Was Jesus Wrong About the End of the World?

hi i'm scott hahn and i want to welcome you to letters from home these are the reflections that come from the saint paul center for the readings from sacred scripture in the daily mass and today we're going to be looking at august 30th which just so happens to be the monday of the 22nd week in ordinary time the church's custom of course by now you know is to have three readings the first one is taken from first thessalonians chapter 4 verses 13 through 18. this is where paul is reminding the thessalonians of the imminent judgment of god that is about to come down upon the judeans for persecuting the christians but also for having jesus the savior crucified to see the context i would just simply recommend that you go back and look at first thessalonians 4 in its larger context focusing especially on the second half of 1st thessalonians chapter 2. there you have this note of imminent judgment and i might say parenthetically this has been wrongly interpreted by a small segment of protestants in terms of the rapture theory don't go there it's not part of our tradition i think martin luther and john calvin would also insist that it's not part of historic protestantism either it really is an interpretive deviation that has gotten a lot of momentum in the last century and a half but please don't be deceived by it the second reading is taken from psalm 96 and the responsorio is basically intended to give us the assurance that god is present god is active god is merciful but he's also just and so we read the lord comes to judge the earth and we say it again and again the lord comes to judge those who are obedient to the covenant from the heart with blessings with graces with mercies but the lord is also coming to judge the earth in terms of those who break the covenant and so there will be punishment there will be discipline there will be a call to repentance and if that goes unheeded there will be after the dire warnings there will be disaster and so even though god is patient and he extends mercy to people up to the third and fourth generation of those who are called nevertheless it is going to be the case that the lord will come to judge the earth and in fact the first reading confirms that as jesus gave his last oracle around the year 30 a.d concerning the destruction of jerusalem and the temple and he said this generation will not pass away before my words take place what was a generation in the greek ghanaia it's 40 years and what happened by 70 a.d the fulfillment of that oracle brought destruction and death to jerusalem and the end of the old covenant now we turn to the gospel it's one of my favorites it's taken from luke chapter 4 verses 16 to 30. and by then you can tell it's rather long we're not going to have the opportunity to read all the way through it but i encourage you to read through it in its entirety and to do so slowly and maybe go back and re-read it the first thing we note is that jesus is coming back to his hometown what is that nazareth and he is going into the synagogue on the sabbath as was his custom and he is handed the scroll of isaiah to read and notice that he opened the book and found the place where it is written in other words he didn't just turn and begin reading what it was that he saw first no this is a very deliberate act it is jesus intention to turn to that scroll of isaiah to chapter 61 as we call it where he read the following the spirit of the lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor he has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind to set at liberty those who are oppressed and to proclaim the acceptable year of the lord oh my goodness we would almost need an hour to do just that snippet from isaiah justice so let's just commit a minor injustice by emphasizing the fact that isaiah is predicting the coming messiah in terms of the servant of the lord and the servant of the lord is going to be the mashiach that is he's going to be anointed but not just with oil as were the kings and the priests but with what that sacred oil represents in this case the holy spirit himself will be the anointing that comes upon the anointed one so the spirit of the lord is upon me because he has anointed me to do what to preach the gospel quite literally in the greek we have this proclamation of the good news to the poor and not just to those who are materially impoverished but to all those who recognize that compared to what we are called to in the glory of the heavenly kingdom we don't even have a penny of heavenly currency to purchase what god has called us to so all of us are poor in that sense and so we hear the fact that christ has paid a debt he didn't owe because we owed a debt we couldn't pay we are all profoundly impoverished and christ is proclaiming the good news to all of us the poor and what else to proclaim release to the captives and not just to those who are in physical prisons but to each and every person who's imprisoned by their own bad habits by their own despair by their own discouragement and it continues recovering of sight to the blind well that is also physically true because jesus heals those those who are blind but he also has come to reveal to us the fact that eye has not seen ear has not heard what god has made us for in other words spiritually we're all blind and deaf so when jesus goes around healing the blind and deaf these are miraculous signs that point to the needs that all of us have even if we have 20 20 vision because we are blind to the sacred mysteries of the glorious kingdom of heaven for which we were made that's not plan b that's not some consolation prize this is the thing for which we were created so recovery of sight to the blind and descended liberty those who are oppressed and again there's a tendency to reduce this to natural physical political terms when in fact it does apply to them especially to the faithful remnant who were oppressed by the babylonians or by the assyrians or now in jesus day by the romans and so he closes the book having read this snippet from isaiah 61 verses 1 and 2 and everybody's listening closely all their eyes are fixed on him and he began to say to them today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing i just want to stop for a moment and pause i think that statement was truer than they could possibly imagine today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing i want to say two things here one that was true back then and there for jesus and all of his listeners but it's also true for us here and now when the word of god is read we should train ourselves to hear the voice of christ we're part of the assembly we're part of the covenant family of god and so we hear that word that oracle and we recognize that christ is in our midst and he is the anointed one he is the christos the christ and so today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing and all spoke well of him initially and why not because of his healing ministry because of his teaching ministry and now our native son has come home and if he's done great works in capronium then we ought to be entitled to even greater works and even greater teaching here or so they thought well this is where the dividing line emerges because all spoke well of and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth and they said is not this joseph's son and he said to them doubtless you will quote to me this proverb physician heal yourself what we've heard you do in capernaum do here also in your own country in other words we deserve even more than what capernaum got well it doesn't work that way because their perceptions of jesus were reducible to their own natural experience of this hometown boy who's done who's done us proud and now that he's back we want to see him out do what he was doing for the inhabitants of capernaum no supernatural mysteries don't work that way so often what is first in the natural order and nazareth would think that they qualify for that rank might be last in the supernatural order why because that we have no natural claim on jesus just because he happened to grow up in our hometown and so provocatively jesus uses two examples from the old testament to illustrate one point and the point is this i say to you no prophet is acceptable in his own country and so who are the two examples elijah and elisha elijah in first kings 17 and elisha in second kings chapter 5 because where were elijah and elisha from israel and what was israel at this point disobedient stubborn resistant and not just that but they were targeting elijah and elisha and so what does god do well god sends elijah not to his own hometown he doesn't send him to his own native people no we read as jesus refers to this there were many widows in israel in the days of elijah when the heaven was shut up for three and three years and six months when there came a great famine but elijah was sent to none of them but only to zarephath in the land of sidon which isn't even in the promised land of israel and to a widow and likewise there were many lepers in israel at the time of the prophet elisha but none of them were cleansed only name in the syrian as we read in second kings chapter 5. and so the mercy of god is not reducible down to our terms our own natural framework we might think that as catholics you know whatever miracles are going to occur have to occur within the confines of our parish not some church down the street or not some prayer group or not some fellowship well so often when god does perform extraordinary graces through miracles it's a kind of divine triage that is he's a sho he's extending he's showing great mercy to those who are in great need but he's also humbling those who are proud and presumptuous who think they've got the lord god in their back pocket because hey we're catholics and so we can presume he's going to do our bidding well the fact is to whom much is given much is required and if we do not respond with faithful and humble obedience then the lessons that were learned by the israelites back in the days of elijah and elisha the lessons that were learned by the home people the hometown folk in nazareth are going to have to be learned by us as well and the people in the synagogue of nazareth get the point because they suddenly are not speaking well of him anymore but they're reacting violently they rose up and they put him out of the city they took him to the brow of the hill they were going to throw him head long down the hill but instead passing through their midst he went away this is a display of divine power it's also a display of human insight because he knew that the presumption of his own native people in the town of nazareth you know god's ways are not our ways that's for sure in the old testament but also in the new and so just as we sometimes think that we have a tame god because we have tamed him be careful because god is going to often do things in our own day in our own place where we think we have it made in the shade and we're going to learn once again how the lord comes to judge the earth and to whom much is given much is required let's conclude our time on a word of prayer in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen almighty god today your word is fulfilled in our hearing and your judgments are released and we long to humble ourselves to cry out for your mercy in order to be graced and blessed and forgiven and healed at the same time o lord we recognize our pride our foolish presumption that sometimes we think that we have you right where we want you and so you will do our bidding lord we long to do your bidding so give us new hearts we will sing this song of thanksgiving to you and greet your presence in our midst for we ask all of these things through jesus christ our savior and lord in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen well i sure hope my words have been helpful to you in this segment of letters from home pray for us here at the saint paul center because we are surely praying for you take care and may the lord bless you you

Channel: St. Paul Center

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Length: 14min 5sec (845 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 30 2021