Sunday Scriptures

In the Gospel for this first Sunday of Advent, we hear Jesus tell us to stay awake.

In the depths of most human hearts is a desire to be led by someone who loves us and can protect us and guide us in life. At the root of that desire is the often unseen longing for the love, protection and guidance that only God, the King of the Universe, can truly give. In the times prior to King Saul, the people of Israel offended the Lord by clamoring for a human king like the rest of the nations had, rather than being led directly by God. Getting what they wanted did not work out well due to King Saul’s shortcomings. Yet Saul’s failures did not prevent the Israelites from wanting another king. In the first reading for the Solemnity of Christ the King this year we hear them clamoring for a replacement king once Saul had died; pleading with David to become their king.

The first reading’s narrative from the book of Maccabees this weekend of the martyrdom of seven brothers also contains sure testimony to belief in the resurrection.

My mother is 92 and still lives in the house I grew up in. For most of my adult life, every time I’ve gone up to visit her, we’ve played Scrabble — several games of Scrabble. I usually win and win big. But even at 92, she insists on playing.

Before I entered the seminary I worked in a small community bank.

In the unsettling parable of Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16:19-31, Jesus speaks of the fate of a rich man who enjoyed everything that money could buy yet insulated himself from the needs of the poor.

This Sunday’s Scriptures are not easy to hear for those of us who live observing God’s commandments and the precepts of the Church. Our behavior leads us to think of ourselves as “insiders,” those who belong to the community of Jesus’ followers with all the privileges that entails. And yet the selection from Luke’s Gospel that we hear today warns us that we may discover ourselves “outsiders” when the Reign of God that Jesus proclaimed is brought to completion.

I read somewhere (maybe Dale Ahlquist can find it) that GK Chesterton wrote, “Modern man has stopped longing for heaven and now takes it for granted that he will get there.”