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Dear
Preachers:
During Advent we are posting reflections on our
webpage drawn from the daily Mass Scriptures. They are written by friars,
sisters and laity of the Dominican Family.
For these daily and enriching Advent meditations go to:
https://PreacherExchange.com/
And click on the ADVENT link button on the upper
left.
In difficult times God
can seem distant and perhaps impotent. Going through serious trials some people
ask, “Where is God? Why doesn’t God help me?” They might even say, “Can God help
me?”
At these times some people need assurance and even a sign that God is not far
away and preoccupied. During testing times people find solace and hope in
apocalyptical literature. That’s what we have today. Our readings from Daniel
and Mark contain apocalyptical language and are reminders that the Bible is more
like a library of diverse books than one uniform piece of literature. The
prophet Daniel is an apocalyptical book; the reading from Mark has Jesus
speaking in apocalyptic images.
Today is the 2nd from the last Sunday in this liturgical year, our readings have
turned apocalyptical with a focus on the end times. Such writings are usually
stirred up when a people are in distress, especially from persecution. When the
present is bad for God’s people they will look to the future, hoping God will
someday rescue them. For them, apocalyptical texts speak to their current need
for assurance.
Apocalyptical language can sound weird to the modern reader. It is symbolic
language that speaks of dreams and visions. The people for whom it was written
understood the texts were referring to real events, and were offering hope to
those who needed it. Some modern biblical readers take the images literally. The
people for whom they originally were meant did not. When I turn on the
television I can quickly distinguish between the news and the weather report.
The people to whom the apocalyptical texts were directed knew what they were
reading.
The imagery in Daniel today will appear later in the Book of Revelation. Daniel
wrote during the 2nd century BCE. The Israelites were afflicted with terrible
persecution by the Syrians. They must have wondered, as we sometimes do when we
are suffering: Where was God?; Why wasn’t God coming out to help them? Because
the present was so bad the Book of Daniel directs the believers to the future
when God’s angel Michael will come to free them from their afflictions. Things
might go from bad to worse, but they were to sustain their hope because, Daniel
prophesies, God will free them. Their suffering is not the end of the story, God
will come with a final judgment. This reading contains the earliest statement in
the Scriptures of the resurrection of the dead, “Many of those who sleep in the
dust of the earth shall awake.”
This must have been an extraordinary piece of good news to the people in such
misery. Despite appearances the Israelites were called to have faith in God’s
saving power. The question for us is: “Can we do the same?” Daniel promises the
dead shall rise and live forever and those who live justly will live in eternity
and “shine brightly.” Who are the “shining stars” of our faith? Who have
instilled hope in us? For them we give thanks at this Eucharist.
Isn’t the gospel reading scary? Jesus is near the end of his public ministry. In
the next verses Mark will reveal the priests’ and scribes’ plan to arrest and
kill him (14:1 ff). Jesus’ description of the end times contains language that
sends chills up the spines of his disciples. He predicts there will be wars,
false prophets, natural disasters, persecutions and betrayals. (It sounds a lot
like what’s happening in our modern world!) We are tempted to skip today’s
passage and turn the page in search of more consolation from the Scriptures.
Jesus warns that “the sun will be darkened.” Their accustomed world, with its
signs of God’s favor, the temple and the city of Jerusalem, will be torn down.
How terrifying and disorienting it will be for them! Their “lights”will be
extinguished and they will not be able to see the familiar and reassuring. How
could they find their way? Which direction should they turn?
But it sounds so contradictory. When it seems nothing could be worse, Jesus
tells them “THEN” a significant change will happen in their lives; they will
behold the appearance of “the Son of Man” coming to them. The disciples must
have been confused by what Jesus was telling them. They had been following
Jesus, hoping for a fulfillment of a “prosperity gospel.” They were Jesus’
followers and surely only good would come their way. After all, they had pinned
their hopes on Jesus because he had proved his powers by his miracles and
forceful preaching. Surely he would not fail them and his opposition triumph!
Jesus echoes their faith and hope speaking to them in apocalyptical language. He
was preparing them for a terrible disappointment. But that would not be the end
of the story. Amid the collapse Jesus is asking them to trust and have hope in
him, even when their world turns dark.
As threatening as today’s gospel is, with all its vivid and stressful imagery of
pain and despair, in the end it is not a gospel of doom. It certainly includes
the harsh realities of life. As I write this in mid-October the leader of Hamas
has been killed by the Israelis, along with 40,000 Palestinian civilians. We
wonder, “What’s next?” Last week was the anniversary of the slaughter of the
Israeli civilians; the war in Ukraine grinds on; Sudan is starving, the West in
our country and parts of South America are suffering another drought and several
more men had been executed here in our country. I will run out of ink before I
can finish a list of the world’s present distress. And I have not even mentioned
the agony of people I know who are suffering severe illnesses and family
tragedies.
Amid his dire predictions, Jesus tells his followers to look well at the small
buds about to blossom, harbingers of summertime. Distress is not the final word
of the story. He speaks to us: look more closely. What signs of hope do we see
that lift our spirits, ever so slightly, with hope. Hang on to them, they are
reminders that God has not left us on our own, and are assurances Christ is
coming with new life for us.
Jesus is advising us: Keep going – God is coming and will sustain us in our
times of transitions. Next week is the feast of “Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of
the Universe.” Today’s gospel seems to be preparing us for a time of sobriety,
vision and hope – Advent.
Click here for a
link to this Sunday’s readings:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/111724.cfm
QUOTABLE
(from Letters to a young
Poet)
. . .
.be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the
questions themselves like the locked rooms and like books that are written in a
very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you
because you would not be able to live them. Live the questions now. Perhaps you
will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the
answer.
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 –
1926) was a Bohemian-Austrian poet and art critic. He is
considered one of the most significant poets in the German language
JUSTICE BULLETIN BOARD
And those
who lead the many to justice shall be like the stars forever.
Daniel 12:3
Justice. You cannot escape this word if you
study the Bible. Some Catholics misunderstand this word, so here is the biblical
understanding of justice as our Church teaches. The 1986 USCCB document,
Economic Justice for All (#39), states, “Biblical justice is more comprehensive
than subsequent philosophical definitions. It is not concerned with a strict
definition of rights and duties, but with the rightness of the human condition
before God and within society. Nor is justice opposed to love; rather, it is
both a manifestation of love and a condition for love to grow” [10]. God’s
justice begins to make more sense.
We say that God is love and we also say that God is just. Truly, for human
beings to live and thrive in their dignity as human persons who are loved by
their Creator, their environment has to be a just one. Human potential is lost
in the struggle to survive in unjust situations that may be perpetuated by
fellow human beings. As Jesus’ disciples, we are called to create a more just
world.
The word, disciple, from Latin discipulus , means, “to take the form of.” In the
ancient world, students would literally live with their teacher and absorb into
their own being, their teacher’s life. Can you imagine studying with Jesus, who
is infinitely kind and loving, infinitely just and knowing? Can you imagine
loving that teacher so much that you want to emulate them in everything that you
do? Can you imagine yourself becoming a manifestation of love in the world?
In his 2009 encyclical, Charity in Truth (Caritas in Veritate), Pope Benedict
XVI states: “To love someone is to desire that person’s good and to take
effective steps to secure it. Besides the good of the individual, there is a
good that is linked to living in society: the common good. It is the good of
‘all of us’. . .To desire the common good and strive towards it is a requirement
of justice and charity . . .The more we strive to secure a common good
corresponding to the real needs of our neighbors, the more effectively we love
them” [7]. To be a disciple of Jesus in this present age, we must study his
life, study the Church teachings that spring from his life and then, we must act
with love and justice. Let’s light up this dark world with the twinkling of our
stars!
Barbara Molinari Quinby, MPS,
Director
Office of Human Life, Dignity, and Justice
Ministries
Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral,
Raleigh, NC
FAITH BOOK
Mini-reflections on the Sunday
scripture readings designed for persons on the run. “Faith Book” is also brief
enough to be posted in the Sunday parish bulletins people take home.
From today’s Gospel reading:
Heaven and earth
will pass away,
but my words will not pass away
Reflection:
Our faith invites us to trust that, even amid
complete upheaval, God has not abandoned us. “The tribulation” Jesus predicts
for his disciples is about to take place for him. When their world collapses
with Jesus’ death, will they remember and cling to his words and look forward to
an entirely new Spring? The same can be asked of us.
So, we ask ourselves
- As we face our own tribulations can we
trust that Jesus’ words will not to fail us and that he will be faithful to
us?
- How can I be a symbol of Jesus’
steadfastness to others in their trials?
POSTCARDS TO DEATH ROW INMATES
“One has to strongly affirm that
condemnation to the death penalty is an inhuman measure that humiliates
personal dignity, in whatever form it is carried out." ---Pope Francis
Inmates on death row are the most forgotten people in the prison system.
Each week I am posting in this space several inmates’ names and locations. I
invite you to write a postcard to one or more of them to let them know that:
we have not forgotten them; are praying for them and their families; or,
whatever personal encouragement you might like to give them. If the inmate
responds, you might consider becoming pen pals.
Please write to:
- Roger Blakeney #0033802 (On death row
since 9/10/1997)
- Marcos Mitchell #0488288 (11/4/1997)
- Elrico Fowler #0134151 (11/14/1997)
----Central Prison P.O. 247
Phoenix, MD 21131
Please note: Central Prison is in
Raleigh, NC., but for security purposes, mail to inmates is processed through a
clearing house at the above address in Maryland.
For more information on the Catholic position
on the death penalty go to the Catholic Mobilizing Network:
http://catholicsmobilizing.org/resources/cacp/
On this page you can sign “The National
Catholic Pledge to End the Death Penalty.” Also, check the interfaith page for
People of Faith Against the Death Penalty: http://www.pfadp.org/
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