Gospel for Sunday, November 27: Matthew 24: 37-44
I Sunday of Advent A
37As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 38For as in the days before the flood they ate and drank, took wives and took husbands, until the day Noah entered the ark, 39and they did not notice anything until the flood came and swept everyone away: so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 40Then two men will be in the camp: one will be taken away and the other left behind. 41Two women will mill at the grindstone: one will be taken away and the other left behind. 42Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 43Try to understand this: if the landlord knew what time of night the burglar came, he would keep watch and not let his house be broken into. 44So you also be ready because, in the hour you do not imagine, the Son of Man is coming.
Mt 24: 37-44
Dear Sisters and Brothers of the Misericordie, I am Carlo Miglietta, doctor, biblical scholar, layman, husband, father and grandfather (www.buonabibbiaatutti.it).
Also today I share with you a short meditation thought on the Gospel, with special reference to the theme of mercy.
With joy I begin this liturgical year with you in contemplation of the Sunday Gospels.
First, let us get acquainted with the Evangelist who will accompany us this year: he is Matthew, an “unclean man” because he was a publican and therefore a collaborator with the regime in Rome (Mt 9:9), whom Jesus calls, amid general scandal, to become one of his intimates: his name is assonant with “Maththaìos,” “Disciple”: “and he, leaving all, followed him” (Lk 5:27-32). Matthew writes his Gospel for Christian communities from Judaism: he is “a scribe (sofer) who became a disciple of the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 13:52).
Today’s Gospel makes us meditate on the Lord’s final coming. It will be a sudden but splendid moment (Is 2:1-5) of reconciliation among the nations, a day when the dream of the longed-for peace will finally be realized, and the light of the Lord will finally be all in all.
The Gospel (Mt 24:37-44) exhorts us to vigilant and industrious waiting. The Eucharist celebrates the joyful expectation of the ultimate encounter with God: “For as often as you eat of this bread and drink of this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Cor. 11:26). After speaking the words about the cup, Jesus states, “I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new in the Kingdom of God” (Mark 14:25). This eschatological hint is present throughout the institution narratives of the Eucharist, to the point that some Eastern liturgies include this verse in their consecration formulas. Moreover, “the wine of the heavenly banquet is called ‘new’ (kainon), that is, not ‘young’ in relation to ‘old,’ but radically different, invented, unexpected, just like the new earth and the heavens” (X. Léon-Dufour).
The “hope” of Christians is a real fact, already implemented, to the point that Paul speaks of the “hope that awaits you in heaven” (Col 1:5), and invites us to “live… in the expectation of the blessed hope” (Titus 2:13): “Animated by that same spirit of faith of which it is written, ‘I have believed, therefore I have spoken,’ we also believe and therefore we speak, convinced that he who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus and place us beside him” (2 Cor. 4:13-14); “For we know that when this body is disposed of, we will receive a dwelling from God, an eternal dwelling, not built by human hands, in heaven. Therefore we sigh in this state of ours, desiring to clothe ourselves with our heavenly body…. Thus, then, we are always full of confidence and, knowing that as long as we dwell in the body we are in exile away from the Lord, we walk in faith and not yet in vision. We are full of confidence and prefer to go into exile from the body and dwell with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:1-8).
hen Christians wait for the Lord’s return with the boredom with which … one waits for the streetcar at the stop. The Gospel invites us to enthusiasm, to joyful vigil, to come out of a “sleeping” Christianity (Mk. 13:36), to wait for the Lord with the eagerness with which the sweetheart waits for the lover. Said Cardinal Pellegrino: “Paul’s warning is clear and decisive: “If our hope in Christ were confined to this life only, we would be the most miserable of all men!” (1 Cor. 15:19). Just as the apostle yearns to set sail from the harbor of earthly existence to “be with Christ” (Phil. 1:23), the Christian fully aware of his vocation knows what the “impatience of God” means…, the psalmist’s querere Deum…, the image of the deer yearning for the fountain of living water (Sl. 42).”
When John XXIII was told of his imminent death from stomach cancer, he responded with the Psalm, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘We will go to the house of the Lord'” (Sl 121:1). And to Secretary Archbishop Capovilla who announced to him through tears that he was in his final hours, the Pope replied, “Why weep? It is a moment of joy this, a moment of glory.”
Peter in his First Epistle says of our relationship with Jesus, “You love him, though you have not seen him; and now without seeing him you believe in him. Therefore rejoice with unspeakable and glorious joy as you attain the goal of your faith, that is, the salvation of souls” (1 Pet. 1:8-9). And Isaiah, “The moon shall blush, the sun shall pale, for the Lord of hosts reigns on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before his elders he shall be glorified” (Isaiah 24:23). May our growing old truly be the anticipation of the manifestation of the Beloved!
Pope Francis affirms, “We came into the world to rise again: we were not born for death, but for resurrection. Indeed, as St. Paul writes, even now ‘our citizenship is in heaven’ (Phil. 3:20) and, as Jesus says, we will be raised on the last day… We can ask ourselves: what does the thought of the resurrection suggest to me? How do I respond to my call to resurrection? A first help comes to us from Jesus, who says, “He who comes to me, I will not cast out” (Jn. 6:37). Here is his invitation, “Come to me” (cf. Mt 11:28). To go to Jesus, the Living One, to inoculate oneself against death, against the fear that everything will end… In short, do I live by going to the Lord or do I rotate on myself? What is the direction of my path…? To see reality with the eyes of the Lord and not only with our own; to have a gaze projected on the future, on the resurrection, and not only on the passing today; to make choices that have the taste of eternity, the taste of love. Do I go out of myself to go daily to the Lord…? Among the many voices of the world that make us lose the meaning of existence, let us tune in to the will of Jesus, risen and alive: we will make the today we live a dawn of resurrection.”
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.