Gospel for Sunday, December 01: Luke 21:25-28,34-36
Advent Sunday C
25 There will be signs in the sun, the moon and the stars, and on earth anguish of peoples anxious because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, 26 while men will die in fear and expectation of what is to happen on earth. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
27 Then they will see the Son of Man coming on a cloud with power and great glory.
28 When these things begin to happen, arise and lift up your heads, for your deliverance is at hand.”
34 Be careful that your hearts are not weighed down in dissipation, drunkenness, and afflictions of life, and that that day does not suddenly come upon you; 35 like a snare it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36 Watch and pray at all times, that you may have strength to escape all that is to come, and to appear before the Son of Man.”Lk 21:25-28,34-36
Dear sisters and brothers of Misericordia, I am Carlo Miglietta, a doctor, biblical scholar, layman, husband, father and grandfather (www.buonabibbiaatutti.it). Also today I share with you a short thought meditation on the Gospel, with special reference to the theme of mercy.
LUCA’S APOCALYPTICAL DISCUSSION (Luke 21:5-38)
The apocalyptic genre
The apocalyptic genre (from apo-kaluptein = s-veil, remove the veil of mystery) is a rethinking of the prophetic announcements concerning God’s interventions in history, but above all an imaginative reinterpretation of the theology of the “Day of IHWH”: it would be the time of God’s final judgment against the unfaithful nations and against sinful Israel itself (Is 13:6-13; Zeph 1:14; Gl 4:14-20; Zech 14:1; Ml 3:14-19. ..), but also of salvation of the righteous after a period of tribulation and affliction, with earthly or future retribution (Dan 9; 11; 12…). In a time of crisis and oppression, hope is renewed in God who, through his Messiah, will intervene to defeat the wicked and make the good triumph. In apocalyptic literature, symbolic language, visions are used, and texts are attributed to great figures of the OT (Ezra, Baruk, Moses, Isaiah, Abraham, Jacob, Enoch…).
The long discourse we read in Luke 21 belongs to the apocalyptic genre: the last times are described as times of wars and divisions, earthquakes and famines, and cosmic catastrophes. This language widely present in Jesus’ discourse is not the message, but simply the expressive medium that attempts to communicate it. None of these phrases should be taken literally.
Apocalyptic discourse stems from the conviction that history is walking, under God’s guidance, toward a full and final salvation. The disappointments and constant contradictions of history will never succeed in demolishing that hope; on the contrary, they will serve to purify it and teach that salvation is, beyond present existence, God’s work and not man’s alone.
The apocalyptic discourse calls on believers — who are now Christians caught up in persecution and embittered by the world’s hatred — to renew their trust in God’s promise and to persevere in their choices of faith and not to compromise: “not even a hair on your head will perish.”
The facts
Jesus’ discourse in Luke 21 is a web of facts, revelations, and exhortations.
The facts:
1. The destruction of the Temple (21:5-6).
2. False prophets pass themselves off as the Christ and announce that the end is near (21:7-8).
3. There will be wars and revolutions, people against people and kingdom against kingdom (21:9-10).
4. There will be earthquakes, famines, plagues (21:11).
5. Persecution of believers, betrayed even by parents, siblings, relatives and friends (21:12-19).
6. Devastation of Jerusalem and end of the then Jewish world (21:21-24).
7. Signs in the sun, moon and stars (21:25-26).
These events – heresies, wars, persecutions, cosmic phenomena – do not exhaust the panorama of history and its contradictions, but Jesus sees them as typical and recurring situations, situations that the disciple must be ready to face.
The revelations
1. Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled (21:24). Some interpret that there is a limited time when the Gentiles will rule Jerusalem (cf. Rev. 11:2). But Luke is probably referring to the “mystery of Israel” Paul speaks of. Paul, in his letter to the Romans, in a chapter, the eleventh, which we have too often overlooked with dramatic consequences in Christian-Jewish relations, reveals to us what the “mystery of Israel” and its destiny is, and what attitude Christians should have toward the chosen people. In Rom 11:25-32 Paul communicates the mystery: all Israel in the eschatological future will be saved. When all the nations have accepted to be part of the Church, then all Israel will also be converted. And Israel’s conversion will coincide with the final resurrection.
2. Then they will see the Son of Man coming on a cloud with great power and glory (21:27); when you see these things come to pass, know that the Kingdom of God is at hand (21:31): in trial, in pain, the believer knows that Jesus is the Savior; it is in suffering that God comes closest to us. The designation “Son of Man” comes from Dn 7:13-14 and heralds a messianic figure who, though starting from humble beginnings (son of man means common man), is called to ascend to the Ancient of Days or Most High (Dn 7:13-14)…This is the highest conception to which the prophets have come when speaking of the future savior…The Son of Man is God’s plenipotentiary, the savior, the liberator” (O. Da Spinetoli). The cloud hints at the divinity of the Son of Man (Acts 1:9). The word deliverance (“apolytrósis) is a typical Luke’s closing. The coming of the Son is identified with deliverance.
3. This generation will not pass away before everything takes place (21:32). The expectation of the coming of the Kingdom of God, in the New Testament, is circumscribed within the temporal boundaries of the generation that had personally encountered Jesus: the Kingdom was awaited in the time of Jesus’ own life, either at his death, or at his resurrection, or at any rate not long after that (Jn 14:2-3; 21:22-23; cf. 1 Jn 2:18).
The Parousia, the advent of the Lord, are considered imminent by early Christians (1 Thess 4:15, 17; Jas 5:7-8).
But time passes–and the Lord does not come! The early Christian community enters a dramatic crisis: the “saints of God,” the “elect” experience sin, indeed death itself, without having seen the Lord’s coming. “Mocking mockers” begin to say, ”Where is the promise of his coming? From the day our fathers closed their eyes everything remains as at the beginning of creation” (2 Pet. 3:3-4). And various answers are attempted: “Whoever eats and drinks (of the Eucharist) without recognizing the Lord’s body, eats and drinks his own condemnation. This is why there are many sick and infirm among you, and a good number have died” (1 Cor. 11:29-30); ‘For first the apostasy must take place, and the unrighteous man, the son of perdition, must be revealed’ (2 Thess. 2:1-8); ‘The Lord is not slow in fulfilling his promise, as some believe; but he uses patience toward you, not wanting that any should perish, but that all should have opportunity to repent’ (2 Pet. 3:9).And calls for patience and watchfulness are emphasized in the Gospels (Mt 24:42) “for the bridegroom tarries” (Mt 25:5), “the master tarries” (Lk 12:45). It begins, however, that “as to that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Mt 24:36). At the time of the Ascension, to the apostles who ask Jesus, “Lord, is this the time when you will rebuild the kingdom of Israel?” and he replies, “It is not for you to know the times and the moments that the Father has reserved for his choice” (Acts 1:6-7).
A new reflection then arises: the Kingdom of God has already been established in the Paschal Mystery of Jesus, in his “passage” from this world to the Father through his passion, death, resurrection and ascension: this is the event that has determined once and for all the defeat of evil and the triumph of God, and that has made those who follow Christ a holy people, of true children of God.
The apocalyptic discourses of the New Testament (Mt 24:1-44; Mk 13:1-37; Lk 21:5-36) had presented the coming of the Son of Man as connected with the “abomination of desolation,” the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, and the end of the world. Luke does not speak of “abomination” but only of “desolation” (“erèmosis”: 21:20). The prophet Daniel, speaking of the “abomination of desolation” (Dan 9:27), had said that at the end of the seventy weeks there would be the slaying of the Lord’s Anointed One, the desecration of the temple, and the interdiction of worship. Christians are beginning to understand that Jesus, in referring to that prophecy (Mt 24:15; Mk 13:14), had intended to configure precisely his death, which was horded by the religious leaders, the temple leaders, as the ultimate desecration of the temple itself, which would produce the abandonment of Judaism and its cultic practices (Mt 23:38; Mt 24:16-20; Mk 13:14-18), and had wanted thus to proclaim the end of the ancient economy, symbolized by the rending of the temple veil (Mt 27:51; Mk 15:38; Lk 23:45); his death had also been the moment of cosmic catastrophe, as announced by the signs that accompanied it: darkness, earthquake, resurrection of the dead (Mt 27:45. 51-54; Mk 15:38; Lk 23:45).
In this sense then arises, according to the modern reading, the text of Revelation: we are “already” saved, “already” redeemed, “already” possessors of the goods of the Kingdom, grace, the life of God, the victory over sin and evil, although, still imprisoned in the space-time dimension typical of creaturehood, we “not yet” taste them experientially: for now only in faith do we participate in this event, until our death, freeing us from our earthly dimension and launching us into God’s eternity, will enable us to experience salvation and encounter with God in fullness.
Exhortations:
1. Do not be deceived (21:8).
2. Do not be terrified: it is not immediately the end (21:9).
3. When these things begin to happen, rise up and lift up your heads, for your deliverance is near (21:28): God delivers you from sorrow!
4. Do not prepare your defense: I will give you speech and wisdom so that all your adversaries will not be able to resist or counter… Not a hair of your head will be lost (21:14-18).
5. By perseverance you will save your life: the “ypomonè,” which is endurance and patience (21:19).
6. The Church will separate itself from Judaism: a new economy begins: “Let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are within the city depart from it, and let those in the country not return to the city” (21:21).
7. Let not your hearts be weighed down in dissipations … and afflictions of life (21:34).
8. Watch at all times by praying, that you may have the strength to… appear before the Son of Man (21:36). In faith we are already saved, sharers in the very life of God, in his glorious kingdom; in daily experience we are still under the sign of creaturehood and its limitations. This is why we pray, “Thy kingdom come” (Mt 6:10; Lk 11:2), asking God that we soon experience even in our historical dimension what has already been fulfilled in God’s eternity, the ultimate victory over evil and death by the Son. Waiting for the final encounter with the Lord that will be realized with our death, when we will step out of space and time to meet God in his eternity.
Happy Mercy to all!
Anyone who would like to read a more complete exegesis of the text, or some insights, please ask me at migliettacarlo@gmail.com.