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“The Last Judgment”
Frans Francken II, 1606 |
Readings for Friday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time [1]
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible [2]
Readings and Commentary: [3]
Reading 1: Ephesians 4:1-6
Brothers and sisters:
I, a prisoner for the Lord,
urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received,
with all humility and gentleness, with patience,
bearing with one another through love,
striving to preserve the unity of the spirit
through the bond of peace;
one Body and one Spirit,
as you were also called to the one hope of your call;
one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
one God and Father of all,
who is over all and through all and in all.
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Commentary on Eph 4:1-6
St. Paul begins this chapter of his letter to the Ephesians with an exhortation to live (walk) in unity with each other. The theological foundation (the "mystery" of Christ - the calling of all men, Gentiles and Jews, to form a single people, the Church) laid down in the previous parts of the letter is now translated into the need to act upon that reality. The apostle's plea for unity uses the litany of bonds that bring Christian unity: one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one baptism, and one God and Father.
"To show the importance of unity in the Church, and the theological basis of that unity, St Paul quotes an acclamation which may well have been taken from early Christian baptismal liturgy. It implies that the unity of the Church derives from the unicity of the divine essence. The text also reflects the three persons of the Blessed Trinity who are at work in the Church and who keep it together – one Spirit, one Lord, one God and Father." [4]
CCC: Eph 4-6 1454; Eph 4-5 1971; Eph 4:2 2219; Eph 4:3-5 866; Eph 4:3 814; Eph 4:4-6 172, 249, 2790
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 24:1bc-2, 3-4ab, 5-6
R. (see 6) Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
The earth is the LORD'S and all it holds,
the world and those who live there.
For God founded it on the seas,
established it over the rivers.
R. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
Who may go up the mountain of the LORD?
Who can stand in his holy place?
"The clean of hand and pure of heart,
who are not devoted to idols,
R. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
They will receive blessings from the LORD,
and justice from their saving God.
Such are the people that love the LORD,
that seek the face of the God of Jacob." Selah
R. Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.
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Commentary on Ps 24:1bc-2, 3-4ab, 5-6
Psalm 24 is a processional song. It recalls that God is the great creator, and he calls his people to be faithful. It is part of a hymn of entrance, sung as the Ark of the Covenant was brought into the temple, followed by the faithful. The song asks the question: who can come into his presence, and answers: only those who are sinless (completely reconciled to God). Those who achieve that beatified state will receive the reward of eternal life from the savior.
The hymn focuses on the character of the one who worthily seeks God, and the one who is worthy to come into God’s kingdom and stand before him. This same concept is borrowed in a passage from John’s Revelation (Revelation 14:4ff): who are the ones allowed full access to God? They are those: “whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean, who desires not what is vain.” In other words, they are clean in heart, body, and spirit.
CCC: Ps 24:6 2582
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Gospel: Luke 12:54-59
Jesus said to the crowds,
“When you see a cloud rising in the west
you say immediately that it is going to rain–and so it does;
and when you notice that the wind is blowing from the south
you say that it is going to be hot–and so it is.
You hypocrites!
You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky;
why do you not know how to interpret the present time?
“Why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?
If you are to go with your opponent before a magistrate,
make an effort to settle the matter on the way;
otherwise your opponent will turn you over to the judge,
and the judge hand you over to the constable,
and the constable throw you into prison.
I say to you, you will not be released
until you have paid the last penny.”
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Commentary on Lk 12:54-59
The Lord continues his reflection on the end times (the Parousia), and using the analogy of seeing what weather will come based upon the direction of the wind, he asks the people if they cannot see the signs of the coming of the kingdom of God. Applying the image of an impending court date, at which time a judge will pass a sentence, he urges the people to reconcile themselves with the Lord. Using the urgency generated by the uncertainty of the hour of that call to judgment, he exhorts the crowd to order their lives now, and do not delay.
"The point is made more generally: when it comes to earth and sky (the two divisions of the natural order), people bring to bear their interpretive skills to anticipate the future and so to be prepared for it. Jesus accuses the crowds of hypocrisy because they are not ready to apply the same shrewdness to the indicators contained in the unfolding of his own ministry (and perhaps also its precursor in the ministry of John). The events of “this [present] time” point just as reliably as any weather indicators to the coming day of answerability to God." [5]
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Reflection:
In St. Luke’s Gospel, Jesus continues his discourse about the inevitability of the end times. He has already said that we must be prepared because we do not know when that will happen. In this final part of his discourse, Jesus, now speaking once more to the crowd that had gathered, uses the analogy of a person going into litigation over a debt to emphasize the need to avoid procrastination.
The language used conveys an urgency that must have infected St. Paul later on as he fully expected this event to take place in his own lifetime. He never realized that Jesus was speaking in terms of each person’s journey that would end before the judgment seat of Christ, rather than of some terrible cataclysm, ending all life everywhere. When Jesus was crucified (“a baptism with which I must be baptized” Luke 12: 50), the end that was a beginning started. We are not denying that, as Scripture in other places foretells, there will be a second coming, a new resurrection. Rather we know that we face our own end, and our life on this earth has its own conclusion for which we must be prepared.
Jesus sees this finite strand of life to which we cling and sees also that we must seek to conform ourselves to God’s will on this earth to avoid our later regret. How many stories have we heard about the long line before the pearly gates? The reality of that line is something else completely. Who among us would wish to come before the Lord as we are, right at this moment? Would we be willing to show him all of the sins we have committed, unatoned? Would we rather not hope that our assent to stand before that judgment seat might include a period of time when those sins we carried with us might be recognized and expiated by our will, our righteous understanding? Is this not how we understand purgatory, that process of purification where we may be made worthy to stand before Christ, with his angels and saints?
To the Lord’s point though: Knowing that we “will not be released until you have paid the last penny,” we are reminded that we have time, we should not delay. We all need to examine carefully what we have done, and make sure that those sins are laid out before God, and our contrition demonstrates a conversion of heart. We can think about this time as our time walking with the Lord, on the way to court. We pray that we can settle accounts before we reach that destination.
Pax
[1] The picture is “The Last Judgment” Frans Francken II, 1606.
[2] S.S. Commemoratio[3] The readings are taken from the New American Bible, with the exception of the psalm and its response which were developed by the International Committee for English in Liturgy (ICEL). This republication is not authorized by USCCB and is for private use only.
[4] Letters of St. Paul, The Navarre Bible, Four Courts Press, 2003, p. 391.
[5] John Nolland, Luke 9:21–18:34, vol. 35B, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1993), 712–13.
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