Scott Hahn: The Hour Is Coming

let me say a word and defensive reason in dialogue with faith because faith is that proof faith unites us to that substance of reason in order to realize its full potential needs the horizons revealed by and truths contained in the faith and not just any face but the Catholic well as you picked up by now the title of my presentation this evening is the hours coming so it has something to do with time but most especially liturgical time time is one of those things you know that Saint Agustin said I know what it is until you asked me to explain it time is one of those things it's relative I remember how God blessed us on our fifth anniversary with the most wonderful gift and that was our second born son Gabriel and then five years later as he was getting ready to turn five right near his birthday I heard the squabble between Gabriel and his older brother Michael and I walked into the room and they were just at each other's throats and it just sounded silly in my ears they were arguing over words one was saying day the other was saying date and I just seemed ridiculous stop what's going on and my oldest son said you got to tell him dad that he's wrong why and then Gabriel looked at me because I'm going around telling everybody that I was born on the day you and mom got married and Michael said no it's the date that you got married not the day and of course you know the older one understood the embarrassment so time is one of those things that we have to be attentive to especially in the liturgy but not just there I have a story that I use to begin my book a father keeps his promises and it's one of my favorites I got it from father Mike Scanlon everybody felt it a moment of eerie silence a low rumble and then the ground began shaking building swayed and buckled and then collapsed like houses of cards in less than four minutes over 30,000 were dead from a magnitude 8.2 earthquake that rocked and nearly destroyed Armenia in 1989 in the muddled chaos of the stressed father bolted through the winding streets leading to the school where he had dropped his son off earlier that morning the man couldn't stop thinking about the promise that he'd given his son many times no matter what happens Armon I'll always be there he reached the site where the school had been but saw only a pile of rubble he just stood there at first fighting back the tears and then took off stumbling over the debris back toward the east corner where he knew his son's classroom had been with nothing but his bare hands he started digging desperately pulling up bricks and pieces of wall plaster while others stood by in foreign watching in forlorn disbelief he heard someone grumble forget it mister they're all dead he looked up flustered you can grumble or you can help me lift these bricks but only a few pitched in and most of them gave up once their muscles began to ache but that man couldn't stop thinking about his son so he kept digging for hours six hours became 1218 hours 24 hours 36 hours finally into the 38 hour he heard a muffled groan from under a piece of wall board he seized the board pulled it back and cried Arman and from the darkness came a slight shaky voice papa other weak voices began calling out as the young survivors stirred beneath the still uncleared rubble gasps and shouts of bewildered relief came from the few on lookers and parents who remained they found 14 of the 33 students still alive when Arman was finally pulled out he tried to help his father digging until all of his surviving classmates were out everybody standing there heard him as he turned to his friends and said see I told you my father wouldn't forget us I'm convinced that's the kind of faith we need because that's the kind of father we have because of the Covenant that the father has established through the gift of his son the Holy Spirit the spirit of the love of the father and the son is what will get us home and make us holy in order to make it in time I want to read just from something that I took to my holy hour this afternoon and it was just the daily reading in my daily devotional I don't know if you have one or if you are looking for one but I can recommend one it's by my favorite theologian Pope Benedict and he has been long before he became Pope it's entitled Benedict Deus for July 20th this is what I read a couple of hours ago before the Blessed Sacrament the institution of the Most Holy Eucharist on the evening before the passion cannot be regarded as some more or less isolated cultic transaction it is the making of a covenant and as such it is the concrete foundation of the new people of God the people who came into being through this new covenant relationship with the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit we could also say that by his Eucharistic action Jesus draws the disciples into his relationship his own relationship with God the Old Testament theme of covin he concludes which Jesus incorporates into his preaching receives an entirely new center communion with God and with Christ's body I want to use that as a point of departure in considering some aspects that you find in Scripture but before we actually look at Scripture I want to read a quotation from a document that came out several years ago from the Pontifical biblical Commission entitled the interpretation of the Bible in the church it came out in 1993 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Provident issome uste use by leo xiii on the study of sacred scripture in this document we read it is above all through the liturgy that Christians come into contact with Scripture in principle the liturgy and especially the sacramental liturgy the high point of which is the Eucharistic celebration brings about nothing less than the most perfect actualization of the biblical texts Christ is then present in his word because it is he himself who speaks when Sacred Scripture is read in the church and that of course is quoting also from one of the documents of attica to Sakharov sanctum Concilium so when we renew our covenant in the Eucharistic liturgy where entering into something that is quite remarkable now some scholars dispute this emphasis upon covenant the New Covenant and the Liturgy of the New Covenant why well because when you compare the Old Testament to the new something really stands out that sometimes doesn't get noticed and that is in the Old Testament the language of covenant is much more preponderant in the Hebrew Canon you have the word covenant beruete in Hebrew used 289 times and then in the deuterocanonical books an additional 36 altogether covenant occurs 325 times in the Old Testament and rather stark contrast it only occurs 33 times in the entire New Testament 17 of which are found in one book the book of Hebrews which is written to help people get out of the old and appreciate the new so 16 occurrences in the other 26 books of the New Testament leave scholars wondering why is the language of covenant receding and some people be argue because it's no longer important others would say like NT right it's because it didn't need to be asserted it was assumed it was the air that Jews breathe in the first century and that's true but it's not altogether adequate because you do find the language of covenant more frequently used in second temple Jewish sources than you find in the New Testament and so the question remains why is it that the language of covenant doesn't occur all that much in the New Testament and my short answer is this it's not because of how covenant was forgotten but how the covenant was fulfilled what do I mean well my own research over the last 25 or 30 years into the meaning of covenant has convinced me like many others that the core meaning of covenant was essentially familial that when you established a covenant with someone you extended sacred kinship hence the title of my book kinship by covenant and so there is a promissory aspect of God's covenant with Israel he's making a covenant he's renewing it and yet he hasn't fulfilled it but he keeps raising the hopes and expectations of the faithful in ancient Israel but by the time we get to the end of the Old Testament what do we find the Exile so the Old Testament sort of ends in an unexpected way it's like a story in search of an ending a covenant that is still looking for a fulfillment and that's of course exactly what Jesus Christ affects a fulfillment the incarnation of the Son of God affected the fulfillment of God's covenant and then some in fact I would propose that Christ's coming brought about such an explosion of good news that the divine fulfillment of the Covenant exceeded all human expectations for instance from the start of Jesus public ministry when he was proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom Jesus employs divine kinship terminology with unprecedented frequency an unprecedented force in the Old Testament God is called Father 11 times the Hebrew Canon in the Old Testament ancient Israelites referred to the Lord God as the God of our fathers but never as our Father God the Lord is my shepherd and we are the Sheep of his pasture so the communion of the Covenant was human it was horizontal God established and maintained the Covenant making us a family but like a shepherd Shepherds sheep as a flock that he protects but not until the Shepherd becomes the Lamb of God does that covenant communion suddenly explode does the Covenant get fulfilled in a way that they never imagined possible hitherto for because God was the creator the lawgiver the judge the keeper of the Covenant and the judge of those who broke it and those who kept it were blessed but the idea that you could actually ascribe sacred kinship to God that's strictly metaphorical until the incarnation of the son of God when suddenly it becomes metaphysical and real and true and profoundly so one scholar Janet sasuke's points out the kinship of God and humanity is both compelled and resisted by the Hebrew Bible compelled for reasons of intimacy and resisted for fear of idolatry because there were a lot of surrounding nations that claim to be in family ties with the gods who would therefore justify fertility cults and all sorts of other immoral practices and so she goes on to say that to claim that God is our Father or Christ our brother is thus to make a strong claim not only about God but about ourselves she said given the strength of implication we ought to be much more startled than we are by the divine kinship terms in the New Testament yet for many centuries she adds and until relatively recently divine kinship father son brother being born again was little remarked upon background noise in Christianity it's like the wallpaper I've got an app on my iPhone white noise you turn it on it's easier to fall asleep divine kinship is sort of like ho-hum been there done that God is her father you know what's new you know we ought to go back to Yahweh or I am as though the revelation of God in the old was somehow more intimate than Abba Father brothers it wasn't the Old Testament concludes like a story in search of an ending the New Testament begins with the Incarnation bringing about a fulfillment that exceeded the highest hopes the wildest dreams of the most devout Jews and this is what some still take for granted after this week I hope none of us do ever again why because to call god father is metaphoric on the old and it only happens eleven times in the four Gospels Jesus refers to God as father more than a hundred and seventy times and never addressed him in prayer by any other title though before Jesus not even the most devout rabbi in ancient Israel ever dared to address Israel deity in those terms in Jesus first public sermon the Sermon on the Mount he refers to God as father 17 times which is more than the entire Hebrew Canon no wonder the Jews were sort of flummoxed they were like whoa wait a minute where do you get off what do you think you're doing who do you think you are well he knew he who he was but the Holy Spirit is needed for us to know who he is the spirit of the father and the son is the only way we can grasp this revelation and allow it to grasp us and so in the New Covenant Jesus affects a fulfillment of the old that exceeds their hopes the terminological result of which is what biblical scholars have observed that the language of covenant decreases while the language of divine kinship increases once the covenant is fulfilled that terminology is diminishing but since it's fulfilled in a way that exceeded our highest hopes by God revealing his fatherhood by sending his son to give us the spirit of sonship when the Shepherd became the lamb when the God of Our Fathers sent his son he became our Father God and he formed one worldwide family one universal household that we know as the Catholic Church and that's why we celebrated not in Pride but in humble gratitude for it's who we are because of what Christ did so to reflect upon the relationship between the old and the new is not to waste our time and yet at the same time we want to get beyond the exegetical the academic the intellectual exercise of seeing how the new is concealed in the old and the old is revealed and fulfilled by the new and then some because the fulfillment is what God longs to bring about here and now in you and me through the Holy Spirit but not working in a vacuum working in the Covenant communion of this divine family the New Covenant working especially through the seven sacraments that constitute the New Covenant most especially the Most Blessed Sacrament the Eucharist and this is why last night I introduced that all-important term mr. Gogi because it's one thing to see the divine economy as the plot of the whole Bible whenever you're reading a big book it's important to get the plot and you don't say well it's so big I don't really need to get the plot the bigger it is the more crucial it is to grasp the story the big picture of the plot what is the plot of the whole Bible it's what the early church fathers echoing st. Paul called the oikonomia that's God's fatherly plan for hit for his family but the story is divided up into two parts the old and the new and so another term is applied especially in the Catechism typology to see how the old relates to the new and the new relates to the old but a third term the one I introduced last night is the one that we really need to kind of take off the shelf blow off the dust and get it out of the realm of ecclesiastical jargon mr. Gogi mr. Gogi the mr. Gajic of catechesis of st. cyril i mentioned last night st. ambrose was regarded as a master mist agog all the bishops in the early church were called upon to do that as well as the priests mystical OG what did we say last night it's guidance into the mysteries the Catechism employs this term and I want you to jot this down in your memory at least 1075 paragraph 10 75 is one of the places the Catechism employs the term mr. Gogi and it's not just jargon for well what you're supposed to do from Easter to Pentecost or what they used to do in the ancient church listen to paragraphs 1074 and 1075 in 1070 for the liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the church is directed it is also the font from which all her power flows it is therefore the privileged place for catechizing the people of God catechesis is intrinsically linked with the whole of liturgical and sacramental activity why to bring about the transformation of men and women well how does that transformation take place 1075 liturgical catechesis mr. Gogi I have another term that I like to swap out for mr. Gogi I call it adult ed because this is what all adults ought to be learning it is mr. Gogi for it proceeds from the visible to the invisible from the sign to the thing signified from the sacraments to the mysteries themselves from what is earthly to what is heavenly from what is temporal to what is right under our noses but is eternal from the human to the divine because in each and every single Mass that's what's happening whether we know it or not that's what's happening whether I believed it or not that's what's happening whether Catholic adults know it or not but I tell you how spiritually handicapped they are if they don't even know what's going on every time they go to Mass which might help us to understand why they don't really go that often or when they do it's just out of a sense of servile obligation hello what's wrong with this picture it is the singular privilege of being humans and yet being children of God that we can renew our covenants way mr. Gogi but mr. goatee didn't start with the catechism it didn't even start back in the fourth and fifth centuries I would propose to you that if you're going to read the New Testament on its own terms literally historically and theologically you're going to discover that the liturgy is the key to interpretation and that mr. Gogi is the result from a straightforward plain sense reading now again last night I mentioned that the liturgy was the key that helped me unlock whole parts of the Old Testament creation is describing a cosmic temple in Genesis 2 the Garden of Eden is used to describe the sanctuary the Holy of Holies when they're driven out what does God post as guards the two cherubim where's the only place you find two cherubim in all of Israel in the temple the Holy of Holies overshadowing the mercy seat gee I wonder if they knew it of course they did and so in Genesis 3 original sin is not just the first transgression by our parents it's the desecration of the sanctuary by the one who's called to be the high priest of humanity and so he is driven out lest he profane it even more and we're not allowed back in until a new Adam creates a new covenant and a new temple through the new sacrifice of the New Covenant and in Genesis 4 I think I also mentioned that you know Cain and Abel are fighting over what the liturgy which is what people in the church have been doing from the very dawn of history and when you get out of Genesis into exodus I think I might have mentioned that the the whole book 40 chapters long is really built upon a double entendre a wordplay slavery in Hebrew is Ovid ah ministry in Hebrew is a Vava what are you delivered from slavery of Allah what do you delivered for although the liturgy if you offer it the Pharaoh it's dead it's degrading civility idolatry but when you offer to God it is freedom and fulfillment so we are delivered from avodah for Avada by a Vova what is it that delivered them the liturgy of the Passover when they arrived at Sinai what was it it wasn't a constitutional convention it was a covenant renewal the Ten Commandments take up one lesson one whole chapter the liturgy takes up almost half the book the tabernacle the vestments the Ark of the Covenant the sacrifices the feasts why because that's what it means to live not just as a human family but as a family called to be a divine family and as you get out of Exodus into Leviticus over 90% of Leviticus is what liturgy and as you get out of the Pentateuch as you get out of the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness how is it that they cross the Jordan pontoons right the Army Corps no the Levites carry the Ark of the Covenant down and the water parted and when they began the conquest what did they do first the air force then the artillery then finally the infantry no it was a liturgical procession for seven days around Jericho and on the seventh day seven round-trips until the Levites who were leading the procession lifted their seven trumpets and blew them commanding the people to give God thanks and praise for what you'll see and archaeologists are still trying to figure out how it happened if the battle is the Lord's and the weapons aren't physical they're spiritual what are the spiritual weapons of God what are the weapons of the Spirit thanks and praise worship the sacramental liturgy that christ gives us and as you continue reading about the conquest you know in the book of Judges what made Samson so strong his hair was so long why because God has a thing for hippies even back then I don't think so but he does have a thing for non Levites who come under a Nazarite vow which according to the law in numbers allows you to fulfill a liturgical role even though you're not a Levite for as long as you don't cut your hair or drink any wine you are consecrated like the Levites so what was the lesson that the Lord wanted Israel to learn through Samson that your power comes from the priestly consecration that I called you to and as you imitate the nation's you're going to experience weakness but as you draw the nation's as a kingdom of priests to me you're going to experience the power of the royal priesthood that Samson embodied until Delilah came along and as you trace the trajectory of the conquest it finally reaches its climax with David who finishes it and what's the climax of the conquest it's not David building a palace it's David arranging for his son to build God a temple and so he rearranges the Levites and organizes them as choirs a perpetual adoration that's what I'm describing in my book all about the chronicles 1 in 2 chronicles describes the kingdom of David not in terms of the palace but the temple not in terms of the military or the economy but the liturgy the sacramental worship in the presence of God and I mean we haven't even gotten to the Psalms yet and Ezra Nehemiah and the Liturgy of covenant renewal or the Maccabees and by the time you get to the new it isn't less liturgical it's arguably more certainly more powerful by the time you get to the end the book of Revelation don't get me started you could read the lamb supper and take it from there but I mean the only thing you'll find on every page of the Apocalypse is not the Antichrist the term doesn't occur it isn't the second coming that phrase isn't used either it's the liturgy the Lamb of God the odd news day 28 times in 22 chapters the Amen the Alleluia the holy holy holy you got vestments you've got orders you got candles you've got the the scroll that is unsealed and read and proclaimed as having been fulfilled you've got the altar in heaven with the chalices the bowls that contain wine when they're poured out they've become blood and the climax is the marriage supper of the Lamb I said don't get me started the Liturgy of the new is simpler than the old but it's real and not merely symbolic and it is powerful in a way that is intrinsic and as I said that's not just true here and there but everywhere when we read the Bible from the heart of the church we discover a liturgical hermeneutic if you don't mind me using a little technical language but what we discover is the sacramentality of God's Word that he is giving us his word continually through the spirit in the life of his family that we call the liturgy and I would say that's true in Matthew Mark and Luke were the language of covenant you know covenant occurs once in Matthew once in mark twice in Luke and then we get to John where it occurs guess how many times correct your silence was perceptive not once now why does the language of divine covenant not even appear in John's Gospel well for one thing he doesn't have an institution narrative he sort of assumes his readers know the synoptic tradition and so what does he give us instead the bread of life discourse he sure made up for the lack of an institution narrative but what else does John give us that surpasses what we find in Matthew Mark and Luke more of an emphasis on divine kinship you find more teaching from Jesus about God the Father about Jesus the son about the Spirit who will make us members of my father's house and all of that more in John than you will find in Matthew Mark and Luke put together but besides the familial language of divine kinship that is so prevalent in John I want to propose that the liturgy is as well now I think you all know this in a way because you've probably taken a course on the Gospel of John and people point out that you know you've got seven i.m sayings right in the Gospel of John I am the bread of life I am The Good Shepherd to all of those but what else do we have besides the seven I am saying we also have the seven signs six signs in the first half of John which is called the book of signs chapters 1 through 12 the book of signs narrates 6 signs you actually have fewer miracles in John than any other gospel and they're not called Dunamis they're not called miracles they're called Sameach that is signs john wants to emphasize how as signs they point beyond themselves to what I want to propose that John's whole point is mr. Gogi that the miracles that Jesus performs are precisely what the Paraclete is going to amplify so when you move from the book of signs in 1 to 12 to the book of glory in 13 through 21 where you find the seventh sign and what is that the death and resurrection of Jesus but what is the resurrection is it just a resuscitated corpse an innocent man's vindication no right after performing the first sign on the third day when there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee and he manifested his glory he anticipates his final sign the seventh when he cleanses the temple and the officials demand an explanation give us a sign to authorize this be careful what you ask for you want to sign you'll get a sign destroy this temple and on the third day raise it up the death and resurrection of Jesus is nothing less than a new temple a new priesthood a new covenant a new sacrifice a new liturgy that's the glory that the Paraclete will reveal but in the context of the book of glory what else does Jesus promise the disciples in John 14:12 he says when I go to the Father and we send you the Paraclete greater works than these shall you do greater works than healing a man born blind greater works than raising Lazarus from the dead after four days uh-ah what are you talking about greater works than those indeed what was Jesus talking about what greater work is there than healing a man born blind healing men and women born with a deeper spiritual blindness called original sin by being washed and sent in the pool of Salome with the clay and the spittle from Jesus body so not only as John give us 7 IM sayings and seven signs but he also gives us in the book of signs the first half of the gospel 7 liturgical feasts 3 Passover's 2 Sabbath's and then the Feast of Tabernacles and the feast of Hanukkah the feast of dedication more than the three synoptic Gospels put together they only give us the final Passover of Passion Week whereas John stretches out the narrative to show how Jesus as a faithful Jew was observant of these liturgical feasts going to Jerusalem not just to celebrate these feasts but to anticipate his own fulfillment and transformation of the three Passover's into the new of the Sabbath into a far greater rest and then he is the true Tabernacle he is the dedicated temple as it were so as you go through John's Gospel it isn't just showing how Jesus fulfills the old in the new it's showing us how the Paraclete empowers the Apostles and their successors to continue that fulfillment as it was in the first century so it still is in the 21st century I want to illustrate this just for a few minutes with your permission with or without I've got the mic there's another characteristic feature of John's Gospel and I think a lot of you are familiar with and that is the notion of the hour the hour and it's significant because of how frequently it occurs in the first half of John in the so called book of signs because Jesus speaks frequently of the hour that's coming right and we know at one level what the or refers to right because the our is referencing the time of Jesus arrest and trial and execution two examples will suffice in John chapter seven verse 30 we read they sought to arrest them but no one laid hands on him why because his hour had not yet come turned the page and then in chapter 8 verse 20 we see another usage another instance of that same meaning as he taught in the temple they tried but no one could arrest him because his hour had not yet come so what is the plain and simple sense of the phrase the our whole rot in Greek it's when Jesus finally did get himself what arrested tried and executed so the hour is what marks his trial and execution to the outsiders who were conspiring but I want to propose to you that it's one thing to look at Jesus trial and execution as Outsiders it's another thing to look at it from within as insiders in whom the Holy Spirit is giving us revelation and so what I propose just for a few minutes let's take a quick look at the four times that Jesus himself refers to the hour so let's look at the four occurrences of the hour on the lips of our Lord in the book of signs in John chapter 2 we find the first one there in at the wedding at Cana in Galilee what is happening well they run out of wine and who's the first to observe and comment the Blessed Virgin when the wine failed the mother of Jesus said to him they have no wine and what does Jesus say to her a woman what have you to do with me and a lot of people get hung up and bogged down with that greek phrase tia muy kai SOI goon i you know is this disrespect know if you look at it carefully and see where else it's used it really implies mutuality in other words we don't really see things differently people spend too much time and ink on that first half into little on the second half listen to the second part of Jesus response a woman what have you to do with me my hour has not yet come and we've heard that so many times but I'm not sure we pondered it enough why because if you think about it you can realize that what he says doesn't make a whole lot of sense on the surface at least what does she say they're out of wine what does he say so my hour hasn't come you know you're tempted to tap him on the shoulder and say Jesus all she did was make a simple observation right okay it probably implied you know a request that you begin your public ministry as he did at her behest but just on the surface they have no wine doesn't elicit that response so my hour hasn't come unless of course behind the assertion my hour hasn't come lies an assumption and that's what exegetes are also interested in and not just professionally but pastor Li she says they're out of wine he says my hour hasn't come the only thing that makes sense out of Jesus assertion is an assumption that once his hour arrives guess what he already expects to provide one am i stretching it a bit I don't think so they're out of wine so my hour hasn't come if his hour had come it certainly appears to be the case that he's assuming that he's going to provide wine but he does it here anyway and not just any old wine but the best wine at the wedding feast as a sign of an even greater wine at an even greater wedding feast the marriage of the lamb as the Catechism States let's look at the second instance of where Jesus speaks of the hour two chapters later in John four worries again talking to one he calls woman the Samaritan woman at the well after the brief exchange he says to her in John 4:20 one woman believe me you know that's an English expression believe me it isn't it's an English expression but in the Greek it literally means believe me woman believe me the hour is coming when neither on this mountain Gerizim were the Samaritans worship nor in Jerusalem where the Jews worship woman believe me the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem where you worship the father you Samaritans worship what you do not know that's tantamount to idolatry we worship what we know for salvation is from the Jews but the hour is coming and now is when the true worshipers will worship the father how in spirit and in truth not in Gerizim or Jerusalem the second time Jesus uses the word hour in the book of signs here again what do we see that when the hour arrives what does he expect to provide an entirely new way of worshipping God as father for Jews and Samaritans in spirit and in truth and not in Jerusalem versus Gerizim huh Jesus seems to be packing a whole lot into an hour let's look at the third occurrence of the of the term on the lips of our Lord turn the pages in chapter 5 right after healing the man who had been by the poolside for 38 years and doing it on the Sabbath to show that he is coming not just to observe the Sabbath but to fulfill it he says in verse 25 truly truly I say to you the hour is coming well there you go again and now is when the Dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live and he goes on to talk about how the hour is coming when those in the tombs will hear his voice so this third occurrence of Jesus use of hour is associated with what the hour is coming when you're going to hear not just the word of the Lord like you do in the law and the prophets you're going to hear the word of the Lord made flesh you're going to hear the voice of the son of God you're not just going to pass out of darkness into light out of error in the truth out of immorality into mosaic righteousness you're gonna pass when you hear the voice of the Son of God who is the word made flesh from death to life not bad for an hour so what is Jesus associating with the coming of the hour providing wine like he did at the wedding feast the best wine providing worship a whole new way of worshiping God his father for Jews and Samaritans in spirit and in truth and a whole new way of hearing the word of the Lord now that the Word was made flesh to dwell among us we're going to hear the voice of the Son of God and pass from death to life let's look at the fourth and final occurrence of our in the book of signs from the lips of our Lord it's in Chapter 12 near the end of the book of signs in John 12 we've arrived at the seventh liturgical feast which is the third Passover one in Chapter two again in Chapter six and here in 1155 and on the whole second half of John's Gospel you recall is sort of wrapped around the fulfillment of the Passover but in John 12 verse 20 we have an interesting exchange now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks interesting so some Greeks coming as god-fearers are in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover so these came to Philip who was from Bethsaida in Galilee where you be speaking Greek and you know Hellenistic culture and they said to him sir we wish to see Jesus so Philip went and told Andrew Andrew went with Philip and they told Jesus what there are some Greeks here at the Passover and they want to see you and how does Jesus reply jesus answered them the hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified truly truly I say to you unless a grain of wheat falls in the earth and dies it remains alone but if it dies it bears much fruit he who loves his life loses it and Hugh hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life if anyone serves he must follow me and where I am there shall my servant be also if anyone serves me the father will honor him in Philip and Andrew are looking at each other thinking what was that we went with a message from some Greeks in Jerusalem who want to see you and when we told you that there are some Jews some Greeks at the Passover in Jerusalem who want to see you you and on the hours come I mean if he'd stop there Philip and Andrew dweller would have fetched the grit cutter you can see him now but that's not what the reply is all about the hours come for the Son of man to be glorified truly truly I say to you unless a grain of wheat falls the earth and dies it remains alone what is he doing what is he saying what does he mean the hour has come Philip an editor like can you make sense out of that must been a stressful time but look at it more carefully now that there are Greeks at the Passover of the Jews in Jerusalem wanting to see Jesus what does Jesus say the hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified and how will the Son of Man be glorified in a rather strange and peculiar fashion the hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified for truly truly I said you unless a grain of wheat falls in the earth and dies it remains alone pour a grain just so lonely until it falls into the earth and dies Jesus with all due respect what are you saying the son of men is going to be glorified howl like a grain of wheat that's no longer alone because it fell into the earth and died for what purpose in order to bear fruit if it dies it bears much fruit I mean what do you mean it bears fruit I mean if you plant an apple seed it will produce an apple tree that will bear fruit but when you plant a grain of wheat and it dies in the earth what kind of fruit I mean what edible form does a grain of wheat end up being that we would call the fruit of the grain of wheat that's fallen of the earth and dies bread I'm an overreaching here is that too much of a stretch no when you plant grain in the ground the purpose is the fruit of which is bread so what does Jesus also expect to provide once the hour arrives or now that the hour has arrived he expects for himself as the son of man to be glorified precisely by providing bread along with wine along with a whole new way of worship not in Jerusalem or garrison but in spirit and truth not just for Jews but Samaritans and now also for Greeks and a whole new way of hearing the word of the Lord so that you pass from death to life and so Jesus continues in the next verse now is my soul troubled and what shall I say father save me from this hour know for this purpose I have come to this hour Father glorify thy name the conspirators understood the hour to be the period of time when they finally succeeded in getting him arrested tried and executed over and done that's the outsider's perspective but as we're reading through John's Gospel and looking at the book of signs and hearing how Jesus himself speaks of the hour what else is it besides the time when he is executed what else was Jesus execution I mentioned a night or two ago that if you go down on my parish and stand on the sidewalk you will see some of the most beautiful stained-glass windows but they're gonna look drab to you on the outside not until you walk inside and see the light streaming through where you see these beautiful sacred scenes in these beautiful stained-glass windows to understand the hour from the inside as the Holy Spirit comes within us to reveal to us that he wasn't losing his life if he had given it as he says in John 10 nobody has the power to take my life at which point the century would probably have disagreed we not only have the our we have the order he says no I have the power to lay it down and if I have the power to lay it down I got the power to take it back up again and so before they ever laid hands on him he laid hands on bread and a chalice of wine he turned into his body and he lay down his life as a gift of love as a gift of self and that's when the hour arrives and we know that because you turn the page and what do you begin in chapter 13 the book of glory and how does the book of glory begin in chapter 13 verse 1 now before the Feast of the Passover when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world of the father it's one thing to have the old Exodus out of Egypt into Canaan but the new and greater Exodus is out of this world to the father's house and he's come to us to take us to him this is the new and greater Passover that will bring about a new and greater Exodus the hour has come and so in chapter 13 we are reading about the Upper Room and what Jesus was doing washing the feet Institute of the Eucharist along with the new commandment to accompany the New Covenant but before we even go there let me just stop for a moment and reflect with you upon what we have let's gather the fragments and put them in baskets what is that Jesus is getting at when it comes to the hour when the hour arrives what is he already anticipating providing wine like you did at the wedding at Cana providing a new way of worship like he promised the Samaritan woman in spirit and in truth for Jews and Samaritans providing a whole new way of hearing the word of the Lord the voice of the Son of God passing from death to life and providing also the fruit of the grain of wheat in the bread so wine worship the word of the Sun and the wheat the bread of the New Covenant gee I wonder what Jesus was already anticipating at the very beginning of his public ministry besides allowing himself to get arrested tried and executed unjustly he was expecting to provide bread and wine a new way of worship for Jews Greeks and Samaritans and a whole new way of hearing the word of the Lord the voice of the Son of God so that all of us could pass from death to life think about where where does Jesus actually end up providing that bread and wine a new way of worship in spirit and in truth for Jews Greeks and Samaritans hearing the word made flesh the voice of God's Son you know a lot of people assume that the institution of the Eucharist is sort of Plan B since Palm Sunday seemed to go so well and then it just went fell apart from there and so what is Plan B what we're gonna have to you know kind of we're gonna have to improvise the disciples are thinking why improvise let's just get out of town no the fact is this idea that Jesus expected to come again and end the world within a matter of months maybe years or at the most a few decades or that the early believers expected this and taught this and then the so-called crisis over the delay of the parousia I mean it's all I ever heard in college and Seminary but it's what you'll never find in the early church fathers one of the greatest church historians of the last generation Yaroslav Pelican at Yale wrote the following and I quote one looks in vain for any proof of a bitter disappointment over the postponement of the parousia or of a shattering of the early Christian communities by the delay of the Lord's return Pelican went and expected to find ample proof he didn't find any studying documents from the first second third and fourth centuries well they were expecting Jesus to come they were expecting his parasya what what did they do to adjust he continues writing as a lutheran the Eucharistic liturgy was not compensation for the postponement of the parousia but a way of celebrating the presence of one who had promised to return the word parousia is now an english word look it up and the oxford dictionary defines it as the second coming but it was a Greek word used by Jews back in the 1st century with an entirely different meaning what was the plain and simple sense of the word parousia for jews who spoke and wrote in greek you translate that word presence in Philippians 2 Paul tells the Philippians as in my presence when I was with you so in my absence continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling what's the word for presence parousia what do we believe in when it comes to the Eucharist it's the real symbolism no it's it's the real metaphor it's the real presence you translate 21st century Catholic doctrine back into first century Jewish Christian belief and guess what you've got in the Holy Eucharist the parousia the real presence of the resurrected ascended in throne glorified deified Lord of lords gee I wonder if Jesus knew that I wonder if the early church did an Anglican Tom Gregory Dix who wrote a classic work called the shape of the liturgy studied exhaustively the first four centuries all the sources this notion of a Eucharistic parousia he writes was Universal by the third century and most likely long before since no pre Nicene author east or western whose Eucharistic doctrine is stated holds any different view in the 3rd century you have this belief that the glorious Lord of lords and the King of Kings is present in the Eucharist so we have the first coming we have the final coming and we often think of the twofold coming but guess what what did we sing right before I got up providentially who was and who is and who is to come read the climax of volume 2 of Jesus of Nazareth where Pope Benedict draws from Bernard of Clairvaux who spoke not of a two-fold coming the first in the final but of a three-fold coming and he speaks of the Adventist medias which is sometimes translated the middle Advent on page 290 on Wednesday of the first week of Advent the bravery quoting Bernard of Clairvaux we read we have come to know a three-fold coming of the Lord the third coming takes place between the other two his first coming was in the flesh and in weakness this intermediary coming this Adventist meteos is in the spirit and in power the last coming will be in glory and majesty what's the Latin word Adventist translate the Greek word parousia the middle coming is the intermediate presence so Pope Benedict goes on it is an eschatology of the present that John's Gospel develops it doesn't abandon the expectation of definitive coming that will change the world but it shows that the interim time is not empty it is marked by the Adventists meteors the middle coming this anticipatory presence is an essential element of Christian life and of the early church's belief the middle coming takes place in a variety of ways Benedict says quoting Bernard of Clairvaux he comes through his word he comes in the sacraments but most especially he comes in the most holy eucharist he comes into my life through words and events but most especially in the Holy Eucharist this is why in the book of Revelation it's the Eucharistic liturgy that we know on earth that anticipates heaven let's face it if the heavenly high priest can use weak mortals like you my brothers who are priests to transform earthly matter into the body blood soul and divinity of Jesus the King of Kings imagine what the heavenly high priest can do at the end of time when the Eucharistic liturgy is that we've all celebrated reached their climax he's going to say step aside now watch me and he's going to put his hands not over a piece of bread but over an entire planet and he's going to say something like this is my body and instead of transubstantiated bread and wine he's going to transubstantiated us of the bodies of the saints in the tombs that make up the earth is now an order of sacrifice and he will transform us into his own glorious body not bad for the day's work at the end of time the hour is coming brothers in Christ this is why the fundamentalist shouldn't be allowed to hijack the parousia when we have the presence of him who is glorious but who in his modesty accommodates himself to our visual weaknesses and impairments by making it so that it looks like bread and wine so that we can receive him when he really receives us so it doesn't blind us with his glory if he were to show us 5% of his glory we'd all be walking around stoned blind but the glory is there in the Holy Eucharist and the hour is coming when we get to adore him again tonight like we did last night I gotta tell you last night was beautiful but the last day will be far more beautiful what we celebrate is not just the bloody battered body of Jesus on the cross but the resurrected ascended glorified deified Body of Christ it's one and the same sacrifice but the reason we call it an unbloody sacrifice is not because we can't see him bleeding but he really is it's because the lamb is standing as though he had been slain but he's standing lambs that are dying don't stand lambs that are resurrected do the high priest in heaven is the one who offers and the one who is offering he is the sacrifice in his resurrected body that comes to us in every single Eucharist and I got to tell you it wasn't Roman injustice that put him on the cross it wasn't even our sin that put him on the cross so much as it was the love of God it wasn't divine wrath as much as a demonstration of divine love or a st. Thomas Aquinas said it isn't how much he suffered that saves us contrary to what many fundamentalist preached because it wasn't a display of God's wrath but of God's love contrary to what many so-called Bible Christians preach suffering without love is unendurable and meaningless love without suffering is still unproven love is proven through suffering love is perfected through suffering purify through suffering but what love does to suffering is transform suffering into what we rightly call a what a sacrifice so the sacrament of love is the Eucharist instituted in a holy Thursday and the suffering of the Cross is what proves it's more than words the suffering of the Cross is what perfects the display of God's love and it is what transforms an execution into a sacrifice just as the resurrection transforms it into a sacrament but not just for him for us because we are called to love and we are called to suffer and love doesn't diminish our capacity to suffer love enhances it love deepens in the love that Christ possessed is divine and eternal even in his most sacred heart in its human form it was radiating a divine love that was infinite and that's why he didn't suffer less than we do but far more than any of us can love doesn't diminish the capacity to suffer it deepens it you know some people argue that Jesus suffered the torment of the Damned I don't want to get off on a tangent but I think that's wrong because when you're damned you don't love more you love less and the less you love the less you can suffer what Jesus suffered out of divine love is immeasurably more than what the Damned do in their torments and that love comes to us in the Holy Eucharist to enable us to bear whatever crosses he bestows upon us because as I said two nights ago he doesn't just bear the cross he bestows it and the Eucharist is not a reward but a remedy for our fear of suffering to empower us to overcome that to bear our crosses not just with manly fortitude but with divine charity I've just gone a little bit over and I apologize I'm looking down I'm seeing a whole lot more I want to say but I think right now Jesus wants to speak to us I also can hear my own tone of voice because I get so excited I get worked up you know and I and I hear oh you know and I and I can't stand listening to professor's who lecture like I do that's just a little confession it's true I love professors who state the truth but they understate it so that you can draw your own conclusions whereas I go off like I used to be when I was an evangelical that's why I can't stand to watch myself on EWTN or listen to me why do I say all this because I beg you dear brothers for your prayers I'm reminded of what father Mike told me the very day he interviewed me and ended up deciding to hire me he wasn't talking about me at least he didn't act like he was but he looked at me and he said Scott God opposes the proud even when they're right and I think I need to hear that again and again God opposes the proud even when they're right even when they're Orthodox and traditional and conservative in fact I would say God opposes the proud especially when they're right about the mysteries of faith because if anything should humble us it is these mysteries that we've been pondering together pray for me brothers because I've got nothing to be proud about in myself but I sure am proud of our Father God and of his eternal son and of what the Holy Spirit has empowered my weak mortal brethren to do as priests and his deacons have proclaimed the word in the Eucharistic liturgy and as seminarians who keep saying yes semester after semester from the bottom of my heart I want to say one last time thank you for giving consent to a calling from God to do what no mortal could do without the powerful Holy Spirit of Christ in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Almighty God our Father in Heaven we applaud you and your work dear father through the son we thank you for revealing to us deeper dimensions of the Eucharistic mystery so that we can see that this was the mission of Christ from the outset that this is why he came to the hour and this is what he gave us Lord I pray that as we approach this holy hour that you would speak to us through Sacred Scripture in and through the Holy Eucharist and in and through our brothers here our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil amen hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with thee blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus Holy Mary Mother of God pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death amen in the name of the Father and of the son of the Holy Spirit amen don't applaud it takes about 50 seconds to applaud I want to use those 50 seconds to give you the tube if I had had more time this is what I would have said I do this in my classes all the time father Chris you can back me up on the head why does Jesus use the word hora hour why not day himera why not time Kairos or Chronos because in the early church the term hour was a liturgical term just like it was in ancient Judaism the sixth hour the ninth hour when you go up to the temple for prayer because Jesus knew that what would take place over several hours actually a couple of days would be what recapitulated in one hour when we gather to celebrate the Eucharist the Eucharist is what he had on his heart when he started the public ministry the second thing I wanted to say that out of the time too is that when you move from the book of signs to the book of glory the hour is no longer mr. Gajic 'el pointing to the Eucharistic liturgy with the new bread and the new wine and new worship and the new way of hearing God's Word our occurs five times in John 16 and it's the hour that's coming Jesus says when people are going to persecute you and think they're serving God the hour is coming when a mother is going to go through birth pangs in order to give birth the hour is coming when in fact you'll be scattered and so what's so interesting is that the hour in the book of signs is mr. Gajic oh and Eucharistic the hour in the book of glory is martyr illogical it's the time of persecution it's the time of suffering it's the time of scattering this is why Polycarp moments before he was martyred said I thank you God that you have brought me to this hour to drink this cotton but there was no chalice there was only a martyrs crown how do we live out the mystery we celebrate by giving consent to whatever crosses Jesus lovingly bestows brothers in Christ thank you for the honor and privilege of sharing with you again god bless you you

Channel: Franciscan University of Steubenville

Views: 189,230

Rating: 4.8419957 out of 5

Keywords: Franciscan University, Steubenville, Ohio, Catholic, college, Scott Hahn (Author), Dr. Scott Hahn, Faith and Reason, The Hour Is Coming, Priests Deacons Seminarians, Steubenville Conferences

Id: m3Db1lXdufg

Length: 67min 25sec (4045 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 05 2013