First Reading Commentary
Proclaimed at Mass are the words, "In
days to come". The Latin Vulgate
translates as, "In the last days".
The last days are understood as being from the time of the Incarnation
of Jesus until the end of the world. Jesus
will usher in a New and Everlasting Covenant and what will follow after those
days is eternity.
"The Lord's house" is prophetic
language meaning the Church and being "established as the highest mountain"
speaks of the Church's everlasting visibility.
Isaiah tells us that "all nations shall stream toward it".
Two significant, newsworthy events have
occurred in recent times: First, the Traditional Anglican Communion sent a
letter to Rome requesting full, corporate and sacramental communion with the
Roman Catholic Church. Archbishop
Hepworth, a Primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion stated that: "Unity
with Peter is a biblical imperative."
This led to in 2012 the Vatican’s creation of the Personal Ordinariate
of the Chair of Saint Peter – Anglican communities becoming Catholic. The
Ordinariate has basically the equivalence of a diocese.
Secondly, in Catholic-Orthodox dialogue, for
the first time the Orthodox were ready to speak about the universality of the Church. The document drawn up for these latest talks
recognizes that one bishop must hold a special place of honor and in the
ancient Church that was the bishop of Rome.
The next set of talks will examine the role of the bishop of Rome,
especially in the first thousand years of the Church when Catholics and Orthodox
were in full agreement. We're living in
an age where we can watch these prophecies come to life.
"From Zion shall
go forth instruction" which gives us a clue that the Messiah shall come
from the Jewish people. Also, however,
Zion was a fortress which was captured by King David and became known as the
City of David. This could be a clue
about the Messiah having something to do with the Davidic line. And then the words of Psalm 49 [50] add that
God shines from Zion and is perfect in beauty (cf. verse 2). This is a
remarkable revelation when you put all the pieces together. Dare anyone think that the Messiah would be
none other than God Himself? The "house
of Jacob" is mystical language and it is from there that we can "walk
in the light of the Lord" because Jacob's house is the Church of Jesus
Christ.
Second Reading Commentary
According to Saint Thomas Aquinas, this short
paragraph defines the Christian ideal as: honorableness, sense of honor and
purity of life. Saint Paul uses
metaphoric language in this Reading. On
the negative side there is sleep, night, and "the works of darkness":
orgies, drunkenness, promiscuity, lust, rivalry and jealousy. These descriptions, of course, are among the
activities which should be completely absent from the Christian way of life. The other side of the fence is ideal for the
Christian life: vigilance, the day, and the armor of light.
This Reading has been interpreted to mean
different things. The verse, "our
salvation is nearer now than when we first believed" speaks of the days,
hours, minutes and seconds that pass by which literally bring us closer to the
glorious return of Jesus Christ. Another
meaning is more along the lines of conversion.
Salvation is closer when the Gospel is preached and accepted thus
bringing Christ's graces.
"The night is advanced" refers to
the sinful life that is lived before one has a conversion experience. It should be noted that Saint Paul is
addressing Gentile converts and for them their "day is at hand"
because the Gospel has reversed their darkness of idolatry and sin. The dark very much despises the light and
tries to conceal itself. The "armor
of light" has been given several other descriptions by various Church
writers such as the shield of faith, the breastplate of justice, the helmet of
salvation and the sword of the Spirit.
In simple terms, it is when we do the work of God that we have nothing
to hide and therefore we are letting our light shine. On the other hand, we have no interest in our
sins being in public view and thus try to keep them concealed as in darkness.
The distinction
between light and dark is found often in the pages of the bible. To use an analogy by making use of one of the
sacraments: In the days before face-to-face confessions, the penitent would go
into a dark booth and once the priest opened the screen, you could see that his
side of the booth was lighted. For the
moment, the penitent's sins remained hidden in that dark confessional booth;
but once the sins are confessed they enter into the lighted side of the booth,
no longer kept hidden but revealed to the priest acting in Persona Christi, and then those sins are absolved. The Light of Christ overpowers the darkness
of our sins.
Scripture tells us: "But of this one
thing be not ignorant,
my beloved, that one day with the Lord is as a thousand
years, and a thousand years as one day"
(2 Peter 3:8). The first intimations that there would be a Messiah compared
to when He actually did appear covers a span of years that is longer than the
two-thousand years the world has anticipated His Second Coming. The finite's lack of understanding of the
Infinite can surely cause impatience and eventually turn a culture away from
God.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI said: "We
could say that Advent is the time when Christians should awaken in their hearts
the hope that they can change the world, with the help of God." Understanding the impatience factor, however,
the Holy Father also said: "In Advent, the liturgy often repeats and
assures us, as though seeking to defeat our mistrust, that 'God is coming'."
A trust in the word of God is what often
separates the saints from the rest of the pack.
Many of those who now walk the corridors of heaven lived earthly lives
fully believing what God revealed in the Sacred Scriptures.
In this Gospel it is not abundantly clear if
the one who is taken is saved or the one who is left. Among some of the early writers there is a
difference of opinion. Our Lord uses Noah as an example which could mean that
Noah and his family were left in the ark while the rest were taken or swept
away by the flood. The flip side is that
Noah was taken away in the ark while the others stayed behind to die in the
flood. No one knows for certain how the
real event will play out but it is clear that there is a distinction between
receiving mercy and receiving judgment. Notice
the scenarios used here: Two men out in the field and two women grinding at the
mill. These are images of the daily workload;
therefore, our Lord seems to be suggesting that our daily work and concerns are
necessary. What separates one man from
the other and one woman from the other is that one of the men and one of the
women are consumed with the concerns of this world and indifferent to the
concerns of salvation. Whereby the other
man and woman are fulfilling their daily duties because they are a necessity of
life, but see their duties as a partial fulfillment of what God has called them
to do, thus living their life for God.
There's nothing in the text that suggests that the two who will receive
judgment were grave sinners; therefore we seem to be visiting, as we frequently
do, the topic of indifference and being lukewarm. Lukewarmness has to be one of the biggest, if
not the biggest topic of concern in Scripture that is most ignored. You might say that many are indifferent to
the scriptural warnings of indifference.
Indifference often reveals itself in our modern day with statements
like: "I'm a good person; I never hurt anyone, therefore I don't really
see the need to go to church" - or - "I give up one hour every Sunday
for God and that's enough." This,
of course, is individualism and completely ignores the duties and concerns of
being a viable body part in the Body of Christ.
Our Lord says: "Be prepared, for at an
hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come." This is a call for perpetual vigilance - making
Christ the Center of our lives. The
voice of John the Baptist crying out: "Prepare the way of the Lord!"
should still echo in our hearts today.
This calling was given to one man before Christ began His public
Ministry. As we await our Lord's return
that call to prepare His way has now been assigned to all of us.
