kingdom go.” [3] (Rohr, n.d.)

We reflect on the struggles that accompany our journey and take hope in the vision of the “New Heaven and the New Earth” that Christ is inviting us to celebrate.

References

Luke, CHAPTER 21| USCCB. (n.d.). USCCB Daily Bible Readings. https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/21?29 

Mason, M. (n.d.). Daily Reflection Of Creighton University's Online Ministries. Creighton University's Online Ministries. https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/112924.html 

Meditation on Revelation 20:1-4, 11–21:2. (n.d.). Word Among Us. https://wau.org/meditations/2024/11/29/1139142/ 

Psalms, PSALM 84|USCCB. (n.d.). USCCB Daily Bible Readings. https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/84?3 

Revelation, CHAPTER 20 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved November 29, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/revelation/20 

Rohr, R. (n.d.). Parables of the Kingdom of God. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved November 29, 2024, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/parables-of-the-kingdom-of-god/ 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). My Words Will Not Pass Away. Daily Scripture net. https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2024&date=nov29 

Resurrection and Rejection

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to contemplate our eternal relationship with God in Christ and ponder our understanding of full life.

Eternal Connection

In the reading from the First Letter to the Thessalonians, Paul offers hope for the Christian Dead in the Coming of the Lord. 

* [4:15] Coming of the Lord: Paul here assumes that the second coming, or parousia, will occur within his own lifetime but insists that the time or season is unknown (1 Thes 5:1–2). Nevertheless, the most important aspect of the parousia for him was the fulfillment of union with Christ. His pastoral exhortation focuses first on hope for the departed faithful, then (1 Thes 5:1–3) on the need of preparedness for those who have to achieve their goal.

* [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 Thessalonians, CHAPTER 4, n.d.)

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. (Psalms, PSALM 96, n.d.)

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).

* [4:16] According to his custom: Jesus’ practice of regularly attending synagogue is carried on by the early Christians’ practice of meeting in the temple (Acts 2:46; 3:1; 5:12).

* [4:18] The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me: see note on Lk 3:21–22. As this incident develops, Jesus is portrayed as a prophet whose ministry is compared to that of the prophets Elijah and Elisha. Prophetic anointings are known in first-century Palestinian Judaism from the Qumran literature that speaks of prophets as God’s anointed ones. To bring glad tidings to the poor: more than any other gospel writer Luke is concerned with Jesus’ attitude toward the economically and socially poor (see Lk 6:20, 24; 12:16–21; 14:12–14; 16:19–26; 19:8). At times, the poor in Luke’s gospel are associated with the downtrodden, the oppressed and afflicted, the forgotten and the neglected (Lk 4:18; 6:20–22; 7:22; 14:12–14), and it is they who accept Jesus’ message of salvation.

* [4:21] Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing: this sermon inaugurates the time of fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. Luke presents the ministry of Jesus as fulfilling Old Testament hopes and expectations (Lk 7:22); for Luke, even Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection are done in fulfillment of the scriptures (Lk 24:25–27, 44–46; Acts 3:18).

* [4:23] The things that we heard were done in Capernaum: Luke’s source for this incident reveals an awareness of an earlier ministry of Jesus in Capernaum that Luke has not yet made use of because of his transposition of this Nazareth episode to the beginning of Jesus’ Galilean ministry. It is possible that by use of the future tense you will quote me…, Jesus is being portrayed as a prophet.

* [4:25–26] The references to Elijah and Elisha serve several purposes in this episode: they emphasize Luke’s portrait of Jesus as a prophet like Elijah and Elisha; they help to explain why the initial admiration of the people turns to rejection; and they provide the scriptural justification for the future Christian mission to the Gentiles.

* [4:26] A widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon: like Naaman the Syrian in Lk 4:27, a non-Israelite becomes the object of the prophet’s ministry. (Luke, CHAPTER 4 | USCCB, n.d.)

The Daily Reflection Of Creighton University's Online Ministries by Carol Zuegner was not available at publication time.

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) (Schwager, n.d.)

The Word Among Us Meditation on 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 comments that we don’t have to wait for eternal life to start. This aspect of heaven has already begun! Our Lord has come to be with us and in us, beginning at the moment of our baptism and stretching into eternity. Instead of imagining some vague, distant, heavenly future, we can anchor our hope in our present relationship with Jesus. He has gone before us into his eternal kingdom, but he also reaches back to make sure that we are firmly connected to him for our entire journey heavenward.

What a comfort! Every day we can enjoy the presence of Jesus—and not just as a rehearsal for heaven; it’s our present reality. Of course, we can experience “always being with the Lord” in church and during our times of personal prayer. But that’s not all. We can be with him wherever we are, at every moment of every day. We can glance his way at any point to recall how much he cares about us, to seek his direction for the next task or encounter, or to share with him what we are thinking and wondering.

Because Jesus is our constant companion, we can have great confidence about our own future—and about those who have gone before us in faith.

“Jesus, the desire of my heart is to be with you, now and forever.” (Meditation on 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler discusses the need of Paul to reassure the Thessalonians about the fate of those who had died before the return of Christ. The rapture is not intended to refer to some who will go to heaven before the end time. The nature of heaven as a coexisting dimension encourages us to seek the intercession of those who have died. Friar Jude reminds us that Jesus' proclamation of a Jubilee year presents a radical way of life to His followers.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, explains several different emphases in Franciscan alternative orthodoxy: incarnation instead of redemption, cosmos instead of churchiness, poverty instead of perfection, the bottom instead of the top, the humility of God, and an emphasis on the union of humanity and divinity in Jesus instead of just his divinity.

There is such a universal disillusionment with churchiness, which is the building and maintenance of churches and services. We’ve overplayed the church card for much of the last thousand years. It’s like the messenger overtook the message. Once we divided Christianity into Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant, all of the individual churches had to prove they were the one true church. All that did was preoccupy us with the churchy conversation, while taking our eyes off the cosmos, off of what was right beneath our feet, in front of our eyes, and the very whole of which we are already a part….   

Nothing dies; it just keeps changing form. So, we have a natural foundation for what we call resurrection that isn’t a unique belief of Christianity—it is in the very shape of the cosmos. What this leads us to is a whole new partnership with what we used to negatively dismiss as “mere science.” Sadly, we split the universe when we did that. We said that our form of knowledge was the only true form and all those other knowers were ignorant unbelievers. We can’t do that anymore. We now know that truth is one, and we’re all seeing it from different angles and at different levels. Just because one group uses the vocabulary at one level, and those in our group use the vocabulary at a different level, what right do we have to say our vocabulary is the only true description of the universe? (Rohr, 2023)

We contemplate the rejection of Jesus and seek the guidance of the Spirit to renew our connection to God and our neighbours.

References

Luke, CHAPTER 4 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved September 4, 2023, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/4?16 

Meditation on 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved September 4, 2023, from https://wau.org/meditations/2023/09/04/772323/ 

1 Thessalonians, CHAPTER 4. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved September 4, 2023, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1thessalonians/4?13 

Psalms, PSALM 96. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved September 4, 2023, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/96?1 

Rohr, R. (2023, September 4). Letting Go of Churchiness. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved September 4, 2023, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/letting-go-of-churchiness-2023-09-04/ 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). No Prophet Is Acceptable in His Own Country. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved September 4, 2023, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2023&date=sep4