XXXIV Sunday in Ordinary Time (year B) [24 November 2024]

First reading Dn 7:13-14

*A coronation scene

The prophet Daniel describes a coronation scene "in the clouds of heaven", i.e. in God's world with a "son of man" (in Hebrew it simply means a human being) approaching the Old Man, whom a few verses earlier (v.9) he describes seated on a throne: it is understood that he is God. The Son of Man advances to be anointed king: "he was given power, glory and kingdom...his is an eternal power that will never end", a universal and eternal kingship that, however, he does not conquer by force and, as Daniel points out, he does not approach the throne of God on his own initiative. This Sunday's reading stops here, but to better understand, one must go a little further and realise that this "son of man" is not an individual but a people: "I, Daniel, was troubled in my soul .I approached one of the neighbours and asked him the true meaning of all these things, and he gave me this explanation: "The four great beasts represent four kings, who shall arise from the earth; but the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess it for ever and ever" (vv15-18). In a few verses later he repeats: 'Then the kingdom and the power and the greatness of the kingdoms that are under heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom shall be eternal, and all empires shall serve and obey him' (v27). This son of man is therefore 'the people of the saints of the Most High' which, in biblical language, means Israel and in the age of persecution, is the small faithful remnant. We are at the most painful time of Antiochus Epiphanes' persecution around 165 B.C. when only a small group really remained. When Daniel states that the people of the saints of the Most High will receive the kingdom, he means to encourage them to resist because the final deliverance will soon come, and since shortly afterwards Antiochus Epiphanes was driven out, his prophecy was interpreted by some Jews as referring to the expected Messiah-King, who would not be a particular individual, but a people. When Jesus was born centuries later, although everyone in Israel awaited the Messiah, not everyone imagined him in the same way: some awaited a man, others a collective Messiah called 'the little Remnant of Israel' (an expression from the prophet Amos 9.11-15), or 'the son of man' in reference to the prophet Daniel. Jesus is the only one (no one else does this) to use the expression 'Son of Man' coming on the clouds of heaven more than 80 times in the gospels, referring to himself, but his contemporaries could not recognise in Jesus of Nazareth, the carpenter, the Messiah, i.e. 'the people of the saints of the Most High'. Moreover, Jesus substantially modifies the definition because, referring to Daniel, he says: "Then...you will see the Son of Man coming, surrounded by clouds, in the fullness of power and glory" (Mk 13:26), and again in the Gospel of Mark he adds: "The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men and they will kill him" (Mk 9:31). Only after the resurrection will the disciples understand that the title of Son of Man on the clouds of heaven is attributed to Jesus, because he is both man and God, the first-born of the new humanity, the Head who makes us one Body and, at the end of history, we shall be as "one man, grafted into him and thus "the people of the saints of the Most High". While Daniel said a "Son of Man" Jesus changes it to "Son of Man"": son of man meant "one man", while son of man means "Humanity" and therefore "Son of Man" means Humanity. By attributing this title to Himself, Christ reveals Himself to be the bearer of the destiny of the whole of humanity, fulfilling the divine creation project, that is, to make humanity one people: "God created man in His own image...male and female He created them...He said to them: "Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth" (Gen 1:27-28). For St Paul, Jesus is the new Adam: 'As by one man's disobedience all were made sinners, so also by one man's obedience all will be made righteous' (Rom 5:12-21; 1 Cor 15:21-22, 45-49), while in the Fourth Gospel, Piato's phrase 'Ecce homo, Behold the man' (19:5) is always striking.

*Responsorial Psalm 92/93 (1,2,5)

*We proclaim God our King 

By proclaiming Christ our King we affirm our faith/hope with the courage to realise his kingdom, certain that by rising he has defeated death and by forgiving the murderers he has destroyed hatred. However, while we dare to say that Christ is already king, everything in the world seems to be going backwards: death kills, hatred spreads in all its forms of violence and injustice. Psalm 92/93 proclaims God's victory over the world in spite of appearances, and the Jews also celebrate God the King by having the same faith and hope as they await God's 'Day'. In proclaiming his victory over the forces of evil, however, they rely on the experience of the Exodus by worshipping God who by freeing Israel offered his Covenant, while we Christians rely on the resurrection of Christ. To sing the kingship of God this psalm looks to the model of the coronation of kings: in the throne room the new king, invested with the royal mantle, sat on the throne and, having signed the enthronement charter, took possession of the royal palace. At this point, the people shouted 'Long live the king,' an acclamation that in Hebrew is called 'térouah' and was originally a cry of victory against the enemy. In this psalm, the acclaimed king is God, and more than others he deserves the terouah because he has defeated the forces of evil: "The Lord reigns, he is clothed with majesty, he is girded with strength": these are the clothes of the Creator.  The Hebrew expression: "He girded his strength" evokes the gesture of tying a garment to his hips, as the potter does with his apron to work the clay".  Singing that his throne "is stable from everlasting, from eternity thou art", the psalm hints by contrast at idols that are within everyone's reach and evokes the fragility of earthly kingdoms, particularly the kings of Israel, some of whom reigned a few years, even a few days. Throughout the psalm, God is proclaimed king over creation because he dominates the forces of the waters that are often untamable for man: "more than the roar of rushing waters, more mighty than the billows of the sea, mighty on high is the Lord" (v.4). The billows of the sea recall the Sea of Rushes (in Hebrew Yam Suf, and suf means reed or rush)) identified with the Red Sea, which God made his people cross. Since then, the Lord's faithfulness has never faded, as verse 5 expresses so well: "Worthy of faith are all your teachings". The expression "worthy of faith" in other versions is rendered as "unchanging", a word that has the same root as Amen and evokes faithfulness, stability, truth, immutability, steadfastness. This is God's faithfulness to his people, of which the Temple of Jerusalem was a symbol, an icon of God's presence and a reflection of his holiness: "Holiness befits your house". Nebuchadnezzar II conquered Jerusalem and pulled down the Temple of Solomon, deporting most of the population to Babylon, and having destroyed the kingdom of Judah in 586 BC, there were no more kings in Israel because the last one was Sedekiah who was captured, blinded and taken into exile. From that moment on, the expression: 'Holiness befits your house' celebrated God's sovereignty in the expectation of the Messiah-King, God's faithful image.  Every year, during the Feast of Tents (in the autumn), this psalm was taken up to celebrate in advance the fulfilment of the whole of history, the definitive Covenant, the Wedding between God and Humanity: in fact Israel with the whole of humanity will one day share the kingship of the Messiah, as the Queen sits next to the King.

Second Reading Rev 1:5-8

*He who is, who was, and who is to come

 "Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, the ruler of the kings of the earth": the phrases of this short text, which is the beginning of the Apocalypse, are dense and evoke the whole mystery of Christ and each word reveals an aspect of it. "Jesus" is the name of a man from Nazareth and means "God saves"; "Christ" indicates the Messiah filled with the Spirit of God; "the faithful witness" connects to Jesus' words to Pilate that we hear today in the gospel: "I was born and came into the world to bear witness to the truth". The statement: "the firstborn from the dead" encapsulates the faith of the early Christians who saw in Jesus, a mortal man like everyone else, the firstborn of a long line, resurrected by God to lead all his brothers and sisters, and the phrase: "the Sovereign of the kings of the earth" reinforces the concept of the Messiah who placed all his enemies under his feet, as Psalm 109/110 sings. Since in Revelation numbers are symbolic and ternary expressions are reserved for God, the three qualifications: "faithful witness, firstborn of the dead, ruler of the kings of the earth" attributed to Jesus affirm that he is God. The second sentence takes up and amplifies the first: "To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, who has made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen'. Here we find the traditional tenets of faith: Christ's love for all men; the gift of his life signified by the expression "blood shed" to redeem us from evil, while the statement: "He has made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father" indicates that in Christ the promise "You shall be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" contained in the book of Exodus (19:6) has been fulfilled.  In the third sentence: "Behold, he comes with the clouds" it is the Son of Man, spoken of by Daniel in the first reading, who advances to the throne of God to receive universal kingship. The first dimension of his kingship is triumph. The second dimension is that of suffering: "Every eye shall see him, even those who pierced him, and for him all the tribes of the earth shall beat their breasts", a clear allusion to the cross and the soldier's lance (Jn.19:33-34). Here St John refers to the prophecy of Zechariah: "I will pour out upon the house of David and Jerusalem a spirit of kindness ... they will look upon him whom they have pierced ... they will mourn for him as for an only son ... they will mourn for him as for a first-born ... a spring will flow ... as a remedy for sin and impurity". ( Zech 12:10; 13:1).  With the spirit of benevolence God will transform the human heart and turning their gaze to the one they have pierced, men will see an innocent man unjustly slain in clear contrast to the religious authorities of the time. Looking at the crucified Messiah suddenly eyes and hearts will open and, when the hearts of all men will be transformed, Christ will be King because it is the opening of the heart that introduces us into the grace and peace of eternity in God: "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world" (Mt 25:34). Finally, the final expression of the second reading: "He who is, who was, and who is to come" (v. 8) is one of the translations of the name of God (YHVH, Ex 3:14) in the Jewish commentaries (Jerusalem Targum). 

Gospel Jn. 18:33b-37

*So you are king?

John's gospel is the only one to report the long dialogue between Pilate and Jesus, a text of considerable interest for the Feast of Christ the King because statements about Christ's kingship are rare in the gospels and only during his passion does Jesus openly declare that he is king.  During his public life whenever they wanted to make him king he withdrew, when they publicised his miracles he imposed silence and this even after the Transfiguration. Only now that he is chained and condemned to death does he claim to be king, i.e. at the least convenient time according to human calculations.  Undoubtedly he has an alternative way of conceiving kingship and he explained it to the disciples: the leaders rule over the nations, but this must not be the case for you; if anyone wants to be great let him be your servant, if he wants to be first let him be servant of all, imitating the Son of Man who did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom (i.e. deliverance) for the multitude (cf. Mk 10:42-45). It is during Pilate's interrogation that he declares himself to be the king of mankind, thus at the very moment when he gives his life for us showing that his only royal ambition is service. On closer inspection, in the dialogue between Pilate, a high representative of the Roman empire, and a man condemned to death, the parts are reversed: it is not Pilate who judges him but Christ who judges the world, and the Roman power ends up recognising Christ as the true king. Jesus was captured because the religious leaders, frightened by his success, acted deceitfully, fearing their destruction with the arrival of the Romans: "If we let them, the Romans will come and destroy us". It is a murder that stems from the will of the ruling priestly caste while for Pilate Jesus represented no danger. Today we read in John's gospel the first questioning of Pilate: "Are you the king of the Jews?" In this trial it is not the judge who questions the accused but the reverse and the sentence will be passed by the accused. In fact Jesus does not answer, but asks. "Do you say this of yourself or have others spoken to you about me?". And Pilate: "What have you done?  Jesus replies: "My kingdom is not of this world". Pilate insists: "So you are king?" and Jesus: "You say so" in the sense that if you are affirming it (su legeis) you have understood it well and therefore proclaim it. It is, however, a different kingdom from all earthly ones defended by soldiers and based on power, domination and lies. Mine, on the other hand, is the kingdom of truth that relies on no other defence than the truth: 'For this I was born and came into the world: to bear witness to the truth. Whoever is of the truth hears my voice', and he adds: 'For this I was born and for this I came into the world: to bear witness to the truth'. And he concludes: 'Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice'. He does not say: 'Whoever has the truth', but 'whoever is from the truth', since truth is not a doctrine to be possessed but the believer's way of life. In the second reading from Revelation, John states that Jesus is the "faithful witness", the "only-begotten Son full of grace and truth," as we already read in the Prologue of his Gospel (Jn 1:14). If Pilate, a son of the Greco-Roman world, asks the question "What is truth?" (Jn18:38), the Jews, on the other hand, knew from the very beginning of the Covenant with God that truth is God Himself.  Truth in the Bible means God's "steadfast faithfulness" and has in Hebrew the same root as "Amen" which means stable, faithful, true, as it appears today in Responsorial Psalm 92/93. The Truth is God Himself so no one can claim to possess it but it is indispensable to listen to it and let oneself be instructed by it (cf. Jn 8:47). Only God can tell us "Listen", as the Torah continually repeats: "Shema Israël".  

Some Testimony on Christ King of the Universe: 

*St. Augustine, in his sermon on Psalm 2, writes: "Christ has no temporal kingdom, but he reigns in the hearts of men. His throne is the cross, His sceptre is love, and His crown is made of thorns. He is a king who does not conquer with weapons, but with truth and justice."

* Saint Nicholas Cabasilas Orthodox (14th century) is credited with this sentence: "Christ reigns because he has conquered our hearts, not with violence, but with sacrifice. His cross is his throne, and from the cross he judges the world with love, offering eternal life to those who submit to his divine will."

*St. Catherine of Siena, in her work "The Dialogue of Divine Providence" writes: 

"Christ is sweet king, because his kingdom is not founded on pride nor on strength, but on love and humility. He made of his flesh a bridge between heaven and earth, that man might cross it and reach the eternal kingdom. His crown is of thorns, a sign of the love with which he took upon himself the pains of his subjects; his throne is the cross, from which he ruled with mercy and justice."

*Dietrich Bonhoeffer Protestant pastor in his book 'Discipleship' writes: "Christ is the King who bears the cross, and his kingdom is the kingdom of the cross. Those who follow him enter into his lordship not with power or glory, but with the humility of one who accepts the weight of his yoke. Christ reigns over us because he chose to die for us, and in this is our true freedom."

*G.K. Chesterton in his book 'Orthodoxy' writes: "Christ is not only a king, but the king of paradoxes. His crown is made of thorns, yet it is the most glorious; his throne is the cross, yet it is the highest; his power is manifested in surrender, yet no one has ever reigned with greater authority. He is the king who turns sorrow into joy and death into life."

Happy Solemnity of Christ King of the Universe to you all!

+ Giovanni D'Ercole

God bless you! For the past few weeks I have chosen to offer not a homily but a service to those who wish: I present the Sunday Bible readings to aid understanding of the biblical text with a short commentary always starting with the word of God. I hope it may be useful to you: if you wish, let me know and I thank you for your attention." The Word of God is an uphill path, the more you strive, the more you advance towards the light " (paraphrase from St John of the Cross) " Each verse of the Bible is like a step: reading it is easy, living it is the real challenge of faith (paraphrase from "the Ladder of Paradise" by St John Climacus). Each week I will send the text on Wednesday evening or Thursday morning to allow time to read and meditate.

Here is next Sunday's.

XXXIII Sunday Ordinary Time (year B) 

Commentary on the readings [17 November 2024]

*First Reading from the Book of the Prophet Daniel 12, 1-3

 *In the storm of persecution Faith in the resurrection is born 

The book of Daniel is named not after its author but after its protagonist, the prophet Daniel who lived in Babylon during the years of the last kings of the Neo-Babylonian empire and was written during the Maccabean revolution (2nd century BC). There are at least two important statements in today's text. First of all, Daniel comforts his contemporaries who were going through a difficult time. When he says: 'It will be a time of distress, such as there had never been', he is speaking of the future, but it is only in appearance because they were under occupation and persecution. Opposition books could not be circulated, so he pretends to speak of the past or the future, but in truth of the present, and readers understand and take the comfort they need. Reigning after the conquests of Alexander the Great and the first rather tolerant successors was Antiochus Epiphanes, sadly famous for his terrible persecution of the Jews. He placed himself at the centre of the Temple as a god and the Jews had to choose: submit or remain faithful to their faith, facing torture and death. Some bent, but many remained faithful and were killed. Daniel tells them that Michael, the leader of the Angels, watches over them and if they are now experiencing defeat and the horror of terror, they are nevertheless victorious in a battle that takes place both on earth and in heaven: the heavenly army has already won. Human history is a gigantic struggle in which the victor is already known, and this particularly concerns the people of the Covenant. 

To the message of comfort for the living Daniel joins a reference to those who sacrificed themselves so as not to betray the living God. Since God does not forsake those who die for him, those who die will thus be resurrected. The word 'resurrection', which is part of our vocabulary today, was virtually unknown at the time. For centuries, the question of individual resurrection did not arise as the focus was on the people and not on the individual, on the present and future of the people and not on the fate of the individual. In the history of Israel, interest in the destiny of the individual emerged as a conquest and progress during the exile linked to the idea of individual responsibility. It must always be remembered that faith in the faithful God matures with the events of history and Israel increasingly understands that God desires the good of man and never abandons him. The experience of the Covenant thus nourished Israel's faith and it was realised that if God wants man free from all bondage, He cannot leave him in the chains of death. Truth exploded when some believers sacrificed their lives for God and their death became a source of faith in eternal life. It was thus understood that martyrs will rise for eternal life: "Many of those who sleep in the region of the dust shall awake: some to eternal life, and some to shame and everlasting infamy". The book of Daniel considers resurrection only for the righteous, but later it will come to be understood that resurrection is promised to all mankind composed of good and bad human beings and indeed no one is totally good or bad. Finally, only when we are enlightened by the certainty that God loves us, can we understand that we will live forever.

Responsorial Psalm 15 (16), 5.8, 9-10, 11

*The great commitment in the image of the Levite 

In Psalm 15(16), of which today we meditate on just a few verses, it all seems simple when we take refuge in God because only in him is our good. In verse 5 we read: "The Lord is my inheritance and my cup: in your hands is my life" and continues "my inheritance is great" (v.6) and then states that "for this my heart rejoices and my soul exults; my body also rests secure because you will not forsake my life in hell nor will you let your faithful one see the grave" (v.8,9,10). In reality, under very simple appearances, Psalm 15/16 translates the terrible struggle of faithfulness to the true faith: exactly the same as Daniel's call not to deny the faith despite the persecution of King Antiochus Epiphanes. The struggle for fidelity marks Israel from the very beginning, ever since Moses during the exodus perceived the risk of idolatry: think of the episode of the golden calf when the people convinced Aaron to build it (Ex. 32). When they then entered the land of Canaan (between the 15th and 13th centuries BC), the danger of idolatry remained as they saw that everything was going wrong. War, famine, epidemic aroused the desire to rely on two certainties: The Lord and Baal because, in difficulties, one is tempted to resort to every god possible and imaginable. King Ahaz did it in the 8th century by sacrificing his son to idols, and his grandson Manasseh fifty years later. This is why the prophets fought against idolatry, which is the worst of slavery. This psalm therefore translates the preaching of the prophets in the form of a prayer: there resounds an invitation to the believers to follow the preaching, and at the same time it is a supplication to God to help everyone endure in the time of trial. It would also be helpful to read the verses not found on this Sunday (vv.1-4) where it is said, among other things, that "to the idols of the land, to the mighty gods went all my favour. They multiplied their sorrows those who run after a foreign god" and then states "I will not pour out their libations of blood, nor will I pronounce with my lips their names". In short, it is necessary to turn only to the God of the Covenant as the only one able to guide his people on the difficult path to freedom. Over the centuries, it has been understood that the God of Israel is the only God for all mankind. If there is an exclusivity for Israel, it is because he chose him freely and revealed himself to them as the one true Lord. It is up to Israel to respond to this calling by binding itself exclusively to him and, in so doing, fulfil its mission as a witness to the one God before the other nations. To express this mission, Israel in this psalm compares itself to a Levite: "The Lord is my inheritance and my cup, in your hands is my life" (v.5). It alludes to the singular condition of the Levites that, at the time of the partition of the Promised Land among the tribes of Jacob's descendants, the members of the tribe of Levi had received no part of the land and thus their portion was the House of God (the Temple), the service of God. Their whole life was consecrated to the service of worship; their livelihood was guaranteed by tithes and a portion of the crops and meat offered in sacrifice. Israel is at the heart of humanity as the Levites are the heart of Israel, both called to the direct service of the Lord, the source of joy. Bearing in mind the first reading that speaks of the resurrection of bodies (Dan 12), one understands that the eternity spoken of in this psalm is not about individual resurrection because the true subject of all the psalms is never an individual but the whole of Israel sure to survive being the chosen of the living God. And verse 10: "Thou shalt not forsake my life in hell, nor let thy faithful see the grave" does not express faith in individual resurrection but is an appeal for the survival of the people. Certainly when the prophet Daniel (first reading) proclaimed faith in the resurrection of the dead, this verse made such sense; later Jesus and now all of us can confidently say that our hearts rejoice and our souls are rejoicing because the Lord does not abandon us to death, but rather at his right hand, an eternity of joy awaits us.

*Second Reading from the Epistle to the Hebrews 10:11-14. 18

 Jesus delivers humanity from the fatality of sin 

The letter to the Hebrews, like and more than the other New Testament texts, aims to make it clear that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah-priest, and therefore the Jewish priesthood is superseded. Having ended the role of the priests of the Old Covenant, in the New Covenant the only priest is Christ. But what are the characteristics of the priests of the Old Covenant compared to Christ? The author focuses on two points: the liturgy of the Old Testament priests was daily and they always offered the same sacrifices; Jesus, on the other hand, offered a unique sacrifice. The worship of the Jewish priests was ineffective, since the sacrifices did not have the power to eliminate sins, whereas, with his unique sacrifice, Jesus eliminated the sin of the world once and for all. There are statements here that were important to the Judeo-Christian milieu of the time, such as the expression 'to eliminate sins' because the word 'sin' returns several times in this text. Experience says that after Christ's death/resurrection sins continue to exist in the world, so to say that Jesus took away the sin of the world is to point out that sin is no longer a fatality because, thanks to the gift of the Holy Spirit, we can overcome it. Furthermore, when we read that "with one offering he has made perfect for ever those who are sanctified" we must understand that the term "perfect" does not have a moral meaning, but expresses fulfilment, completion. That is, we have been led by Christ to our fulfilment; thanks to him we have become free men and women: free not to relapse into hatred, violence, jealousy; free to live as sons and daughters of God and as brothers and sisters. In the celebration of the Eucharist we keep saying 'Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world'. This makes one think of the prophet Jeremiah (31: 31-33) who prophesied: "Behold, the days will come - the Lord's oracle - when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah...I will put my law within them, I will write it on their hearts", or of Ezekiel (36: 26-27): "I will take away from you the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you and make you live by my laws". The early Christians knew that one must allow oneself to be led by the Holy Spirit, but an essential condition is to remain united to Christ like the branches to the vine.  We read again in the text: "Christ...is seated forever at the right hand of God and is now waiting for his enemies to be placed at the footstool of his feet" (vv12-14). The expression 'seated at the right hand of God' had been a royal title in Israel for centuries. On the day of his coronation, when he took possession of his throne, the new king sat at the right hand of God, and in this context to say that 'Jesus Christ sat forever at the right hand of God' means that Jesus is the true King-Messiah awaited. This concept is reinforced by what follows: "He is now waiting for his enemies to be set at the footstool of his feet". The tradition was that on the steps of the thrones of kings were carved or sculpted figures of chained men representing the enemies of the kingdom, and the king ascending the steps of the throne trampled on them, symbolically crushing his enemies, and this was not gratuitous cruelty but a guarantee of security for his subjects. Signs of these figures can be found in the thrones of Tutankhamun (discovered in 1922 by archaeologist Howard Carter in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt), while in Israel, the only trace remains of what the prophet pronounced for the king in the coronation rite: "Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet". If Christ is indeed the Messiah, the awaited eternal king descendant of David, the old world is now over. One last clarification: why is it said: "the sacrifice of the Mass"?  In the Epistle to the Hebrews we read: "Now where there is forgiveness there is no more offering (sacrifice) for sin". The term sacrifice remains even though, with Christ, its meaning has changed: for him, "to sacrifice" (sacrum facere, to perform a sacred act) does not mean to kill one or a thousand animals, but to live in love and to give one's life for one's brethren, as the prophet Hosea already stated in the 8th century B.C.: "I want love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God more than holocausts." (6, 6).

*Gospel according to Saint Mark (13, 24-32)

Jesus uses the apocalyptic style here 

In Mark's gospel Jesus now changes style and approaches in his discourses the divination literature that was then very much in vogue. All religions were asking the same questions: Will mankind go irretrievably to ruin or will Good triumph? What will the end of the world be like and who will be the victor? They used the same images of cosmic upheavals, eclipses of the sun or moon, celestial characters, angels or demons. The Jews first and then the Christians borrowed this style but inserted the Gospel message, i.e. divine revelation. That is why, in the Bible, this literary style is called "apocalyptic" because it brings a "revelation" from God: literally, the Greek verb apocaliptõ means to reveal, in the sense of "lifting the veil that covers the history of mankind". At the time, it was like a cipher language, in code: it speaks of the sun, the stars, the moon and how all this will be shattered, even if it means something else. It is the victory of God and his children in the great battle against evil that they have been waging since the origin of the world. Here is the specificity of the Judeo-Christian faith for which it is a mistake to use the term apocalypse to speak of frightening events because in the language of the Jewish and Christian faith it is exactly the opposite. Revealing the mystery of God does not tend to frighten humanity, but rather to encourage people to face every crisis in history by lifting the corner of the veil that covers history in order to hold on to hope. Already the prophets in the Old Testament used the same imagery to announce the day of God's final victory over every evil force. We find in Joel (2:10-11): "The earth trembles, the sky is shaken, the sun and moon are darkened and the stars cease to shine. The Lord makes his voice heard before his host. Great is his army, mighty in carrying out his commands. Great is the day of the Lord, terrible indeed: who shall be able to sustain it?". I also recommend reading these others from the prophet Joel (3:1-5 and 4:15-16) and Isaiah (12:1-2). These are not stories to instil terror, but to announce the victory of the God who loves us. The message is always this: God will have the last word because, as Isaiah writes, evil will be destroyed and the Lord will punish the wicked for their crimes (cf.13:10); it is the same Isaiah who, a few verses earlier (ch.12:2), announced the salvation of God's children: "Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, I will not be afraid, for my strength and my song is the Lord; he has been my salvation." These words, in which praise and faith in God as Saviour resound together with a deep sense of security and trust in divine protection, are part of a song of thanksgiving that celebrates the deliverance and support that God offers his people. In apocalyptic style, to proclaim faith is to assure that God is the master of history and one day evil will disappear. Therefore, rather than 'end of the world', it would be better to say 'transformation of the world' or rather 'renewal of the world'. All this emerges in this Sunday's gospel of Mark with one clarification: the definitive victory of God against evil only takes place in Jesus Christ. In the gospel we are only a few days away from Easter and Jesus resorts to this language because the battle between him and the forces of evil is now at its climax. To understand Jesus' message, we can turn to the gospel of John, when at the conclusion of his long discourse to the apostles he says: "I have spoken these words to you so that you may have peace in me. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage, I have overcome the world" (John 16: 33). And the parable of the fig tree that sheds its leaves fits well into this message, bearing in mind that the key to understanding is the adjective "near", "near": the signs only herald the nearness of the end, so beware of false prophets who see the end of the world now. Instead, we must watch and pray because the nearness of the end is for every generation - and this invitation is present throughout the Gospel.

Happy Sunday to you all!

+Giovanni D'Ercole

(Lk 20:27-40)

The defeat of death is the cruel fate that has clouded the mind of all civilizations.

But if God creates us and calls incessantly to enter into dialogue, then what remains of us? Is the goal of all our turmoil a pit?

The Sadducees want to ridicule the doctrine of the resurrection dear to the Pharisees and - it seems - also to Jesus.

However, Master does not apply provisional categories of this world to dimensions that go beyond.

The ties also must be conceived in the relief of the divine reality.

Members of the priestly class did not believe in another life, and in the Torah it seemed to them that there was no note about the resurrection.

In short, they conceived the relationship with God in the dimension of life on earth.

In fact, the Pharisees believed in the raising of the dead in a very banal sense: a sort of improvement and sublimation of the (same) conditions of being natural.

For them, the existence of the afterlife was only an accentuated, ennobled and embellished extension of this form of our being.

Instead life «in the era, that» [v.35 Greek text] is not a strengthened existence, but an indescribable and new condition - as of direct communication. Comparable to the immediacy of love.

The body decays, gets sick and undergoes dissolution: it’s a natural cycle.

‘Resurrection of the flesh’ designates access to an intimate existence of pure Relationship, in our weakness and precariousness, assumed.

Evangelists use two terms to indicate the difference between these forms of life: (transliterating) Bìos and Zoe Aiònios [Life of the Eternal] which has nothing to do with the biological reality [v.36: «equal to angels»].

Life «in the era, that» is not an enhanced existence with respect to this mode of existence, but an indescribable and new condition - precisely, as of ‘direct communication’.

Comparable to the one-to-one of Friendship: a ‘being-with and for’ others; readily, everywhere.

Collimating with the way of existence of the Angels: they do not have a life transmitted by parents, but by God himself.

«About the bush...» - Jesus replies. He also silences the Sadducees by making them reflect; and He draws the foundation of the Resurrection (but as He understands it) precisely from Exodus.

Thus He shows that already in the Law there is a presentation of God incompatible with a destiny of humanity devoted to extermination.

The Father does not seek dialogue with the sons and then make them fall on the most beautiful.

Since creation, He takes pleasure in walking with man, and from the patriarchs he has been looking for empathy with us. His Love does not abandon.

In the archaic religious mentality the Most High was named after the region or the heights in its borders [es. Baal of Gad, Baal of Saphon, Baal of Peor, etc.].

The God of Israel already from the First Testament binds his heart to man - no longer to a territory: He is the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob.

The Father of life arouses all understanding, Alliances, and if the ally could be annihilated, the same divine identity would be shattered.

All the Scriptures attest to this: He is a God of the living, not of dust or of the nothingness.

This is why we call our missing loved ones «deceased» or «departed» - not "dead".

[Saturday 33rd wk. in O.T.  November 23, 2024]

And God binding His heart to humanity

(Lk 20:27-40)

The defeat of death is the cruel destiny that has clouded the minds of all civilisations, infusing disorientation and anguished thoughts about the meaning of life, about why each of us exists.

If God creates us and calls us ceaselessly, to enter into dialogue with us, then what is left? Is the goal of all our agitation a pit?

The Sadducees want to ridicule the doctrine of resurrection dear to the Pharisees and - it seems - to Jesus as well.

He, however, held that the Father was far more than a Living One... who finally began to raise corpses!

[This is why we call our departed loved ones 'deceased' - not 'dead'].

In the Semitic mentality, the norm of 'levirate' mirrored a feeble idea of existence after death - relegated to mere continuity of name.

The members of the priestly class did not believe in another life: they preached the religion that served to obtain blessings for existing on this earth in a comfortable manner - and that was enough for them.

In short, they conceived their relationship with God in the dimension of life on earth.

The Sadducees had already built their 'paradise' for themselves in the city and outside.

Their large villas with courtyards and private pools for ablutions were right on the hill opposite the Temple in Jerusalem, on the opposite side of the Mount of Olives (i.e. towards the west).

Their second homes - where they spent the winter - were in Jericho.

Also because of their direct interest in the sacrificial activity they carried out, they still believed that prophetic texts had no dignity as sacred Scripture: only the Law reflected God's will.

And in the Torah it seemed to them that there was no note about the resurrection of the dead.

So they also tried to frame Jesus, with an artfully constructed paradox, to highlight the contradictions of this belief - which only appeared from the 2nd century BC in the book of Daniel and in Maccabees.

They considered it absurd - therefore they intended to discredit the 'Master' [a term they used to designate him in order to ridicule him: v.28].

Indeed, the foothold was there, for the Pharisees believed in the resurrection in the trivial sense. A kind of accentuation, improvement or sublimation of (the same) natural living conditions - and bonds.

Thus not a definitive, boundless, qualitatively indestructible form.

In essence, in the 'world beyond' everyone would fully enjoy the family and clan affections of the previous form of life - and so on.

The 'afterlife' was to be nothing more than a sublimated, ennobled and embellished extension of this way of existing; without disease, suffering, various problems.

[In short, life only advanced; perhaps as it was once conveyed to us by willing catechists... but little attentive to the Word of God].

So precisely the Sadducees - conservatives - who only accepted the Pentateuch - where they maintained that there is no mention of another, further life.

In this way, they had an easy job of exposing the fragility of that popular belief, to which the leaders of Phariseeism were conversely attached.

However, the Master does not apply categories of this world, provisional, to dimensions that go beyond.

Even bonds must be conceived in the relief of divine reality.

In the Latin milieu, even today, the way of understanding the Resurrection is influenced not a little by the representational modes of the pictorial tradition.

Reading the representations to which we are accustomed... we notice that immediately the Risen One puts down the gendarmes and frightens everyone.

He emerges from the tomb with the banner of victory, strong and muscular. He bursts in as if coming back this way to beat his adversaries.

Descriptive and naturalistic claims that do not do credit to the Faith and almost ridicule the Gospels.

Conversely, in Eastern icons, the Resurrection is understood and depicted in a substantial, mysterious way: the Descent to the Underworld.

It is not a triumph of God, who imposes himself on the world. He has no need of it.

Rather, the theological event remains in support of the victory of his children, who receive life directly from the Father.

Here is the redemption of the ordinary woman and man [Adam and Eve] who are drawn from the tombs by the divine - not natural - power of the Risen Christ.

The ultimate world turns the idea of the Sheôl upside down and totally unhinges it, clearing away the darkness - and that great drama of humanity.

One enters God's world; one does not return this way - perhaps to live better: rejuvenated and healthy rather than sick, in a villa with a garden rather than a studio apartment.

Life 'in the age of that' [v.35 Greek text] is not an enhanced mode of existence, but an indescribable and new condition - as of direct communication.

Comparable to the immediacy of love: a being-with and for others. Collimating to the Angels' mode of existence (v.36): they do not have a life transmitted by parents, but by God himself.The body decays, falls ill and goes into dissolution: it is a natural cycle.

"Resurrection of the flesh" designates access to an intimate existence of pure relationship, to the very intimacy of God - in our weakness and precariousness, assumed.

Obviously we cannot believe that we are being brought into the Divine Condition if during our earthly course we have not experienced a constant existential death-resurrection vector.

It is the experience of gain in defeat; in particular, the discovery of an unthinkable life, which made us rejoice with Happiness. For Amazement: in the providential transmutation of our weak and obscure sides, from sluggish appearances to strengths.

Becoming evolutionary, perhaps the best of us.

The evangelists use two terms to indicate the difference between these two forms of being: (transliterating from the Greek) Bìos, and Zoè Aiònios.

The Zoë, Life itself of the Eternal, is keenly relational and experienceable - but it has nothing to do with biological existence and our carcass ["equal to the angels" v.36].

What does not die is not the DNA of the body, but the heavenly DNA, which we have received as a gift from the Father.

The divine Gold dwells in us and - if we wish - can surface already, in a full existence, of realisation of one's Vocation, in an atmosphere of Communion.

Life "in the age of the one" is not an enhanced existence compared to this mode of existence, but an indescribable and new condition - as of direct communication.

Comparable to the face-to-face of Friendship: a being-with and for others; readily, everywhere.

Collimating to the Angels' way of existence: they do not have a life transmitted by parents, but precisely by God Himself.

"About the Bush..." - Jesus retorts.

He also muzzles the Sadducees, making them think, treating them as incompetent.

He draws the foundation of the 'doctrine' of the Resurrection [but as He understands it] precisely from the book of Exodus.

Thus he shows that right from the scrolls of the Law there is a presentation of the Eternal One that is incompatible with the destiny of a humanity doomed to extermination.

The Father does not seek dialogue with His children only to have them fall at the most beautiful moment.

Since creation He has delighted in walking with man, and since the patriarchs He has sought empathy with us.

His Love does not abandon.

In the archaic religious mentality, each shrine was named after the deity, specified by its territory or the heights in its borders [e.g. Baal of Gad, Baal of Saphon, Baal of Peor, etc.].

A bad pagan vice that we have unfortunately inherited.

The God of Israel since the First Testament binds his heart to man - no longer to a territory: the 'God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob'.

It was possible for the three Patriarchs to have descendants, not by natural concatenation.

In that mentality, the only possibility of perpetuating life from generation to generation was to be able to pass on one's name to the firstborn male.

This happened instead by intervention from above, while the wives were sterile [infertile matriarchs: Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, long without heirs].

The Father of life gives rise to all understandings, covenants, and if the ally could be annihilated, the divine identity itself would crumble.

All Scripture attests to this: he is a God of the living - not of the dead (of dust, of insubstantiality, of nothingness).

The five Books of Moses were the only ones that the Sadducees recognized in the canon of the Old Testament and there is no mention in them of the Resurrection; so they denied it. The Lord shows the reality of the Resurrection precisely by these five Books and says: “Have you not read what was said to you by God, ‘I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob?’” (cf. Mt 22:31-32). God therefore takes these three and in his very name they become the name of God. To understand who this God is it is necessary to see these figures who became the name of God, a name of God, who are immersed in God. In this way we see that anyone who is in the name of God, who is immersed in God, is alive, because God — the Lord says — is not a God of the dead but of the living, and if he is the God of the latter, he is a God of the living.

The living are alive because they are in our memory, in God’s life. And this happens to us in being baptized: we come to be inserted in the name of God, so that we belong to this name and his name becomes our name and we too, with our witness — like the three in the Old Testament — can be witnesses of God, a sign of who this God is, a name of this God.

Consequently, being baptized means being united to God; in a unique, new existence we belong to God, we are immersed in God himself.

[Pope Benedict, Lectio 11 June 2012]

1. We resume today, after a rather long pause, the meditations we have been holding for some time and which we have called reflections on the theology of the body.

In continuing, it is worthwhile, this time, to return to the words of the Gospel, in which Christ refers to the resurrection: words that have a fundamental importance for understanding marriage in the Christian sense and also "the renunciation" of married life "for the sake of the kingdom of heaven".

The complex casuistry of the Old Testament in the field of matrimony not only prompted the Pharisees to come to Christ to put to him the problem of the indissolubility of marriage (cf. Mt 19:3-9 ; Mk 10:2-12 ), but also, another time, the Sadducees, to question him on the law of the so-called Levirate (this law, contained in Deut 25:7-10 , concerns brothers living under the same roof. If one of them died without leaving children, the brother of the deceased had to take the widow of the dead brother as his wife. The child born of this marriage was recognised as the son of the deceased, so that his lineage would not be extinguished and the inheritance would be preserved in the family [cf. Deut 3:9-4:12 ]). This conversation is reported in agreement by the Synoptics (cf. Mt 22:24-30 ; Mk 12:18-27 ; Lk 20:27-40 ). Although all three redactions are almost identical, some slight but, at the same time, significant differences can be noted between them. Since the colloquy is referred to in three versions, those of Matthew, Mark and Luke, a more in-depth analysis is required, as it includes contents that are of essential significance for the theology of the body.

Next to the other two important colloquies, namely: the one in which Christ refers to the "beginning" (cf. Mt 19:3-9 ; Mk 10:2-12 ), and the other in which he refers to the intimacy of man (to the "heart"), pointing to the desire and concupiscence of the flesh as the source of sin (cf. Mt 5:27-32 ), the colloquy, which we now propose to analyse, constitutes, I would say, the third component of the triptych of Christ's own utterances: a triptych of essential and constitutive words for the theology of the body. In this colloquy, Jesus refers to the resurrection, thus revealing a completely new dimension of the mystery of man.

2. The revelation of this dimension of the body, stupendous in its content - and yet connected with the Gospel reread in its entirety and to its very depth - emerges in the conversation with the Sadducees, "who affirm that there is no resurrection" (1); they have come to Christ to present him with an argument that - in their opinion - validates the reasonableness of their position. This argument was to contradict "the hypothesis of the resurrection". The reasoning of the Sadducees is as follows: "Master, Moses left us written that if the brother of one dies and leaves his wife childless, the brother shall take his wife to give offspring to his brother" ( Mk 12:19 ). The Sadducees refer here to the so-called law of Levirate (cf. Deut 25:5-10 ), and referring back to the prescription of this ancient law, they present the following "case": "There were seven brothers: the first took a wife and died without leaving any descendants; then the second took her, but died without leaving any descendants; and the third likewise, and none of the seven left any descendants. Finally, after all, the woman also died. In the resurrection, when they rise again, to which of them will the woman belong? For seven had her as their wife" ( Mk 12:20-23 . The Sadducees, turning to Jesus for a purely theoretical "case", at the same time attack the Pharisees' primitive conception of life after the resurrection of bodies; in fact, they insinuate that belief in the resurrection of bodies leads to the admission of polyandry, which is contrary to the law of God.

3. Christ's answer is one of the key-answers of the Gospel, in which another dimension of the question is revealed - precisely from and in contrast to purely human reasoning - namely that which corresponds to the wisdom and power of God himself. Similarly, for example, the case of the tribute coin with the image of Caesar and the correct relationship between what in the sphere of power is divine and what is human ("Caesar's") (cf. Mt 22:15-22 ). This time Jesus replies as follows: "Are ye not in error, since ye know not the scriptures, nor the power of God? For when they rise from the dead, they will not take wives or husbands, but will be as angels in heaven" ( Mk 12:24-25 ). This is the basic answer to the 'case', i.e. to the problem contained therein. Christ, knowing the conceptions of the Sadducees, and intuiting their authentic intentions, takes up, later, the problem of the possibility of the resurrection, denied by the Sadducees themselves: "Concerning the dead who are to be raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, concerning the bush, how God spoke to him, saying: I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and Jacob? He is not a God of the dead, but of the living" ( Mk 12:26-27 ). As we can see, Christ quotes the same Moses to whom the Sadducees referred, and ends by saying: "You are in great error" ( Mk 12:27 ).

4. Christ also repeats this concluding statement a second time. In fact, the first time he pronounced it at the beginning of his exposition. He said then: "You deceive yourselves, knowing neither the scriptures nor the power of God": so we read in Matthew ( Mt 22,29 ). And in Mark: "Are ye not deceived, since ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God?" ( Mark 12,24 ). By contrast, Christ's own reply, in Luke's version ( Lk 20:27-36 ), is devoid of polemical accent, of that "you are in great error". On the other hand, he proclaims the same thing insofar as he introduces some elements into his reply that are not found in either Matthew or Mark. Here is the text: "Jesus replies: the children of this world take a wife and take a husband; but they that are accounted worthy of the other world, and of the resurrection from the dead, take neither wife nor husband: neither can they die any more, for they are equal to the angels, and being children of the resurrection, they are the children of God" ( Lk 20:34-36 ). Concerning the very possibility of the resurrection, Luke - like the two other synoptics - refers to Moses, that is, to the passage in the Book of Exodus 3:2-6, where it is narrated that the great legislator of the Old Covenant had heard from the bush, which "burned in the fire and was not consumed", the following words: "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob" ( Ex 3:6 ). In the same place, when Moses had asked the name of God, he had heard the answer: "I am he who is" ( Ex 3:14 ).

Thus then, speaking of the future resurrection of bodies, Christ refers to the very power of the living God.

[Pope John Paul II, General Audience 11 November 1981]

Within just days of the Solemnity of All Saints and of the Commemoration of the faithful departed, this Sunday’s Liturgy invites us once again to reflect upon the mystery of the resurrection of the dead. The Gospel (cf. Lk 20:27-38) presents Jesus confronted by several Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection and considered the relationship with God only in the dimension of earthly life. Therefore, in order to place the resurrection under ridicule and to create difficulty for Jesus, they submit a paradoxical and absurd case: that of a woman who’d had seven husbands, all brothers, who died one after the other. Thus came the malicious question posed to Jesus: in the resurrection, whose wife will the woman be (v. 33)?

Jesus does not fall into the snare and emphasizes the truth of the resurrection, explaining that life after death will be different from that on earth. He makes his interlocutors understand that it is not possible to apply the categories of this world to the realities that transcend and surpass what we see in this life. He says, in fact: “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage” (vv. 34-35). With these words, Jesus means to explain that in this world we live a provisional reality, which ends; conversely, in the afterlife, after the resurrection, we will no longer have death as the horizon and will experience all things, even human bonds, in the dimension of God, in a transfigured way. Even marriage, a sign and instrument of God in this world, will shine brightly, transformed in the full light of the glorious communion of saints in Paradise. 

The “sons of heaven and of the resurrection” are not a few privileged ones, but are all men and all women, because the salvation that Jesus brings is for each one of us. And the life of the risen shall be equal to that of angels (cf. v. 36), meaning wholly immersed in the light of God, completely devoted to his praise, in an eternity filled with joy and peace. But pay heed! Resurrection is not only the fact of rising after death, but is a new genre of life which we already experience now; it is the victory over nothing that we can already anticipate. Resurrection is the foundation of the faith and of Christian hope. Were there no reference to Paradise and to eternal life, Christianity would be reduced to ethics, to a philosophy of life. Instead, the message of Christian faith comes from heaven, it is revealed by God and goes beyond this world. Belief in resurrection is essential in order that our every act of Christian love not be ephemeral and an end in itself, but may become a seed destined to blossom in the garden of God, and to produce the fruit of eternal life. 

May the Virgin Mary, Queen of Heaven and Earth, confirm us in the hope of resurrection and help us to make fruitful in good works her Son’s word sown in our hearts.

[Pope Francis, Angelus 6 November 2016]

Little House of God? We no longer haggle

(Lk 19:45-48)

The teaching of Jesus in the sacred place is presented by Lk as enduring: «He was teaching every day» (v.47). Main topic: the Grace.

So over time we learn conviviality: encouraged to dialogue with our personal, unrepeatable Vocation, which captivates because it really corresponds.

And the intimate conviction is alone, incomparable, precious energy of transformative valence - which leads to not withdrawing from oneself, nor disregarding the reality of sisters and brothers.

Rather it induces to make Exodus, explore new conditions of being, transfigure perception into blissful action.

Hunting the false friends of religiosity, the Lord is not so much oriented to compensate the purity of the Place, nor to mend and revive the enamel of the sober original cult - as Prophets wanted.

He renders a holy service not to ancient God, but to people - by that system [or tangle] made totally unaware of their vocational dignity: only chained, milked, and sheared.

The first Tent of God is therefore humanity itself, its beating heart - not a delimited space:

Upon entering Jerusalem, the Master takes possession of the heavenly House - which is not the Temple, but the People.

He doesn’t teach to enter into habitual and formal armor accepted by the contour, but distant from persons.

Rather, He stimulates us not to restrain our true nature with costume hoods, according to which "it’s never enough".

Our inner world should not be hysterically regarded as a dangerous stranger.

Innate roots and our natural energy have the right to flourish and prevail over common manners or ideas: they are an experimental trace of the Divine.

In them there is a Personal bond, which wins every intimate torment.

We must therefore change our approach. He himself is the essential point of the Eternal’s worship.

In this light of Person in his Person, everyone can embrace proposals that are not of others and intruders; wich will not turn out to be ballasts.

The phantasmagorical ancient culmination is becoming periphery, it’s decaying. And to find ourselves, we have difficulties.

An opportunity not to be missed to proceed in a living and singular way, in tune with an ever new teaching on unprecedented Love, which takes our step.

It’s the burning Appeal of «the Mount», which focusses on ‘passion’: precisely on Desire.

No more a strict call to the "no" of great appearances - but finally Listening to the Voice in the soul, which amazes (v.48).

Authentic sacred of the temple.

With what does not correspond, even from a cultural, social and spiritual point of view, we no longer haggle.

[Friday 33rd wk. in O.T.  November 22, 2024]