Understanding Sunday Gospels: December 27, 2018–November 26, 2019

By John Kilgallen SJ

This book explains each Sundays gospel reading at mass; that is, each of the books essays means to show what the author wanted to convey to his audience through his writing. These essays, intentionally kept brief, are not homilies, but they clarify the evangelists mind and intention in his gospel preaching. We hope that this book will help the Catholic, whether in the pew or in the pulpit, to appreciate the wisdom of each Sundays gospel.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 15, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524533649

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01 Year C, First Sunday of Advent, December 2, 2018, Luke 21, 25-28 and 34-36

Like Mark, his source before him, Luke brings Jesus’ public life to an end with a speech which means to elaborate on the imminent destruction of Jerusalem and the trials and fears which will precede it. Luke, writing after the destruction of Jerusalem (70AD) and to an audience living about 85AD, and far from Israel, adjusts what he has read in Mark. What we have as our Gospel of the First Sunday of Advent is selected verses of this speech, with special attention to them because they speak to a Coming (Advent means ‘coming’) – not that of the new-born baby in Bethlehem, but of the final coming of the Son of Man in judgment of the world. But as our Gospel reading unfolds, whatever Jesus has to say about the future is replaced by his present urging of preparedness for this final coming of the Son of Man. Jesus does not pretend to know just when this cataclysmic coming of the Son of Man will be, but he is aware of what can weaken or distract from one’s readiness to meet all that faces the believer, especially the Judgment.

Jesus speaks here first of signs of the coming of the Son of Man that will appear in ‘the sun, the moon and the stars’. All creation is involved in this final coming of Jesus, and all creation, true to the teaching of the time, speaks in harmony of the great acts of God about to happen on earth. As with the heavens, so with the powers of seas and waves; indeed, the powers of the heavens will be shaken, a sign of a power superior to nature. Jesus is not alone in using this language; what he says is recognized as centuries-old traditional prophetic speech. A further reality of this power is the dismay and confusion of whole nations at this time, even that people will die of fright at the thought of what is to finally happen.

Luke has shaped this speech of Jesus, not just as a prelude to what will be the day of final judgment, but with the knowledge that some of these elements which warn of Jesus’ coming have already happened. Indeed, between the time of Jesus and the time of Luke, there happened a number of tragedies throughout the Mediterranean world, tragedies of nature and tragedies of persecution against Christians, which coincided with Jesus’ predictions, and are seen to fulfill them.

Luke’s interest overall is the story of the saving of the entire world, and not just Israel. Thus, his description of the sufferings preceding the coming of the Son of Man speaks directly of ‘them’: they, not just you, will see the Son of Man. Indeed, what began in small Galilee will end in the full acknowledgement of the Son of Man as judge of the entire world. And as is his tendency, visible throughout his Acts of the Apostles, Luke separates from the world ‘you’, i.e. the faithful followers of Jesus. Crucial to this speech is Jesus’ word to the believers: contrary to the fear, perplexity, fright of people and nations, you the faithful will know the coming of the Son of Man as a redemption, not a judgment or condemnation. The Christian’s deeds of this world will find, not the judge, but the redeemer, the savior. What seemed to be a speech of dire warning and even despair now becomes a speech of assurance and joy: the redeemer, to whom one has been faithful, is coming one day to bring the faithful to himself, and not to condemn. A glorious coming for some indeed!

Our Gospel reading now omits 5 verses of Jesus’ speech, which now reminds us of his call for repentance. We recall. Jesus had already given his parable about the prudent and imprudent servants and the good and bad results of their care for the coming of the master. The story of the prodigal son had strongly urged repentance, and later Jesus had pleaded that we not let anxieties replace God in life.

Jesus had already spoken of the suddenness, the surprise, of this divine coming: You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come; the trap is a good image of this suddenness, for, without immediate warning, it springs to catch the unsuspecting.

Jesus closes with a warning heard before: be vigilant! And in the light of what he knew was to come for his people and for his believers, particularly from those who brought wars and other persecutions upon them, he could only urge a prayer for strength, a strength to escape these imminent tribulations summarily described and a strength to be among those who ‘lift up their heads for their redemption is at hand’.

Redemption, already become in earlier decades a key word in explaining the effects and purpose of the cross of Christ, is in its basic meaning a ‘buying back’; here God buys back what was originally His, now bought back with the blood of Christ. We once were God’s; now through faith and repentance we are His again. Mercy pleads for repentance so that ‘one can hold up one’s head’ before Jesus in the Judgment to come.

02 Year C, Second Sunday of Advent, December 9, 2018, Luke 3, 1-6

After describing events of the childhoods of John and Jesus, Luke moves to Jesus’ public life. We now hear the adult John’s call that Israel ‘prepare the way of the Lord’ as He comes to His chosen people. ‘Prepare the way’ refers to a physical practice widespread by which a city or town welcomes a hero (often an army general). People may see this personage only once in their life, so they prepare in every way possible, including smoothing the way by filling craters and lowering hills. Part of the practice includes the people’s going out to meet the hero, even before he reaches town, to beg favors from him. John is to prepare the moral way for the Lord, making all ‘smooth, even and straight’, i.e. by calling for repentance of sins and a good reception of the Lord.

Tiberius Caesar, successor to Augustus, began to rule the Roman Empire, and so Palestine, in 14AD. Luke calls attention to Tiberius’s 14th year, 28AD, as the time of the public appearance of John the Baptist. Whereas Herod the Great had ruled Palestine till 4BC, his three sons, Archelaus, Antipas and Philip, together with a General Lysanias, inherited the Land after Herod the Great’s death. (We ignore Philip and Lysanias because they have no mention in Luke’s work.) Archelaus inherited from Herod the Great both Samaria and Judaea, which together comprised the lower 2/3 of Palestine; his rule ended in 6AD, when Rome replaced him with a series of Procurator (who answered directly to the Roman legate in Syria). One of these Procurators was Pontius Pilate, who ruled Judaea and Samaria (26BC-36BC), till a year or so after Jesus’ death. Antipas inherited the top third of Palestine, Galilee, and remained in office till 37AD (and so was the Herod Jesus faced in a trial for his life). Annas and Caiaphas both held the position of High Priest, the latter following after the former. The High Priest was automatically president of the highest rule body in Palestine, the Sanhedrin, was the only person ever allowed into the Holy of Holies of the Temple (and this only once a year) and was the official Jewish representative to the highest Roman authority in Rome.

Why does Luke start the adult life (of John and) of Jesus with this lengthy historical framework? The explanation lies in the fact that Luke is writing at a time when the story of Galilee has long passed (some 50 years) and Christianity, through people like St. Paul, have entered and challenged the great world of the Mediterranean. Christianity is no longer just a group of followers in little Galilee, but a religion that fits into Roman and Greek life. In this vein, scholars think that Luke, while chronicling Jesus’ time in Galilee (with a trip to Jerusalem to end in his death), wants Christianity to be known as a Mediterranean religion equal to others. Luke always in his story has an eye to the world of his audience.

Luke follows Mark’s method of presenting John; he uses, more abundantly than Mark, the prophecy of Isaiah, that there should be "a voice of one crying out in the desert: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths’. Isaiah very picturesquely describes the efforts that Israel should make to receive her Lord – for truly he is coming. One is reminded here of Jesus’ remark some chapters after this one, that John is a prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom scripture says: ‘Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, he will prepare your way before you.’" (7,26-27).

Luke had introduced this prophecy of Isaiah by signaling God’s sending his ‘word’ to John while in the desert (thereby rooting John’s preaching in an act of God and not in human choice or thinking). But the way in which Luke presents John teaches the reader that his role was to do two things. He was to, and did proclaim a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and Luke will soon give examples of what John called repentance. Baptism, the entering into the Jordan waters to exit a new moral person, pure, clean and living with God, would be followed by obedience to the Law of Moses, with particular emphasis on kindness, justice, fairness. The outcome of this effort to change one’s life was, it was hoped, God’s response of forgiving sins. But John was also to give witness to, and prepare the way of the Lord Jesus. Unlike prophets of old, John faced the Lord, and, though John will later ask, Are you the one who is to come, or should we wait for another?, and never be a follower of Jesus, he is, in the plan of God, the one singularly to prepare for Jesus.

Scholars debate: does God begin his new movement of salvation (indeed for ‘all flesh’, i.e. not just for Israel) with John, or is he the last of the OT’s time, distinct from the new drive to salvation? I would prefer to think that, for Luke, John begins a movement which will call, first Israel, then the greater world, to repentance and salvation. Luke links John and Jesus so closely in his first two chapters that it seems they belong to a new offer of salvation. In Jesus’ terms, both of them are ‘new wine’ poured into ‘old wineskins’.

03 Year C, Third Sunday of Advent, December 16, 2018, Luke 3, 7-18

Each Gospel knows it only right that each must present something of John the Baptist before writing about Jesus. Luke writes most extensively, in his infancy narratives as well as in the adult life of John. What does Luke think he accomplishes in the verses given us as today’s Gospel?

First, to understand Luke’s work here, let us recall that he, like Matthew, first read Mark, and, using him as a primary source, developed his own story. What Mark did was to write a general description of John-his clothing, food, and message of repentance seen in urging Israelites to enter the waters of the Jordan, to signal new life and new cleanliness before God (water to Jews in this age was source of life and cleanness). Luke will repeat what Mark wrote, but will take a step towards indicating what repentance involves. Luke, ever aware he is writing a literary piece acceptable in the educated circles in the Mediterranean, constructs a three-part dialogue with groups before him. First he presents the question of the crowds, What should we do? [It is typically Jewish to describe repentance as doing the will of God.] The answer is typically Jewish, and typically John: share clothing and food. The second group is a very distinct and hated group, considered by all as thieves, the tax-collectors who worked for Rome and demanded much more from the people than they should have. The answer from John was to the point: stop cheating people! The third group was made up of soldiers, most likely those employed by the Jewish authorities and not Roman soldiers; authority is their stumbling-block because through it they extort, falsely accuse and find means to illegally add to their wages. John’s word is Stop; authority should be subject to justice, indeed even to love of the neighbor. It is not unintentional on Luke’s part that what John points up in a small space about repentance will be very much in line with, and can be said to prepare for, the extended teachings of Jesus. There is a consistent, harmonious message about what God asks of human beings.

It is noteworthy that Luke’s organization of the teaching of John about repentance does not include any reference to Temple worship, or such things as prayer, penance and other such pious practices which make up a very large part of Jewish piety. Even synagogue practices are omitted here. Concentration is on justice, fairness, and not on heroic self-sacrifice; Luke chose it that way.

There is something winning and admirable about the preaching of John; Luke hopes this is so for his audience. Such was his preaching and the symbolism of life and cleanliness before God in his baptism, that many thought he might be the long-for Christ or Messiah; did he not have some of the qualities of the Messiah: holiness and wisdom? A third characteristic of messiah, power, no one ever saw in John, but only in Jesus.

John’s reply to their thinking emphasizes two points, points which have become abundantly ever clearer to Christians over the decades between John’s life and Luke’s writing. First, John recognizes his difference between himself and Jesus by the baptism each will offer; Jesus’ baptism, with its immense gift of the Spirit, will more perfectly make him understood as Messiah. Second, Jesus will be judge of all people, and this John will not. If one were to ask how is it that John knows Jesus to be greater than he, Luke would offer the answer described just a few chapters back, where John leapt in the womb of his mother Elizabeth at the presence of Mary and the child she bore. That Jesus will baptize with the Spirit and with fire suggests that his baptizing will take place after his resurrection and ascension to the right hand of his Father, as his followers built his universal church.