The 33d Sunday in Ordinary Time, November 24, 2013

Malachi 3:19-20a; 2 Thessalonians 3:7-12; Luke 21:5-19

          Jesus said after many were commenting about the temple, "All that you see here - the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down."

          And this is exactly what happened to the temple and the city of Jerusalem about 40 years later. The city fell to the Romans armies in year 70 after a desperate siege in which people of Jerusalem were actually reduced to cannibalism. The historians give different numbers of people who died during this horrific event. The estimates of  number of people who died runs from several hundred thousand to over a million.  Titus, the future Caesar and the one who commended Roman legions,  reportedly refused to accept a wreath of victory, saying that the victory did not come through his own efforts but that he had merely served as an instrument of God's wrath.
          Luke, the writer of today's gospel, seemed to  believe that Jerusalem’s destruction was somehow connected with Jesus’ death.  In his eyes by not accepting Jesus’ message of nonviolence, the city’s inhabitants created their own fate.  Instead of changing the tension-filled environment that existed between them and Romans by giving themselves in love to their enemies as Jesus taught, they chose again and again the means of insurrections and violence.

          The Temple was the center of Judaism. Its heartbeat. The most cherished possession. But God allowed it to be dismantled. Why? Is it because in the eyes of God His most cherished possession was His people? But his own people lost sight of it and cherished much more other things?

          What is the most cherished possession of the church, of our own community?

          I would like to share with you the story of Deacon Lawrence who died about year 258.

          Lawrence was charged with the responsibility for the material goods of the church and the distribution of alms to the poor. When Lawrence knew he would be arrested like the pope, he sought out the poor, widows and orphans of Rome and gave them all the money he had on hand, selling even the sacred vessels to increase the sum. When the prefect of Rome heard of this, he imagined that the Christians must have considerable treasure.

          He sent for Lawrence and said,

          “You Christians say we are cruel to you, but that is not what I have in mind.

          I am told that your priests offer in gold, that the sacred blood is received                 in silver cups, that you have golden candlesticks at your evening services.

          Now, your doctrine says you must render to Caesar what is his.

          Bring these treasures—the emperor needs them to maintain his forces.

          God does not cause money to be counted:

          He brought none of it into the world with him—only words.

          Give me the money, therefore, and be rich in words.”

          Lawrence replied that the church was indeed rich.

                   “I will show you a valuable part. But give me time to set everything in order and make an inventory.”

          After three days he gathered a great number of blind, lame, maimed, leprous, orphaned and widowed persons and put them in rows. When the prefect arrived, Lawrence simply said, “These are the treasure of the church.”

          What answer would we give to the prefect of Rome? What are the most precious possessions of our community which we cherish?

The 32d Sunday in Ordinary Time, November 10th, 2013

 

2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14; 2 Thessalonians 2:16-3:5; Luke 20:27-38

     Life is like … a highway. A soon as we are born, we start creeping, crawling, walking, running, riding and finally shuffling, tottering, and perhaps being pushed in a wheelchair along the highway of life. The road we travel is usually well marked with direction signs. There are reasonable limits as to how fast or slow we should go. When the way gets too bumpy a detour is indicated. Well spaced rest stops are provided so we can refresh ourselves. Most of the time dangerous areas are clearly marked.

But one of the unique features of this highway of life is that sooner or later each one of us will reach that place on the road that is marked with a special sign. This sign has our own name on it plus the single word…..EXIT. As much as we may like to ignore that sign and keep going, we simply are not able to. We have to take that Exit which marks the end of our earthly route. And what happens next? Different groups of people have various opinions.

In today’s gospel one of those groups, the Sadducees, approached Jesus claiming that the first sign to greet us when we take our Exit is the sign that says, DEAD END. End without hope, life, and any future. 

Confronted by the Sadducees Jesus responds to them very clearly stating that there is life, hope, and the future fall all those who have died. That all of them are alive for God and that all of them will be resurrected.

At Jesus' time personal resurrection was not universally accepted. The doctrine of an afterlife and of personal resurrection developed within Judaism only around 200 BC. Before then, during the First Temple time,  it was believed that all the dead, regardless of their moral or immoral life on earth,  went to Sheol, the place of darkness. There was no reward or punishment for anything there.

As a matter of fact it seems as before the writers of the Bible were appalled by the afterlife beliefs that many Israelites were tempted to share with the Canaanites in the promised land. 

The first affirmative references of personal resurrection in the Bible occurs in the Book of Daniel and in the 2nd book of Maccabees written around years 168 BC and  from which we have heard today.

The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection and this is why in today's gospel they bring this issue to Jesus, to have a conversation with him on this topic, attempting to show the absurdity of any thought of the resurrection.  Most of the Israelites at the time of Jesus believed that one live on only in one's descendents and in their memory. This is why the Sadducees give an example of a woman who was married seven times.

Following Jesus, we Christians do not expect to see a DEAD END sign at our individual Exits, and we do believe in a personal resurrection. We reject the claim of the Sadducees that “there is no resurrection.” Rather, we accept and rejoice in the yet more ancient claim of the seven brave brothers of today’s first reading whose faith led them to proclaim “The King of the world will raise us up to live again for ever.”

Almost each Sunday in this church as we profess our faith we say: “I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen."

The question is:  are we going to be raised to the resurrection of life or the resurrection of judgment, resurrection of condemnation?

The answer to this question depends, as the church tells us,  on a way we live our lives.

Is our life rooted in the teachings of Christ or not? Do we personally live out the gospel of Christ or not? Do we help each other to live out the gospel of Christ?

The 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time, November 3d, 2013

Wisdom 11:22-12:2; 2 Thessalonians 1:11-2:2; Luke 19:1-10

          A man was bothered with continual ringing in his ears, bulging eyes, and a flushed face, Over a period of three years he went to one doctor after another. One took out his tonsils, one removed his appendix, another pulled all his teeth. He even tried a goat-gland treatment in Switzerland – all to no avail. Finally, one doctor told him there was no hope – he had six months to live.

          The poor fellow quit his job, sold all his belongings and decided to live it up in the time he had left. He went to his tailor and ordered several suits and shirts. The tailor measured his neck and wrote down 16 ½.

          The man corrected him. “It’s 15 ½ .”

          The tailor measured again: 16 ½.

          But the man insisted that he had always worn a size 15 ½.

          “Well,, all right,” said the tailor. “Just don’t come back here complaining if you have ringing ears, bulging eyes and a flushed face!”

God is like this tailor!

          He offers us good and solid advice, but it is up to us to follow with it.

          As a matter of fact God has offered us through the gift of His son the best ever advice regarding the most important issue of our life. The issue and the question regarding of who can be saved and how she or he can be saved.

          Today's gospel story of Zacchaeus helps us to understand that advice more clearly. But to have even better understanding of the story of Zacchaeus we should contrast it with another story of  Luke's gospel, the story of the Rich Official. Let me than first read the story of The Rich Official before we continue our reflections.

The Rich Official.

18 An official asked him this question, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 19Jesus answered him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 20 You know the commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery; you shall not kill; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; honor your father and your mother.’” 21And he replied, “All of these I have observed from my youth.” 22^* When Jesus heard this he said to him, “There is still one thing left for you: sell all that you have and distribute it to the poor, and you will have a treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 23But when he heard this he became quite sad, for he was very rich. 24 Jesus looked at him [now sad] and said, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! 25For it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” 

          Zacchaeus and the Rich Offical were both powerful, both wealthy.

The Rich Official kept all the commandments, and could be considered as righteous. But he could not do the "one thing remaining," which was to hand over his life utterly to Jesus, and to signal that commitment to sell his possessions and to give them to the poor. The Rich Official left Jesus sad because he chose to keep serving his wealth over serving God and God's poor. He has rejected God's invitation extended to him through Jesus.

          Zacchaeus, in contrast, was regarded as a "sinner" by those accompanying Jesus because of his occupation as chief tax-agent. 

          But Zacchaeus is eager to recieve Jesus "with joy" and he declares his willingness to share - indeed if this reading of the story is correct, his regular practice of sharing - his possessions with the poor, not as a single gesture but as a steady commitment. And far from being "rapacious," when he finds any profit made on the basis of shady practice, he pays it back at the maximum demanded by the law.

          Everything about the Rich Official suggested piety. But he was closed to the call of Jesus.

          Everything about the tax-agent would suggest corruption. But he is righteous in his deeds and is, as Jesus declares, a "child of Abraham."

          Jesus is not against wealthy people. He just invites them, as he does everyone else, to keep open their hearts to God and their neighbors. 

          So here comes the kicker. The invitation for each one of us to reflect upon this weekend:

          Do we close ourselves to the voice of Christ:

·       by putting too much trust in our own wealth disregarding God and His people, the needs of his people, the needs of our own local and church communities,

·       or by separating ourselves from God and His people by our various pious practices or titles or meanness or crankiness,

·       or by being enslaved by prejudice that we know who people are and that they cannot change?

Or we:

          Welcome Christ with joy, the way Zacchaeus did, and we let go, if this is indeed a case, of  ringing of our ears, bulging of our eyes and flushing of our face, and we become overcome with an outrageous good news that a camel passed through the eye of a needle!

          That we have opened our hearts to the voice of Christ and have indeed accepted his salvation.