Homily
for the 34th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle B)
Based
on (Gospel), (First Reading) and (Second Reading)
From
the Series: “Reflections and Teachings of the Desert”
CHRIST THE
KING
‘Fight
to the death for truth, and the Lord God will war on your side.’ (Si 4:28)
‘
The Gospel for this 34th
Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle B) is taken from Jn 18:33-37.
Verses 33,
34 and 35 say: So Pilate went back into
the Praetorium and called Jesus to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” he
asked. Jesus replied, “Do you ask this of your own accord, or have spoken to
you about me?” Pilate answered, ‘Am I not a Jew? It is your own people and the
chief priests who have handed you over to me: what have you done?’
Parallel texts for verse 33 are:
1.
Jn 19:14
- It was Passover Preparation Daye
about the sixth hourf. Footnote e says “In the course of this day, the Passover
supper was made ready (it was eaten after sunset, cf. Ex 12:6+) and everything
necessary prepared so that the feast could be celebrated without violating the
rest prescribed by the Law”; and Footnote f says “About noon, the time by which all leaven had to be removed from the
house; during the Passover unleavened bread (‘azymes’) was to be eaten, cf. Ex
12:15f. It is possible that the evangelist wishes to call attention to this
coincidence; cf. 1 Co 5:7.
2.
Jn 19:22
- Pilate answered, ‘What I have written, I have written!’
Verse 36
says: Jesus replied, ‘Mine is not a kingdom of this world; if my
kingdom were of this world, my men would have fought to prevent my being
surrendered to the Jews. But my kingdom is not of this kind.’
Parallel texts are:
1.
Jn 1:10 - He
was in the world that had its being through him, and the world did not know
him.g Footnote g says “The ‘world’ variously means: the cosmos or
this earth, the human race, those hostile to God who hate Christ and his
disciples, cf. 7:7; 15:18,19; 17:14. This last sense coincides with the
contemporary Jewish distinction between ‘this world’, 8:23 and passim,
dominated by Satan, 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; 1 Jn 5:19; and ‘the world to come’
which possibly corresponds to John’s ‘eternal life’, 12:25. The disciples are
to remain in this world for the present, though not of it, 17:11,14f.”
2.
Jn 6:15 - Jesus,
who could see they were about to come and take him by force and make him king,
escapedb back to the hills by himself. Footnote b says “Var.
‘withdrew’.”
3.
Jn 8:23 - Jesus went on: ‘You are from below; I
am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.
4.
Jn 12:32 - And
when I am lifted up from the earth,j I shall draw all men k
to myself.’l Footnote j says “Om.
‘from the earth’. Allusion to the ‘lifting of’ Christ on the cross (v. 33) and
to his ‘lifting up’ to heaven, 3:13,14; 8:28; cf. 6:62, on the day of his
resurrection, 20:17+; the two events are two aspects of the same mystery, 13:1+.
When Christ is raised to the Father’s right hand in glory, 12:23; 17:5+, he
will send the Spirit, 7:39,through whom his reign will spread over the world,
16:14; cf. 3:35+.”; Footnote k says “Var.
‘every man’ or ‘all things’”; and Footnote
l says “The crucified Jesus will be set before the
eyes of the world as its savior, cf. 19:37. This is the answer to the Greeks’
request to ‘see’ Jesus, cf. 6:40+”.
5.
Jn 18:10-11 - Simon Peter, who carried a sword,
drew it and wounded the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. The
servants’ name was Malchus (v. 10). Jesus said to Peter, ‘Put your sword back
on its scabbard; am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?’
Verse 37
says: ‘So you are a king then? said Pilate. “It is you say it’ answered Jesus.
‘Yes, I am a king. I was born for this, and I came into the world for this: to
bear witness to the truth; and all who
are on the side of the truth listens to my voice.’
Parallel texts are:
1.
Jn 3:35 - The
Father loves the Son and has entrusted everything to him.r Footnote
r says “God
has communicated his power over life to the Son, 1:4; 5:21; 10:18+, and now the
Son gives life to whom he will, 5:26; his gift of the Spirit, 3:5-6; 1:33+;
15:26; establishes ‘all flesh’ in incorruption, 1:14+; 11:25; 17:2,3. Thus, by
the Father’s decree, all things are ‘in the hand’ (or power) of the Son, 3:35;
10:28,29; 13:3; 17:2; cf. 6:37-39; Mt. 11:27; 28:18; on this is based the
sovereignty, 12:13-15; 18:36-37; that he will solemnly assume on the day of his
‘lifting up’, 12;32+, 19:19; Ac 2:33; Ep 4:8; and on that day, the ‘Prince of
this world’ will forfeit his kingdom, 12:31+.”
2. Jn
3:11 - I tell you most solemnly, we
speak only about what we know and witness only to what we have seen and yet you
people reject our evidence.e Footnote e says “Jesus does not speak on his own initiative, 7:17 -18; he declares what he has
seen ‘with the Father’, 1:18 ,
3:11 , 8:38 , cf. 8:24+; it is the Father’s words and
teaching that he hands on to man, 3:34, 8:28, 12:49,50, 14:24, 17:8,14; he is
himself the Word, 1:1,14. This Word is not idle: it calls all things from
nothing, 1:1+, it calls the dead from the tomb, 11:43,44, 5:28-29; it gives
life to the soul, 5:24, 6:63, 8:51; it confers the Spirit, the source of
immortality, 1:33+; 20:22, and so makes men children of God, 10:35, 1:12. It is
required only than man should have faith in the Word, 1:12 , ;dwell’ in it, cf. 8:31, ‘keep’ it,
8:51,55, 12:47, 14:23, 15:20, 17:6, obey its command which is love, 13:34.
Nevertheless, the Word is enigmatic, 2:20+, and difficult, cf. 6:60, 7:36 ; it makes its way only into
humble hearts. Those who hear it, therefore, respond differently, 7:43, 10:19;
some believe, 4:41, 7:40f,46, 8:30, others go away disappointed, 6:66, in spite
of the ‘signs’, 2:11+; this same rejected Word will judge them at the last day,
12:48.”
3.
Si 4:28 - Fight
to the death for truth,j and the Lord God will war on your side.
Footnote j says “‘truth’ Greek; ‘justice’ Hebr and Lat.”
4.
Jn 10:26 - But you do not believe, because you
are no sheep of mine.n Footnote
n says “Faith in Jesus implies
an inner sympathy with him: man must be
‘from above’’ 8:23, ‘of God’, 8:47. ‘of the truth’, 18:37, of his flock, 10:14.
Faith presupposes a mind open to truth, 3:17-21; Cf. Ac 13:48+; Rm 8:29f.”
5.
1 Jn 3:19 - Only
by this can we be certaing that we are children of the truth h
and be able to quieten our conscience in his presence… Footnote g says “Lit. ‘we shall be certain’; var. (Vulg.)
‘we are certain’; and Footnote h says “In the O.T. ‘truth’ (contrasting with
unrighteousness and evil) the rightness of a life morally well lived in
accordance with the will of Yahweh, in fidelity to Yahweh. This is the way John
uses the word. As there is a double commandment to fidelity and love, 3:23,
people are said to ‘belong to truth’ if they believe,2:21,22, and love, 3:19,
they are said to live ‘in union with (walk
according to) truth’ 2 Jn 4-6, 3 Jn 3-6, to ‘do the truth’, Jn 3:21 (to perform
or act it, as opposed to committing sin, doing wrong) cf. Jn 18:37; 4:24.”
The First Reading is from Dn 7:13-14.
Verse 13 says: ‘I gazed into the vision of the night. And I
saw, coming on the clouds of heaven, one like a son of man.k He came
to the one of great age and was led into his presence… Footnote k – Like the Hebrew ben
adam, the Aram. Bar nasha used here, has the primary meaning ‘man’, cf. Ps 8:4.
In Ezk. God addresses the prophet thus. But here in Dn the expression signifies
a man who is mysteriously more than human. That it indicates an individual is
attested by early Jewish apocryphal writings (Enoch, 2 Esd) inspired by this
passage, as also by rabbinical tradition from the 2nd to the 9th
centuries, and most particularly by Jesus, who applies it to himself, cf. Mt
8:20+. That it has a collective sense also is deduced from v. 18 (and v. 22)
where the ‘son of man’ and the saints of the Most High’ seem more or less
identified. But the collective (and equally messianic sense is an extension of
the individual sense; the ‘son of man’ being leader, representative and
exemplar of the saints of the Most High. It was with this in mind that St.
Ephraim believed that the prophecy applied first to the Jews (the Maccabees),
but beyond this, and perfectly, to Jesus.
Parallel texts are:
1.
Dn 10:16 - The
someone looking like a son of man come and touched my lips. I opened my mouth
to speak, and I said to the person standing in front of me, ‘My lord, anguish
overcomes me at this vision, and what strength I had deserts me.’
2.
Mt 8:20
- Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the
Son of Manh has nowhere to lay his head.’ Footnote h
says “With the exception of Ac 7:56, Rv
1:13; 14:14; this title appears only in the
gospels. There is no doubt that Jesus used it of himself, and indeed
preferred it to others. At times he uses it to express his lowly state, 8:20;
11:19; 20:28, especially the humiliation of the Passion, 17:22, etc. At others
times it is used to proclaim the definitive triumph of his resurrection, 17:9,
of his return in glory, 24:30; of his coming in judgment, 25:31. That this
title, Aramaic in flavor, could bring together these seemingly opposed qualities is clear from the following
considerations. The phrase originally meant ‘man’, Ezk. 2:1+, and by reason of
its unusual and indirect form it underlined the lowliness of man’s state. But
the title suggested glory, too. It was used in Dn 7:13+, and later in the
Jewish apocalyptic Book of Enoch, to indicate the transcendent figure, heavenly
in origin, who was to receive from God’s hand the eschatological kingdom (the
kingdom ‘at the end of times’). In this way therefore the title both veiled and
hinted at (cf. Mk. 1:34+; Mt. 13:13+) the sort of Messiah Jesus was. Moreover,
the explicit avowal in the presence of the Sanhedrin, 26:64+, should have
removed all ambiguity.”
3.
Mt 24:30
- And then the sign of the Son of Man
will appear in heaven;o then too all the peoples of the earth will
beat their breasts; and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of
heaven with power and great glory.p Footnoteo – For the Fathers this ‘sign’ was Christ’s cross but possibly it
is Christ himself proving by the triumph of his kingdom on earth that he has
truly risen and is in glory; and Footnote p says “In these words Daniel
foretold the establishment of the messianic kingdom by a Son of Man coming on
the clouds. The cloud is the usual accompaniment of both OT and NT theophanies:
Ex. 13:22+; 19:16+; 34:5+; Lv 16:2; 1 K 8:10-11; Ps 18:11; 97:2; 104:3; Is
19:1; Jr. 4:13Ezk 1:4; 10:3f; 2 M 2:8. For NT, cf. Mt 17:5; Ac 1:9,11; 1 Th
4:17; Rv 1:7; 14:14.”
4.
Mt 26:64
- ‘The words are your own,’ answered
Jesus. ‘Moreover, I tell you that from this time onward you will see the Son of
Man seated at the right hand of the Power and coming on the clouds of heavenu.
Footnote u says “‘The Power’ is equivalent to ‘Yahweh’. At
the critical moment Jesus abandons his policy of the ‘messianic secret’, cf. Mk
1:34+, and unequivocally acknowledges - as he had already acknowledged to his
intimates, Mt 16:16 - that he is the Messiah. But he goes further and reveals
himself, not as the human Messiah of traditional expectation but as the Lord of
Ps 110, cf. Mt 22:41f, and the mysterious personage of heavenly origin whom
Daniel had seen in vision, cf Mt 8:20+. Henceforth the Jews will not see him
except in his glory which will be manifested first in the victory of the
resurrection and subsequently in the victory of the Church. Cf 23:39 and 24:30.”
5.
Mk 13:26
- And then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power
and glory;
6.
Mk 14:62
- ‘I am,’ said Jesus ‘and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand
of the Power and coming with the clouds of heaven.’
7.
Lk 21:27
- And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great
glory
8.
Rv 1:7 -
It is he is coming on the clouds, everyone will see him, even those who pierced
him, and all the races of the earth will mourn over him. This is the truth.
Amen.
9.
Rv 14:14
- Now in my vision I saw a white cloud and, sitting on it, one like a son of
man with a gold crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.
Verse 14 says: On him was
conferred sovereignty, glory and kingship, and men of all peoples, nations and
languages became his servants.
Parallel texts are:
1.
Mt 9:6 -
But to prove to you that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins
–he said to the paralytic-‘get up, and pick up your bed and go off home.’
2.
Lk 1:33…he will rule over the House of Jacob forever
and his reign will have no end.q Footnote q says “The
angel’s words recall several O.T. passages referring to the Messiah.”
3.
Rv 11:15
- Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and voices could be heard shouting
in heaven, calling, ‘the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our
Lord and his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.’
The Second Reading is from Rv
1:5-8.
Verses 5
and 6 says: and from Jesus
Christ, the faithful witness, the Firstborn of the dead, the Ruler of the kings
of the earth.i He loves us and washed awayj our sins with
his blood and made us a line of kings, priests to servek his God and
Father; to him, then, be glory and power forever and ever. Amen.… Footnote i says “The
Messiah is the ‘witness’ to the promise that was made to David, 2 S 7:1+; Ps
89, Is 55:3-4; Zc 12:8, both in his person and in his work; as he fulfills this
promise he is the efficacious word, God’s yes, Rv 3:14; 19:11,13; 2 Co 1:20.
Not only is he heir to David, Rb 5:5, 22:16, but his resurrection he is the
‘First -born’, Col 1:18, who will reign over the universe when his enemies have
been destroyed, Dn 7:14; Rv 19:16”; Footnote
j says “Var. ‘released us from’”; and Footnote k
says “Lit. ‘He made us a kingdom
and priests for those who turn to the Messiah and whose sins he forgives, vv. 5
and 7, will be a family of king-priests, Ex 19:6+; kings because they will rule
over all the nations, Dn 7:22,27; Is 54:11-17; Zc 12:1-3; cf. Rv 2:26; 5:10;
20:6; 22:5; priests because in union with Jesus the messianic priest they will
consecrate the universe to God in a sacrifice of praise.”
Parallel texts are:
1.
Is 5:4 - What could I have done for my vineyard
that I have not done? I expected it to yield grapes. Why did it yield sour
grapes instead?
2.
Ex 19:6 - ‘I
will count you a kingdom of priests, a consecrated nation.f These
are the words you are to speak to the sons of Israel.’ Footnote f says “The
Covenant makes Israel God’s sacred possession Jr 2:2, a consecrated people, Dt
7:6; 26:19 that is to say holy (for the same Hebr. word means ‘sacred’,
‘consecrated’, ‘holy’) as its God is holy, Lv 19:2, cf. 11:44f; 20:7,26. It is
also a nation of priests, cf. Is 61:6, because what is sacred is by that very
fact related to the ritual worship. The promise is to have its complete
fulfillment in ‘the Israel of God, the Church; the faithful are called
‘saints’, Ac 9:13+, and in union with Christ the Priest they offer God a
sacrifice of praise, 1 P 2:5,9; Rv 1:6; 5:10; 20:6.”
3.
1 P 2:9 - But you are a chosen race, a royal
priesthood, a consecrated nation, a people set apart to sing the praises of God
who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
4.
Rm 16:27 - He
alone is wisdom.m Give glory therefore to him through Jesus Christ
for ever and ever. Amen.n Footnote m says “Cf
11:33-36; 1 Co 1:24; 2:7; Ep 3:10; Col 2:3; 10:7; 17:5,7”; and Footnote n says “CF
Ga 1:5; Ep 3:21; Ph 4:20; 1 Tm 1:17; 6:16; 2 Tm 4:18; Heb 13:21; 1 P 4:11; 2 P
3:18; Jude 25; Rv 1:6.
Verse 7 says:
It is he is coming on the clouds,
everyone will see him, even those who
pierced him, and all the races of the earth will mourn over him. This is the
truth. Amen.
Parallel texts are:
1.
Dn 7:13 -
‘I gazed into the vision of the night. And I saw, coming on the clouds of
heaven, one like a son of man.k He came to the one of great age and
was led into his presence.
Foonote
2.
Zc
12:10,14 - But over the house of David
and the citizens of Jerusalem I will pour a spirit of kindness and prayer. They will look on the
one whom they have pierced;e they will mourn for him as for an only
son, and weep for him as people weep for a first-born child (v. 10). All the
clans that remain, clan by clan, with their wives by themselves (v. 14). Footnote
e says “‘the one’ Theodotion, Jn. 19:37; ‘me’ Hebr.
The death of the Pierced One occurs
in an eschatological context (cf. Rv. 1:7), ch. The raising of the siege of
Jerusalem, the national mourning, vv. 10-14, the opening of the fountain of
salvation, 13:1. The messianic age thus depends on a passion and a mysterious
death comparable to the sufferings of the servant in Is. 52:13-53:12. Jn. 19:37
sees is this passage the figure of the passion of Christ, the ‘only son’ and
the ‘first-born’, cf. Jh. 1:18,; Col.
1:15, whose pierced body will be ‘looked on’ with the saving eye of faith, cf.
Jn 3:14+; Nb. 21:8-9. And whose opened side is a fountain of salvation, Jn.
19:34; 7:38.”
3.
Mt 24:30 - And then the sign of the Son of Man will
appear in heaven;o then too all the peoples of the earth will beat
their breasts; and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven
with power and great glory.p Footnote o says “For the
Fathers this ‘sign’ was Christ’s cross but possibly it is Christ himself
proving by the triumph of his kingdom on earth that he has truly risen and is
in glory.”; and Footnote
p says “In
these words Daniel foretold the establishment of the messianic kingdom by a Son
of Man coming on the clouds. The cloud is the usual accompaniment of both OT
and NT theophanies: Ex. 13:22+; 19:16+; 34:5+; Lv 16:2; 1 K 8:10-11; Ps 18:11;
97:2; 104:3; Is 19:1; Jr. 4:13Ezk 1:4; 10:3f; 2 M 2:8. For NT, cf. Mt 17:5; Ac
1:9,11; 1 Th 4:17; Rv 1:7; 14:14.”
4.
Jn 19:37
- And again in another place scripture
says: They will look on the one whom they have pierced.v Footnote v says “‘They will look’, in the Johannine sense of ‘see and understood’, cf.
3:14+. For Jn, the Roman soldier symbolizes the pagans who will be converted
cf. 12:20-21,32, and notes. Similarly, Mt. 27:54+ and Mk 15:39+. Cf. also Lk
23:47,48; Mt 24:30; Rv 1:7.”
Verse 8
says “I am the Alpha and the
Omega,”l says the Lord God, “who is, who was, and who is to come,
the Almighty.” Footnote l
says “The beginning and end, originator and goal of all things: Is 41:4;
44:6; Rv 21:6; 22:13, ‘the Almighty’: ‘pantokrator’ lit. ‘the All-Ruler’, a stock rendering of ‘Lord of
Hosts’(‘Yahweh Sabaoth’).”
Parallel texts are:
1.
Rv 1:4 - Address
and greetingg From John, to the seven churches of Asia: grace and
peace to you from him who is, who was, and who is to come,h from the
seven spirits in his presence before his throne. Footnote
g says “This section makes use of many OT allusions to suggest the
King-Messiah’s glorious return, solemn enthronement and future reign over God’s
people in fulfillment of the promise made to David. This is basically what the
whole book is about”; and Footnote h says “Common title in Jewish literature, developed from the name revealed to
Moses: ‘I am who am,’ Ex 3:14+.”
2.
Rv 21:6- And
he said, ‘It is already done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and
the End. I will give water from the well of life free to anybody who is
thirsty…f Footnote
f says “In the OT fresh, drinking water is a symbol
of life, and as such is to be a feature of the messianic age. in the NT, it is
a symbol of the Spirit, cf Jn 4:1+.”
3.
Rv 22:13- I am the Alpha and the Omega, the
First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
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