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The One

One

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.


We see today’s psalm fulfilled in today’s gospel: “O God, with your judgment endow the king, and with your justice, the king’s son; he shall govern your people with justice and your afflicted ones with judgment.”

In the gospel, we see Jesus taking his seat as Teacher in the synagogue almost like a throne, heir of David that He is. It would seem that there is more going on here than a wise man sitting down to proffer some enlightened explanations. When saying “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing,” Jesus reveals Himself unequivocally as the Anointed One.

Between this regal scene and the first reading from the first letter of John, there is a delightful interplay. In a sort of contrast with Jesus’ solemnity, John’s assertions are eminently simple. To be in union with God, we must love Him, keep His Commandments, love our neighbor, and believe that Jesus is the Christ–that is, believe the assertions of Jesus in today’s gospel.

Maybe the more sophisticated among us could lament John’s simplicity. Why doesn’t he tackle for us some of the more complex, nuanced realities in life? Is he a hopeless naïf, who lives oblivious to the complicated spiderweb that life weaves around us?

When we study the lives of St. John and many of the other saints, we realize that it not naivete that leads to their beautiful and enviable simplicity. Rather, having considered all the complexities of life, they realize that “there is need of only one thing” (Lk. 10:42), and that when they seek the Kingdom of God, all these things will be given them besides (cf. Mt. 6:33). In a word, they simply don’t care as much about life’s worries and dangers, because they realize that these fall under the loving care of God’s Providence.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus to help you understand how only one thing truly matters: your relationship with Him. If you are unable to fathom a life without constant fretting over all you cannot control, ask Him to infuse trust into you. Ask Him to help you by the supernatural gifts of His Holy Spirit to place each thing in its proper place in your heart, and to help you to focus on the only thing of which there is need: Union with the great King who proclaims His anointing in today’s gospel.

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The Lion

Lion

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.


There is something that aches about the season of Advent. We look forward to Christmas as the birth of Jesus, something that has already taken place, something glorious, a miraculous and definitive intervention of God in history. But as we meditate on our Advent readings, there is an ache in us that tells us that the Christmas story has not yet reached its happy climax. Jesus has completed His saving act, but His glorious triumph over all creation, and the establishment of His definitive rule, has not yet been fulfilled.

A glorious promise, that of the first reading, which is fulfilled in Jesus: “The scepter shall never depart from Judah.” From this moment of Jacob’s blessing of his son Judah, the tribe of Judah has been symbolized by the Lion–and it still is in Israel today. The Lion’s fairy tale title of King of Beasts no doubt originates in this reading; the Lion is King. And that kingship is to be fulfilled in Jesus, universal King of all creation. Jesus, the greatest Lion of the tribe of Judah, is seen in the book of Revelation opening the scroll of seven seals–opening the true and definitive interpretation and fulfillment of history–a right He has won by being slain as the Lamb. In this same passage, Jesus is both Lion and Lamb.

One of the most striking aspects of biblical prophecy is its fulfillment in real, earthy, human history. The Gospel delineates in black and white how Jesus is descended in lineage from that very Judah who is first called the lion in the first reading.

What aches in all this is that the glorious final triumph has not yet taken place; in fact, all the earthly miseries deriving from sin–sickness, death, catastrophe, tragedy, weakness, temptation–are all very much as potent in our world as they were at the time of Jesus.

We have not yet seen the prophecy of today’s Psalm fully come to pass: “Justice shall flourish in His time, and fullness of peace forever.”

This ache is a gift, however–an Advent gift. When we perceive it within us, let us cry out to God and ask Him to fill us with the gift of His grace this Christmas, won with the Incarnation and with His Passion and Death. May He give us such a measure of grace that we taste and drink deeply of His definitive triumph within our hearts, that which has not fully come to pass yet in the world around us.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Tell Jesus how deeply you need Him and long for His presence in your life. Ask for the greatest Christmas gift, the only one that matters: The gift of His complete triumph in your heart and in your life.

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King Unequaled

Lion

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.


On this feast of Christ the King, we see a rich array of what Jesus’ kingship means:

In the first reading and the psalm, we see Him as merciful shepherd–a King who gathers and leads His people.

In the second reading, we see Him as destroyer and subjugator of competing powers–a King who knows no equal.

In the Gospel, we see Him as a judge who welcomes or condemns us for eternity based on our acts of charity and kindness toward others–a King who administers justice.

If there is one overall impression one can draw from these readings, it is that He is tender and kind to those who have taken up the offer of salvation He has made at the price of His own blood. As we see in the first reading, this includes those who are lost or who stray.

But He does not hesitate to cast from His sight those arrogant enough to rebuff Him with the strength of their own freedom, or who ignore His demands of kindness and mercy toward others–“the sleek and the strong” sheep of the first reading, the goats of the Gospel, “every authority and power” in the second reading.

Jesus is no milquetoast King. This should fill us with exuberant joy, hope, and confidence on the one hand, but deep concern and determination on the other: Joy in the knowledge that if we ask Him too, He will assist us in our efforts to fulfill His will and protect our eternal destiny; concern and determination to pray and sacrifice constantly that as many will be saved as possible.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Close your eyes and imagine final judgement as described by Jesus today, where He, crowned King, discerns who is to be saved, and who is to be condemned. What can you do to feed those who are hungry precisely for the salvation that He metes out in judgement? How is He asking you to participate in His merciful act of salvation? Ask Him how you can assist Him in His grand mission of bringing as many as possible to Heaven.

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