 |
| “The Last Judgement” Frans Francken II, 1606 |
Readings and Commentary:[3]
Reading 1: Ephesians 4:1-6
Brothers and sisters:
I, a prisoner for the Lord,
urge you to live in a manner
worthy of the call you have received,
with all humility and
gentleness, with patience,
bearing with one another
through love,
striving to preserve the
unity of the spirit
through the bond of peace;
one Body and one Spirit,
as you were also called to
the one hope of your call;
one Lord, one faith, one
baptism;
one God and Father of all,
who is over all and through
all and in all.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on
Eph 4:1-6
St. Paul begins
this chapter of his letter to the Ephesians with an exhortation to live (walk)
in unity with each other. The
theological foundation laid in the previous parts of the letter is now
translated into the need to act upon that reality. The apostles plea for unity uses the litany
of bonds that bring Christian unity; one Body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord,
one baptism, one God and Father.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 24:1bc-2,
3-4ab, 5-6
R. (see 6) Lord, this is the people that longs to see
your face.
The earth is the LORD'S and
all it holds,
the world and those who live
there.
For God founded it on the
seas,
established it over the
rivers.
R. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your
face.
Who may go up the mountain of
the LORD?
Who can stand in his holy
place?
"The clean of hand and
pure of heart,
who are not devoted to idols,
R. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your
face.
They will receive blessings
from the LORD,
and justice from their saving
God.
Such are the people that love
the LORD,
that seek the face of the God
of Jacob.
R. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your
face.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on
Ps 24:1bc-2, 3-4ab, 5-6
Psalm 24 is a processional
song. It recalls that God is the great creator and he calls his people to be
faithful. It asks the question who can come into his presence and answers only
those who are sinless (completely reconciled to God). They who achieve that
beatified state will receive the reward of eternal life from the savior. It
focuses on the character of the one who worthily seeks God and the one who is
worthy to come into God’s kingdom and stand before him. We are answered; “He
whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean, who desires not what is vain.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gospel: Luke 12:54-59
Jesus said to the crowds,
“When you see a cloud rising
in the west
you say immediately that it
is going to rain–and so it does;
and when you notice that the
wind is blowing from the south
you say that it is going to
be hot–and so it is.
You hypocrites!
You know how to interpret the
appearance of the earth and the sky;
why do you not know how to
interpret the present time?
“Why do you not judge for
yourselves what is right?
If you are to go with your
opponent before a magistrate,
make an effort to settle the
matter on the way;
otherwise your opponent will
turn you over to the judge,
and the judge hand you over
to the constable,
and the constable throw you
into prison.
I say to you, you will not be
released
until you have paid the last
penny.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on
Lk 12:54-59
The Lord continues his
reflection on the end times (the Parousia) and, applying the analogy of seeing
what weather will come based upon the direction of the wind, he asks if they
cannot see the signs of the coming of the Kingdom of God. Using that urgency
generated by the uncertainty of the hour of that call to judgment, he exhorts
the crowd to order their lives now and do not delay.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reflection:
In St. Luke’s Gospel, Jesus
continues his discourse about the inevitability of the end times. He has already said that we must be prepared
because we do not know when that will happen.
In this final part of his discourse, Jesus now, speaking once more to
the crowd that had gathered, uses the analogy of a person going into litigation
over a debt to emphasize the need to avoid procrastination.
The language used conveys an
urgency that must have infected St. Paul later on as he fully expected this
event to take place in his own life time.
He never realized that Jesus was speaking in terms of each person’s
journey that would end before the judgment seat of Christ rather than, of some
terrible cataclysm, ending all life everywhere.
When Jesus was crucified (“…a
baptism with which I must be baptized” from Luke 12: 50), the end
that was a beginning started. We are not
denying that, as scripture in other places foretells, there will be a second
coming, a new resurrection. Rather that
we face our own end and our life on this earth has its own conclusion for which
we must be prepared.
Jesus sees this finite strand
of life to which we cling and sees also that we must seek to conform ourselves
to God’s will on this earth to avoid our later regret. How many stories have we heard about the long
line before the pearly gates? The
reality of that line is something else completely. Who among us would wish to come before the
Lord as we are – right at this moment?
Would we be willing to show him all of the sins we have committed –
un-atoned? Would we rather not hope that
our assent to stand before that judgment seat might include a period of time when
those sins we carried with us might be recognized and expiated by our will, our
righteous understanding? Is this not how
we understand Purgatory – that process of purification were we may be made
worthy to stand before Christ, with his angels and saints?
To the Lord’s point though,
even knowing that we; “…will not be
released until you have paid the last penny." We are reminded that we have time, we should
not delay. We all need to examine
carefully what we have done and make sure that those sins are laid out before
God and our contrition demonstrates a conversion of heart. We can think about this time as our time
walking with the Lord, on the way to court.
We pray that we can settle accounts before we reach that destination.
Pax
[2]
The picture is “The Last Judgement” Frans Francken II, 1606
[3]
The readings are taken from the New American Bible with the exception of the
Psalm and its response which were developed by the International Committee for
English in Liturgy (ICEL). This
re-publication is not authorized by USCCB and is for private use only.
No comments:
Post a Comment