Month: November 2019

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Christ My Lord and King

Color picture of Jesus washing feet

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The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe Mass Readings

First Reading: 2 Samuel 5:1-3
Responsorial: Psalm 122:1-5
Second Reading: Colossians 1:12-20
Gospel: Luke 23:35-43

http://usccb.org/bible/readings/112419.cfm

Greetings on this Solemnity of Christ the King! I’m sure that many of you have heard excellent homilies today about Christ the King, perhaps tracing the history of kingship through Scripture to its manifestation in Jesus Christ, that is to say, in Jesus the anointed. So rather than attempt cover that ground again, I’d like to share with you my reflection about what the kingship of Jesus means.


But first, I’d like to admit that I have been a little bummed. I can’t specifically tell you how long I’ve felt this way, but it’s been a while. “Why,” you might ask? Well, I’ve probably spent a little too much time over the past year on social media. More recently, between politics in several countries and the fallout over the Pan Amazon Synod, I’ve been really bothered specifically by all the negative comments I’ve read.

Very often I’ve composed a response to one post or another, but of course I rarely actually post replies. I try to take a page from President Lincoln who, it is said, would write what he called a “hot letter” whenever he felt the urge to tell someone off. Once he finished emptying his anger into the letter, he would write on the bottom, “Never sent. Never signed.”, and then he’d file it away.

Now he is not the only person in history to write unsent “angry letters.” I have some examples in the notes to this podcast which you can find on the website www.deaconrudysnotes.org. <1> But I’ve got to tell you, the sheer volume of angry, accusatory and hurtful comments cast into cyberspace makes my heart hurt.

You see, it seems no one seems interested in solving problems. Everyone just seems focused on trying to win the argument. “What’s happening to Western society?” I wonder to myself. It can be all so overwhelming. Why does all of this bother me so much?

Well, when my faith teaches me that we are all created in the image and likeness of God, I believe it. I believe that Jesus is the fullness of humanity – everything God ever hoped for all of us. St. Paul tells us that Jesus is in us:
• 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Or do you not realize about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you?”
• 2 Corinthians 4:6-7, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels…”
• Romans 8:10, “But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness.”
• Galatians 1:15-16, “But when it pleased God…to reveal His Son in me.”
• Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.”


You get my drift?

This is why some of the mystics and saints go further than suggesting we should be like Jesus. They say, based on Scripture, that we are Jesus – each and every one of us. Think about that! The English mystic, Caryll Houselander describes the most incredible vision that hit her while she was traveling in the underground on a crowded train. Suddenly, she couldn’t see the people around except various form of Jesus Christ. The vision persisted when she emerged on the street and it continued for several days. In some people she found a suffering Jesus while in others a living, vibrant Jesus bursting with love and compassion. And still in others, sadly, a Jesus in the tomb of a lifeless soul. <2> Whoa!

For me, to read the overwhelmingly negative exchanges on various social media platforms, especially between supposed Christians, makes me feel…well it makes me wonder how a disciple must have felt standing in the crowd and watching helplessly as Jesus was convicted; as he carried his cross; as he was hung on the cross and as he died on the cross.

Sadly, the worst is not over yet. I suspect we will be witness to more online cruelty and intolerance as elections play out in the UK and the United States just like we’re seeing in Israel and Bolivia.

How is it that Christians can do this to one another? I think it’s because they haven’t accepted Jesus as King. You see, when we accept Jesus as King, he becomes king over every aspect of our entire lives, over our very souls. And our response to one another must first recognize Jesus in the other person and second come from a place firmly grounded in the Kingdom of God. Does that mean we can’t be patriots of our various nations? No, of course we can be patriotic, but our patriotism – our claim to our respective nations and indeed to everything in this world must come second, perhaps a distant second to our citizenship in the Kingdom of God.

If we are to live like Christ, then we need to realize that our Lord and King comes to us not on a bejeweled throne of gold, but on a wooden cross. His kingship isn’t turned inward toward power, wealth and a desire to always be right, but rather it is turned outward with love, compassion, healing, forgiveness, and non-violence. <3>

As we consider the great challenge of the Kingship of Jesus, I encourage us to use the upcoming season of Advent which is a time of preparation to begin again the business of self-evaluation and self-reflection; to reign-in our egos and to make sure that our lives are in service to Jesus Christ as we find him the people all around us.
Homework! As this liturgical season winds down, I encourage you to reflect on the following two questions:

  1. How can I be a channel of God’s service, comfort, healing and life in this world?
  2. Cool off before posting ANYTHING on ANY social media platform.

I think our homework this week might help us recognize Jesus in the people around us. Do you got it? Do you get it? Good! Now go make disciples! May Almighty God bless you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit! +Amen!

Notes:
<1> “Harry S. Truman once almost informed the treasurer of the United States that, ‘I don’t think that the financial advisor of God Himself would be able to understand what the financial position of the Government of the United States is, by reading your statement.’ In 1922, Winston Churchill nearly warned Prime Minister David Lloyd George that when it came to Iraq, ‘we are paying eight millions a year for the privilege of living on an ungrateful volcano out of which we are in no circumstances to get anything worth having.’ Mark Twain all but chastised Russians for being too passive when it came to the czar’s abuses, writing, ‘Apparently none of them can bear to think of losing the present hell entirely, they merely want the temperature cooled down a little.’ Konnikova, Maria. The Lost Art of the Unsent Angry Letter. 22 March 2014. The New York Times Opinion page accessed 22 November 2019 https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/23/opinion/sunday/the-lost-art-of-the-unsent-angry-letter.html
<2> Houselander, Caryll. A Rocking-Horse Catholic. New York: Sheed and Ward, 1955.
<3> Bishop Robert Barron “March in the Army of the True King” https://www.wordonfire.org/resources/homily/march-in-the-army-of-the-true-king/25853/

Church Teaching:
• Jesus prays on the cross, 597, 2605, 2635
• Jesus as king, 440
• The good thief 1021, 2616

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Jesus is the Temple

the words Jesus is the temple and a crucifix

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Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time Mass Readings

First Reading: Malachi 3:19-20A
Responsorial: Psalm 98:5-9
Second Reading: 2 Thessalonians 3:7-12
Gospel: Luke 21:5-19

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/111719.cfm

In today’s Gospel, Jesus says that the Temple will be destroyed. Now this is a really an important point for us to discuss. You see, “temple” is one of the central patterns of the Bible. Unfortunately, we don’t have the time in this podcast to discuss this in more detail. Suffice it to say, temple imagery flows through Scripture from the Garden of Eden as temple in Genesis, to Noah’s Ark as a temple, to the First Temple, the Second Temple and ultimately the resurrected Jesus as Temple. Indeed, in the Book of Revelation, when the new Jerusalem is described, there is no Temple in the new Jerusalem. Why? Because Jesus is the Temple.

In the first part of today’s Gospel, Jesus predicts the destruction of the Second Temple. Why does this happen? To answer that, we need to understand Israel’s role as the chose people. They are “chosen” not for their own exclusive benefit. Israel’s purpose as the chosen people is to be a magnet to unite all the peoples of the world to God. According to the Bible, throughout history, the sin of the people disrupts Israel’s calling. Each time, this leads to purification – a cleaning out which of course means the destruction of the temple and starting over. So, Jesus predicts the destruction of the Second Temple, meaning that the sin of the people has reached a tipping point. Indeed, our first reading from Malachi tells us that, “the day is coming, blazing like an oven…and the day that is coming will set them on fire,” (Malachi 3:19-20).

But then the Gospel shifts. Those listening to Jesus ask when all these things will happen. Unbeknown to them, Jesus describes signs that will happen before his second coming. Yes, many of these signs come to pass before the destruction of the Second Temple, but as we understand this Scripture today, we believe he is speaking about his second coming. He describes the persecution his disciples will face. Indeed, in Acts, Luke describes the apostles rejoicing that they suffer on account of Jesus’ name, (Acts 5:41).

Our mission as disciples is to carry on come what may. Our first task is to spread the Good News. We must be beacons of light in a dark world trying to help lead everyone to the new Temple – to Jesus Christ. Jesus, healing the wounds of Original Sin, helps orient us back to right praise and worship of the Father. It is Jesus who will reign as Lord of all the nations. Our Gospel today points us to next weekend when we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King. Our responsorial tells us that the Lord our King will at last come to rule the earth with justice.

Homework! Fed by the Word of God proclaimed, and, in the Eucharist, and in anticipation of Advent, I encourage you to reflect on the following:

  1. Think about how you’d like to receive the message about the Good News. What would be helpful for you to hear?
  2. Use the ideas you come up with and combine them with your personal story of faith. Perhaps write this out but keep it brief – maybe 1 handwritten page. When you’re finished, you now have a basic script you can use to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ. Cool, right?

Okay, do you got it? Do you get it? Good! Then go and make disciples! May Almighty God bless you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit! +Amen!

Church teaching:

  • Catechism of the Catholic Church: Christ is the true temple, 1197; the temple’s destruction a sign of the last days, 585; the Church persecuted, 675; times of the Gentiles, 58, 674.
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Resurrection of the Dead

a picture of a cemetery with several old tombstones in the foreground

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Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time Mass Readings

First Reading: 2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14
Responsorial: Psalm 17:1, 5-6, 8, 15
Second Reading: 2 Thessalonians 2:16-3:5
Gospel: Luke 20:27-38 or Luke 20:27, 34-38

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/111019.cfm

Will the dead rise? No, I’m not talking about the zombie apocalypse. I’m talking about one of the “big questions” of life and our readings today grapple with this head on. The Sadducees who were part of the Jewish priestly class did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. In fact, after the experience of the Maccabean martyrs that we heard about in our first reading from 2 Maccabees chapter 7, the belief in the resurrection of the dead was growing. <1> Indeed, this is a central Christian belief today. We profess this idea in the Creed we recite every Sunday when we say: I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. We call this the doctrine of eschatology. <2>

The Sadducees use the resurrection of the dead to try to trap Jesus. They present their question about a woman whose husband died. According to the levirate law handed to them from Moses, if the dead husband didn’t have any children before he died, then his brother should marry the woman. At the end of their question, the woman has had to marry seven times, marrying a different brother each time.

Jesus answers saying, “The children of this age marry and remarry; but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage,” (Luke 20:34-35). What does this mean?

The entire point of the levirate law, besides providing for the widow, was to help continue the line of the fatherless husband – to continue the family name. But Jesus points out that in the life to come – in the resurrection of the dead, “the worthy” cannot die. He says, “They can no longer die, for they are like angels…”, (Luke 20:36). Since they cannot die, there is no need to try to preserve the family name.

But Jesus goes on to say clarify that the Pentateuch which the Sadducees cling to demonstrates the resurrection of the dead. When the Lord presented himself to Moses, He identified himself as the God of the patriarchs, “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,” (Luke 20:37). Why would God refer to Himself this way if the patriarchs are dead and forever lost? God, Jesus points out, is, “not God of the dead, but of the living,” (Luke 20:38).

How can they be alive? The emerging Jewish teaching taught that there must be an intermediate state. <3> This teaching is affirmed by the Christian faith. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: Those who die in God’s grace and friendship and are perfectly purified live for ever with Christ. They are like God for ever, for they “see him as he is,” face to face, (no. 1023).

Homework! Having been nourished by the Word of God proclaimed and by the Eucharist, I encourage you to reflect on the following:

  1. Pray something like this: Jesus, thank you for destroying death so that I may live forever!
  2. I encourage you to remember in your daily prayers your family and friends who have passed away and all the souls in purgatory.

Do you got it? Do you get it? Good! Now go make disciples! May Almighty God bless you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit! +Amen!

Notes:
<1> The Gospel of Luke by Pablo T. Gadenz, Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, Baker Academic (2018).
<2> Himes, Michael, The Mystery of Faith: An Introduction to Catholicism (Cincinnati, OH: St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2004), 119-124.
<3> Ratzinger, Eschatology, 124, as quoted in The Gospel of Luke by Pablo T. Gadenz, Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, Baker Academic (2018). Ratzinger writes: Indeed, Josephus (Jewish War 2.163; 3.372-74; Jewish Antiquities 18.14) explains that the Pharisees believed in both an immediate life after death because of the immortality of the soul and a future resurrection of the body.

Church teaching:

  • Catechism of the Catholic Church: resurrection of the dead, 575, 993; virginity as a sign of the coming age, 1619; angels, 330.