33rd Sunday, November 16, 2008
Zephaniah 1: 7, 12-18
1Thessalonians 5: 1-6
Matthew 25: 14-30
 
At the start of the liturgy:
Nineteen years ago today, members of the Salvadoran military, some of them trained at the School of the Americas at Fort Benning, burst into the Jesuit residence at the university in San Salvador.  They forced the Jesuits outside, where they blew out the brains of the Jesuits––literally.  The Jesuits’ crime?  Proclaiming the gospel, leading their university to address the oppression and poverty of their country.  All witnesses had to eliminated, of course, so the housekeeper and her daughter (who had stayed that night to be safe from the fighting in their neighborhood) were also killed.
 
So, as we worship and praise our God, let’s pray for the people of El Salvador, for the folks who will gather next weekend at the School of the Americas, and, as Jesus directs us, for our enemies.
 
Before the readings:
These final weeks of the liturgical year invite us to enter into and ponder the mysteries of life and death and God.  Our readings actually create some puzzlement, for in some ways they contradict Jesus’ own stance toward these mysteries.
 
Deeply embedded in the Hebrew tradition—and in many religions and simply human convictions—is the need for strict justice: those who do evil will be punished, and the good will be rewarded. This view is called the Theory of Retribution.  When everyday experience did not work out this way, the rewards and punishments were pushed into the next life.  We hear a strong statement of the theory of retribution in the first reading from the prophet Zephaniah.
 
There is also a minority opinion found in the Hebrew Scriptures: neither Qoheleth nor the author of Job accepted the dominant theology.  As far as we can tell, neither did Jesus.  Jesus’ God is nonviolent; this God sends rain on the just and the unjust. Jesus’ God is the forgiving father who welcomes home the prodigal son not even with a harsh word but instead with a banquet.  Jesus’ God invites love and trust, going far beyond our common sense and the need to balance scales.
 
As Scripture scholar Walter Wink points out, Jesus’ disciples were not able to sustain Jesus’ vision of a compassionate God when they experienced and sought to find meaning in Jesus’ horrible death. They returned to their culture and religious tradition, to violence saves.
 
Matthew’s gospel reveals his Jewish roots, frequently expressing the need for judgment and punishment.  Along with this emphasis in today’s passage, Matthew rework Jesus’ parable about the talents (a huge sum of money), encouraging responsible living before the Second Coming.  (Remember that our gospels are not historical biographies of Jesus, but faith proclamations containing three layers: the public ministry of Jesus, the creative and selective preaching about Jesus by the disciples, the still further creative writing of the gospels by the evangelists with applications to the local community.)
 
Let’s listen carefully to God’s word, today as always expressed in human words.
 
The homily:
Life and death and God.  Truly the fundamentals!
 
Life: Jesus challenges our assumptions, inviting us to discern God’s loving presence in our ordinary lives.  Matthew emphasizes responsible living in the present; human activity does have final meaning. Do we need to pay closer attention to the richness and significance of our day-to-day living?  What do we do with our talents?
 
Death: the dramatic readings can lead us to quiet prayer about this mystery, our death.  For some of us it might also come unexpectedly.  But it comes for all. Do we develop our relationship with God now, discerning God’s faithful love, so that in death we can entrust others and finally ourselves into God’s gentle hands and heart?
 
God: holy and incomprehensible Mystery, as Karl Rahner always stressed.  But also a God with us now—in this word, in the bread and wine, in this community.  Jesus’ God is a God of surprise, of nonviolence, of care for the poor and marginalized.  Jesus’ God is a God of life and love.  Will you dare to believe this—and to live accordingly?