20141122 VAIN SPECULATION
First reading
Apocalypse 11:4-12 ©
I, John, heard a voice
saying: ‘These, my two witnesses, are the two olive trees and the two lamps
that stand before the Lord of the world. Fire can come from their mouths and
consume their enemies if anyone tries to harm them; and if anybody does try to
harm them he will certainly be killed in this way. They are able to lock up the
sky so that it does not rain as long as they are prophesying; they are able to
turn water into blood and strike the whole world with any plague as often as
they like. When they have completed their witnessing, the beast that comes out
of the Abyss is going to make war on them and overcome them and kill them.
Their corpses will lie in the main street of the Great City known by the
symbolic names Sodom and Egypt, in which their Lord was crucified. Men out of
every people, race, language and nation will stare at their corpses, for
three-and-a-half days, not letting them be buried, and the people of the world
will be glad about it and celebrate the event by giving presents to each other,
because these two prophets have been a plague to the people of the world.’
After the three-and-a-half days, God breathed
life into them and they stood up, and everybody who saw it happen was
terrified; then they heard a loud voice from heaven say to them, ‘Come up
here’, and while their enemies were watching, they went up to heaven in a
cloud.
Psalm
Psalm 143:1-2,9-10 ©
Blessed be the Lord, my
rock.
Blessed be the Lord, my
rock,
who trains my arms for battle,
who prepares my hands for war.
Blessed be the Lord, my
rock.
He is my love, my fortress;
he is my stronghold, my saviour
my shield, my place of
refuge.
He brings peoples under my rule.
Blessed be the Lord, my
rock.
To you, O God, will I sing a
new song;
I will play on the ten-stringed lute
to you who give kings their
victory,
who set David your servant free.
Blessed be the Lord, my
rock.
Gospel Acclamation cf.Lk8:15
Alleluia, alleluia!
Blessed are those who,
with a noble and generous
heart,
take the word of God to
themselves
and yield a harvest through
their perseverance.
Alleluia!
Or cf.2Tim1:10
Alleluia, alleluia!
Our Saviour Jesus Christ
abolished death
and he has proclaimed life
through the Good News.
Alleluia!
Gospel Luke 20:27-40 ©
Some Sadducees – those who
say that there is no resurrection – approached him and they put this question
to him, ‘Master, we have it from Moses in writing, that if a man’s married
brother dies childless, the man must marry the widow to raise up children for
his brother. Well then, there were seven brothers. The first, having married a
wife, died childless. The second and then the third married the widow. And the
same with all seven, they died leaving no children. Finally the woman herself
died Now, at the resurrection, to which of them will she be wife since she had
been married to all seven?’
Jesus replied, ‘The children of this world
take wives and husbands, but those who are judged worthy of a place in the
other world and in the resurrection from the dead do not marry because they can
no longer die, for they are the same as the angels, and being children of the
resurrection they are sons of God. And Moses himself implies that the dead rise
again, in the passage about the bush where he calls the Lord the God of
Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is God, not of the dead,
but of the living; for to him all men are in fact alive.’
Some scribes then spoke up. ‘Well put,
Master’ they said – because they would not dare to ask him any more questions.
VAIN
SPECULATION
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: REV 11:4-12; PSALMS 144:1, 2, 9-10; LUKE 20:27-40
In the
gospel today, we read of the Sadducees approaching Jesus with an enigma
regarding the woman who married seven brothers of the same family. For
“at the resurrection, to which of them will she be wife since she had been
married to all seven?” It is significant that Jesus did not allow them
to sidetrack the real issue, which was faith in the resurrection. The
apparent conundrum presented by them was just a trick to discredit the doctrine
of the resurrection. Explaining that life in the next world is quite
different from earthly life, Jesus underscored that faith in the resurrection
is authenticated by the very fact that “Moses himself implies that the dead
rise again, in the passage about the bush where he calls the Lord the God of
Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is God, not of the dead,
but of the living; for to him all men are in fact alive.”
Similarly
when Christians read the book of Revelation, they like to speculate on the
images and symbols used by the author of Revelation as if they are ciphers on
the future of the world. Many have tried to link the figures
and symbols with current events and world leaders of our times. Of
course, one can always read into the symbols and come out with all kinds of
vain predictions about the future of humanity and the world. By so doing,
they miss out the real message of what the author wants to convey to his
readers. In truth he was not giving us predictions of events in the
future. Rather, he was writing at a time when the Church was under the
persecution of the Romans. This also explains why he had to use a
literary form which we call apocalyptic language which employs biblical and
historical imagery familiar to the readers at that time.
Simply put
then, the message he wanted to assure his fellow Christians who were
suffering for their faith under the Romans was that they would not die and
even if they did, they would be given eternal life. They would be raised
to life and evil would eventually be conquered. “After the
three-and-a-half days, God breathed life into them and they stood up, and
everybody who saw it happen was terrified; then they heard a loud voice from
heaven say to them, ‘Come up here’, and while their enemies were watching, they
went up to heaven in a cloud.” The three-and-a-half days refer to the
trials of life but they too would share in the resurrection of Christ as
reiterated in the gospel. The enemies would eventually come to realize
that they could not destroy the Church and the witnesses of Christ, for God is
the ruler over all.
The responsorial psalm joyfully
declares that God is the Rock. He is “my mercy and my fortress, my stronghold, my
deliverer, my shield, in whom I trust, who subdues my people under me.”
It is He “who give victory to kings, and deliver David, your servant from the
evil sword.” Indeed, the 1260 days (that is, three-and-a-half years)
signifying the time of trials of the Church, will be overcome by Christ.
The Church will not be vanquished by the forces of evil. Rather the
Church and the saints of God and the martyrs will be victorious at the end.
In the light of this message of hope, we
must therefore take into account that Christianity is not meant for the weak
and for cowards. Christ has come to afflict the comfortable and
comfort the afflicted. A Christianity that is too comfortable, where
everything is smooth sailing, where there are no trials, no challenges, where
the status quo remains all the time, and everything is institutionalized, is no
longer the Church that Jesus came to establish. The stark reality is that
the gospel cannot but become a conscience of society, a pain to those who do
not want to hear the truth and a nuisance to a secular world that proclaims a
freedom without authentic freedom but a new form of slavery.
Isn’t this what the author warned us
Christians when he
wrote, “When they have completed their witnessing, the beast that comes out of
the Abyss is going to make war on them and overcome them and kill them … Men
out of every people, race, language and nation will stare at their corpses, for
three-and-a-half days, not letting them be buried, and the people of the world
will be glad about it and celebrate the event by giving presents to each other,
because these two prophets have been a plague to the people of the world.”
Yes, the world is very hostile
towards Christianity, especially Catholics, because of our stance against
the secular values that promote a culture of death in all its forms, a
permissive culture that does not respect the dignity of the person, especially
of women and the young, the ethics of business and science, the rights of the
marginalized, the poor and the migrants. Besides the global
dimension of persecution, as individual Catholics, we too face persecution in
terms of trying to live a life according to the gospel values. Whether at
home, in the office or even in Church, we know how difficult it is for us to be
true to what we believe in as temptations are many. Striving to grow in
holiness and live a life of integrity is our constant trial as we fight against
the temptations and the seductive ways of the Evil One.
In our discouragement, let us take
heart that we have the prophets and Christian martyrs before us who showed
the way. The two olive trees and the two lamps refer to the witnesses
of the gospel. In the Old Testament we have of course Moses and
Elijah. The author recalls the powers that were given to both of them
when he reminiscences that “Fire can come from their mouths and consume their
enemies if anyone tries to harm them; and if anybody does try to harm them he
will certainly be killed in this way. They are able to lock up the sky so that
it does not rain as long as they are prophesying; they are able to turn water
into blood and strike the whole world with any plague as often as they like.”
These miracles were of course worked by both Moses and Elijah, the greatest
prophets of the Old Testament era. Moses was the one who could “turn
water into blood and strike the whole world with any plague” as often as he
liked. Elijah brought about drought when King Ahab refused to obey the voice of
God.
In the Christian dispensation, the
two witnesses would personify the Christian apostles, Peter and Paul, both
were killed in the Great City of Rome and many other apostles like St Stephen
were killed in Jerusalem. “Their corpses will lie in the main street of
the Great City known by the symbolic names Sodom and Egypt, in which their Lord
was crucified.” Jerusalem was therefore likened to Sodom because of its
immorality and Rome to Egypt because of its worldliness.
Indeed, we are called to be like the
apostles, to be courageous in the face of persecution when we proclaim the
truth about God and the sin of the world. Like them, as the olive trees
of God, that is, precious in His sight, God will see us through in all our
trials and win the victory for us. We must remain focused and have our
sights not just on this world but in the final victory that will be won by
Christ Himself. The New Heaven and the New Earth will eventually be
realized and be brought about by Christ Himself.
Let the symbol of the three-and-a-half
years, that is, half of seven, which therefore means incompleteness, teach us
patience. We
must be patient especially when we see how the Church is suffering today,
especially from all the scandals and sins in the Church and not just
without. It is a blessing in disguise for once again the Church under
persecution is being purified of her sins. She will in time to come be
truly a bride for Christ, pure, holy and spotless. So we must not be discouraged
in the meantime but struggle on in the proclamation of the gospel. With
faith and confidence like the prophets and the apostles before us, God assures
us that we would not be killed until we have finished our work. God is
faithful to us. And even if we are killed in our body, He will raise us
to everlasting life with Him forever.
WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP
OF SINGAPORE
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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