01 December 2024
Lectionary Readings: Jeremiah 33:14-16;Psalm 24: 4-5, 8-10, 14;1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2;Luke 21:25-28
Dear readers, shalom from Israel-Jerusalem!
Today’s Gospel text is set in a very difficult historical reality experienced by the Jewish people, which necessarily includes the communities of Jesus’ followers, which were initially made up of Jews, but which had already been joined by groups of people from other nations, what we could call pagans-ex-pagans. They were not ethnically Jewish, but they became adopted sons and daughters, joining the promises of Israel through their adherence to Jesus as the Christ (Messiah) awaited by Israel. The great Jewish revolt against the Romans, which culminated in the capture of Jerusalem by the Romans and the destruction of the Temple in the year 70 AD, profoundly affected Jewish life, politically, socially and religiously. This event practically marked the great exile of the people of Israel from Jerusalem, which only ended in 1948, when the Jewish people reconquered their land, the Land of Israel. The Gospel of Luke, like the other Gospels, was written after the year 70 AD, and therefore contemplates this catastrophe that befell the Jewish people.
This is linked to today’s first reading taken from the Prophet Jeremiah, which also reflects on another great catastrophe experienced by the people of Israel, with the invasion of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar (King of Babylon) and the destruction of the Temple, forcing the people to go into exile for 70 years. According to studies, from the beginning of the 8th century BC, with the threats against the kingdom of Israel in the north and even Judah in the south, the hope of God’s intervention in the future was born. The glorious past of David, who promoted the unity of all the tribes of Israel and established tranquility among the people, became a model for the future of unification and protection of the people, sustained by God. There is a projection based on the time when there was unity from south to north of the country and Jerusalem with the Temple was the only religious and political centre for the entire people.
We therefore see religious conviction and hope as support in the faith that God will provide in the future, as He did with David, now, through his lineage, the reestablishment of peace and tranquility for the people, cf. Is 7, 14-17; Is 9, 5-6; Is 11, 1-2 and among many other texts, also what the liturgy proposes to us for today: “The days are coming … I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line … will be called: The LORD Our Righteous Saviour” (Jer 33, 14-16).
It is important to be clear that the Scriptures will develop various models of the Messiah, however, the diversity in forms was experienced within the same Jewish religious tradition. For example, the figure of the Suffering Servant of Isaiah in 53 or the personage in chapter 7 of the book of Daniel, as is also evident in the Davidic model proclaimed in the revolt described in the books of Maccabees…
The announcement by the disciples of Jesus of Nazareth, a Jewish man, as the Messiah, supported by the experience of faith in his resurrection, described in the New Testament, expresses the set of various aspects of the understanding of the Messiah (Christ) lived in the tradition of the Jewish people based on the Scriptures and their interpretation. And it is therefore only within the multifaceted Jewish tradition about the Messiah that we find the means to better understand the proclamation of Jesus as the Messiah (Christ).
The affirmation of the coming of the Messiah in a historical reality that has not been transformed, in the eyes of the faith of his followers, does not invalidate the truth of his messiahship; on the contrary, it generates the need to bear witness to this novelty to the Nations from which a new hope is born until the day of his glorious manifestation. This expectation must be nourished by the practice of the Word of God as a constant exercise of being on guard: “May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones (ITh 3, 13…).
Therefore, this liturgical season puts us in tune with the reality of the people of Israel who are nourished by the hope of the coming of the Messiah, while the Christian world lives in the expectation of his glorious manifestation. The two traditions of faith (Jewish and Christian) meet in concrete history, with the same duty to fulfil the Word of God in order to make possible the coming of the Messiah for one and his glorious manifestation (coming) for the other. In fact, it is in the joint commitment of both (Jews and Christians) to make the world a better place through the practice of the Word of God that one contributes to the salvation of the other.
This week’s Sunday Liturgy Commentary was prepared by
Bro. Elio Passeto, NDS Israel- Jerusalem, Director
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