Gospel for Sunday, November 17: Mark 13,24-32
XXXIII Sunday Year B
24 In those days, after that tribulation,
the sun shall be darkened
and the moon will no longer give its splendor
25 and the stars will fall from the sky
and the powers that are in the heavens will be shaken.
26 Then they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds with great power and glory. 27 And he will send angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of heaven.
28 From the fig tree you learn this parable: when already its branch becomes tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near; 29 so you also, when you see these things happening, know that he is near, at the gates. 30 Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away before all these things have happened. 31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. 32 As for then that day or that hour, no one knows them, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.Mk 13:24-32
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.
The Parousia (13:24-27)
The apocalyptic genre (from “apo-kaluptein” = “s-veil”, to 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.
Jesus uses this symbolic literary genre when speaking to us of the “beginning of sorrows” (Mk 13:8) (cf. “labor pains”: Rom 8:22; Rev 12:2) to express the condition of suffering and pain in which every man lies because of his creaturehood and the internal logic of this world, but from which God will draw a new creation. The “abomination of desolation” (Mk. 13:14) refers to Daniel’s prophecy (Dan. 9:27; 11:31; 12:11), when Antiochus IV Epiphanes in 168 B.C. desecrated the Temple by placing in it the statue of Zeus Olympus: among the various interpretations, it seems clearer to refer to the Death of Jesus himself, when the very Son of God is by the High Priests handed over to the pagans.
In today’s passage, according to a typical apocalyptic pattern (wonders in heaven, glorious advent of the Messiah, reunion of the elect), the triumph of Christ is described.
Revelation is not something that is to come. The Apocalypse has already been there. The Apocalypse was the cosmic battle of the forces of evil trying to crush the Messiah.
The Messiah accepts the Father’s will, dies on the cross and, in doing so, finally destroys evil, disease, death, sin. Revelation does not refer to a further coming of the Lord: it refers to the coming of the Lord culminating in his death on the cross.
It is the day that Revelation calls “of Armagheddon” (Rev. 16:16). John, in speaking of Armegheddon, attempts a pun that is clear to the Jewish audience but no longer to those who are not familiar with the Bible, rabbinic procedures and the history of Israel: Har = mountain + Meghiddo = mountain as in Meghiddo. In Meghiddo died Josiah of whom it is said, “He made idols and abominations disappear in order to put into practice the words of the law. Before him there had not been a king who like him had converted to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his strength, and after him there arose no other like him” (2 Kings 23). During his reign Pharaoh Necao moved to rescue the king of Assyria at the Euphrates River: King Josiah went to meet him but was killed at Meghiddo (2 Chr 34-35). At Meghiddo a righteous man dies, the one who is reputed to be the last righteous Davidic king, but on a mountain (Har), Golgotha, another descendant of David dies, king but not of this world, and as righteous as the one who died at Meghiddo. John wants to tell us that as at Meghiddo died the last righteous king of the A. T., on a mountain near Meghiddo and as at Meghiddo dies the last righteous one; this death is victory in the battle against evil. And so Armagheddon is Golgotha.
In Mark, unlike Matthew (Mt 24), there is no hint of the end of the world: “Nothing in these words, nor in the basic little Jewish apocalypse, announces anything other than the coming messianic crisis and the expected deliverance of the chosen people, which was in fact fulfilled with the ruin of Jerusalem, the resurrection of Christ and his coming in the Church” (Jerusalem Bible).
Revelation announces the end of time, and the end of time takes place in the Lord’s death, and in his Resurrection, in which forever Satan is defeated and chained, and we enter into the glory of God.
Of course, St. Paul will say, we are suspended between the “already” and the “not yet.” The baptized person has already died and risen in Christ : “For with him you were buried together in baptism, in him also you were raised together through faith in the power of God… With him God has also given life to you“ (Col 2:12-13); ‘You have been raised with Christ ’ (Col 3:1); the believer is already placed with Jesus in heaven: ”From being dead that we were to sins, he has made us alive again with Christ… With him he also raised us up and seated us in heaven “ (Eph 2:5-6)!
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, God’s life, 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. For Revelation, a great message of hope, in the Cross and Resurrection already the “day of the Lord” has been fulfilled, and in our death we will enter the dimension of God, in which, outside of space and time, the “particular judgment” of each of us and the “universal judgment” coincide.
This is why the believer yearns to come out of his bodily dimension to meet God at the moment of his death. That is why death for the believer should not be some frightening thing, but should be the glorious time when I the Bridegroom is reunited with the Bride: that is why when we say, “Maranathah!”, “Lord, come!” (Rev. 22:27, 20), we basically ask nothing more of the Lord that he will soon come into our lives to welcome us into his Kingdom.
The believer is convinced that his life is a gift, and he knows that his death is not a tragic thing but is a passage into the arms of God, so he aspires and waits for his coming, which is precisely the moment of death.
The Parable On Discernment (13:28-32)
The reference to Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection is obvious: “This generation shall not pass away before all these things have taken place” (13:30). God’s coming in our lives is certain, like the summer when the fig tree blooms (13:28-29): but no one knows it except the Father (13:32): all that is left for us is to keep watch, living the present with commitment, leaving calculations, fear, and catastrophic predictions to others.
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.