STAY AWAKE, PRAYING AT ALL TIMES

I SUNDAY OF ADVENT - Luke 21:25-28,34-36

The Lord is coming. That’s why we have this time called Advent because the Lord is coming. This is a time marked by hope and expectancy because the Lord is near. At the end of the book of Revelation, we can hear the echo of the first Christians’ prayer: “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev 22:20). And with them, we go on praying: “Come, Lord Jesus!”

Through Jeremiah, the Lord God had promised a time of salvation, when his people may “dwell in confidence” because there will be “honesty and integrity in the land.” (Jr 33:14-16). Jesus will bring in that time, establishing God’s Kingdom.

In the passage of Luke’s gospel read in this first Sunday of Advent, Jesus speaks about the end of times and his second coming. Humanity will go through a time of crisis when “the powers of heaven will be shaken”. As a consequence, people will be terrorised and men will die “of fear as they await what menaces the world”. We may say that throughout the history of the universe people have gone through many catastrophes, remaining bewildered and uncertain as to their future. Nowadays, there are prophets of doom, announcing that the end of the world is at hand due to global warming, preaching that we have passed the point of no return. Meanwhile, we go on living as before. We protest and demonstrate but don’t change our way of life. Our protests are no more than noise and empty words. With his speaking about the end of times, Jesus makes a final call to repentance and conversion. According to Jesus, we should not allow ourselves to be possessed by fear, because the Son of Man is coming “with power and great glory” and he comes to complete his work of salvation. So “when these things begin to take place, stand erect, hold your heads high because your liberation is near at hand.” We must face the uncertainties of the future with hope. God is on our side. 

Jesus advises us to be prepared and the alert; otherwise, we may lose the way and be caught by surprise.  Jesus proposes two fundamental attitudes: 

1. Don’t let “your hearts be coarsened with debauchery and drunkenness and the cares of life”;
2. “Stay awake, praying at all times for the strength to survive all that is going to happen, and to stand with confidence before the Son of Man.”

If we live as children of the light, we will not be subjected to the powers of darkness and we will “make more and more progress in the kind of life that you (we) are meant to live: the life that God wants”. (1 Thes 4:1).

TO HIM BE GLORY AND POWER FOR EVER AND EVER

XXXIV SUNDAY - CHRIST THE KING - John 18:33-37

In a short time, Jesus went through two trials. Before the Sanhedrin, Jesus is accused of blasphemy for pretending to be the Son of God (Mt 26:63). Then, before Pilate, he was accused of pretending to be the King of the Jews. In both the religious and the political trials, Jesus is condemned for presenting himself as the Messiah.

According to Jewish expectations, the Messiah should be a Prophet, a Priest and a King. He should play a religious and a political role. Through him, people should find salvation and liberation. The Messiah was expected to establish the kingdom of God, bringing in a time of peace. However, the elite class considered Jesus an impostor that was putting the whole nation in danger. To them, the only way to avoid that danger was to get rid of him. Thus, before Caiaphas, he was condemned as a false prophet who deserved to die. Then, they took him to Pilate, the Roman governor, for him to sentence Jesus to death for the crime of high treason.

In the Roman courts, the accused should be questioned and had the right to defend himself. In this Sunday’s gospel, John presents the dialogue that took place between Pilate and Jesus. Without delay, Pilate went straight to the point: “Are you the kings of the Jews?” The question sounds laughable. What kind of claims did he have to be a king? A carpenter from Nazareth, who had become a travelling preacher, surrounded by a small group of unarmed people would not present any kind of threat to the Roman army or even to the Jewish authorities. And, with a great deal of freedom, Jesus hinted at that, when he answered: “Do you ask this of your own accord, or have others spoken to you about me?” Pilate distances himself from the Jewish quarrels or even from Jewish culture and traditions. He is not a Jew. Again, Pilate speaks in a straightforward manner: Your people brought you here. “What have you done?” And Jesus gave a clear answer. Indeed, he is king, but his kingdom is not of this world. He has no army or personal guard. He does not live in a palace surrounded by the noble, the rich and the powerful. He has no claim to any territory and he does not demand taxes from people to sustain his empire. Jesus is very clear: “My kingdom is not of this kind.” He is not a threat to Caesar, to Pilate himself or any kind of ruler in this world. But he is King and he comes to establish the Kingdom of God. The searchers of truth come to him since he bears witness to the truth. It is with them that he is going to set up the Kingdom of God, where there will be justice, freedom and peace. “All who are on the side of truth listen to my voice.”

Jesus Christ is “the faithful witness, the First-Born from the dead, the Ruler of the kings of the earth. He loves us and has washed away our sins with his blood, and made us a line of kings, priests to serve his God and Father; to him, then, be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.” (Rev 1:5-6)

ONLY THE FATHER KNOWS THE DAY AND THE HOUR

XXXIII SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Mark 13:24-32

This Sunday’s gospel invites us to reflect on the end of times and Christ’s second coming. The first Christian communities waited with eagerness for Jesus’ second coming. They thought it would happen in their life’s time. However, they had to come to terms with the delay of that event. Throughout the ages, time and again, different apocalyptic movements appeared announcing the end of the world and calling on people to prepare themselves for the incoming judgement. It will be a time of crisis, a “time of distress” when the universe seems to collapse and people experience anguish and despair.  Peace will give way to violence and war and order will give place to chaos. All kinds of prophets have appeared putting forward dates for the end of the world. In the hope of surviving the cataclysm that will take place, people build bunkers and store food.

Nowadays, in a society that rejects God and banishes him from the public sphere, we can hear the announcement of the impending end of the world, unless we change radically our attitudes towards mother earth. For the ecological movement, we are on the way to self-destruction, since we are polluting the earth and creating an atmosphere where life will degenerate and die out. The human race is guilty of the evil practices that put in danger the life of the planet. According to them, time is short and we must be radical in our approach in order to delay the catastrophe. We must use only clean energy and ban the use of fossil fuels that bring global warming, creating the greenhouse effect. 

Many times, the ecological movement sounds like a religious cult, which is at the same time an ideological movement, that cannot be questioned and must be obeyed by all. The ecological prophets announce the end of the world and demand a radical change in the policies that rule the world.

For sure, we must care for the world and stop all practices that may destroy life or make life impossible. God entrusted the world to us and we must prove to be good stewards that deserve the trust God put in us. As for the end of the world, we should not join the false prophets who speak of what they don’t know. Jesus leaves it clear that only the Father knows the day and the hour:

“But as for that day or hour, nobody knows it, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son; no one but the Father.” (Mc 13,32)

 THE WIDOW’S OFFERING

XXXII SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Mark 12:38-44

It is always good to read attentively a passage of the gospels and allow ourselves to be questioned by it. In this Sunday’s gospel, Jesus appears to be confrontational as if he is intent on provoking the scribes, that is the experts on the Scriptures and the Law of Moses. And this is not an isolated incident. Time and again, we see Jesus being harsh with scribes and the Pharisees, who were people of great influence on the people. Jesus was not afraid of denouncing attitudes that he considered false. Nowadays, in many situations, the Church tries to accommodate herself to the prevalent ideology of the times, being afraid of proclaiming the truth straightforwardly. We must always remember that we are called the light of the world and the salt of the earth. So many times we speak with all caution afraid of hurting those who stray from the way of the Lord. Even though Jesus was always ready to listen and to dialogue, he was not afraid to denounce and to question false attitudes, mainly of people who should know better.

The scribes’ attitudes denounced by Jesus can be found in the Church, especially in her leaders. We may start with a deep desire of serving the Lord and the cause of the Gospel and end up serving ourselves and making us the centre of all attentions. There is always the danger of putting the Church at our service, leading us to abuse the community we should serve. When we look for prestige, influence and power, we become entangled in our selfishness. Jesus threatens such kinds of people with punishment.

In the second part of this Sunday’s gospel, Mark presents Jesus sitting down and observing the people as they put their offerings in the box. A poor widow called his attention: she put in the box two small coins. Her contribution might be considered irrelevant, making no difference in the final accounts of the treasury. However, the amount of our contribution does not matter to God. We cannot use the money to buy our salvation or bribe God with it. For God, money is a useless thing. Thus, it is not surprising that Jesus praise the poor widow, because she gave everything she had. With her offering, she entrusted herself to the Lord. She behaved as the handmaid of the Lord who is sure of his caring love. Day by day she depended on the Lord and the Lord takes good care of his people.

Indeed, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt 5:3).