Homily for Thursday
33d Week of Ordinary Time
Nov.
21, 2024
Rev 5: 1-10
Luke
19: 41-44
Christian
Brothers, St. Joseph Residence, N.R.
“The lion
of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has triumphed, enabling him to open
the scroll with its seven seals” (Rev 5: 5).
The 7 Seals (Ottheinrich Folio)
The 7-sealed
scroll lays out the divine plan for the human race; it’s solidly sealed,
completely hidden, until the son of David appears, who is at the same time the
“Lamb that has been slain” (5:6). He
alone is “worthy to receive the scroll and break open its seals” (5:9), to roll
out the fulfillment of God’s plan. His
worthiness follows from his having been slain, like the Passover lambs, thus
purchasing for God a people drawn “from every tribe and tongue and nation”
(5:9).
In
yesterday’s double parable of the king, 10 gold coins, and citizens who reject
his kingship, there were double penalties:
one for the lazy, indifferent servant, and one for his enemies (Luke 19:11-27). There’s a continuity from that parable to
today’s gospel—with a passage between reporting Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and
the plea of “some of the Pharisees” that Jesus rebuke his disciples for the way
they’ve welcomed him into the city (19:28-40).
These
Pharisees reject “the king who comes in the name of the Lord” (19:38), like those
citizens who urged the emperor, “We don’t want this man to be our king” (19:14). The citizens’ rejection and that of “some of
the Pharisees” inform Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem: “If this day you only knew what makes for
peace” (19:42)—something hidden from their eyes, like God’s plan sealed in the
scroll—if only they would “recognize the time of [their] visitation” (19:44),
then they’d be spared the destruction of siege and ruin; Luke writes with the
benefit of hindsight, having witnessed what the Romans did to Jerusalem in 70
A.D.
Jesus
loves the holy city and its people. He
weeps for them, as he’d later tell the women of the city who meet him on the
way to Calvary, lamenting his fate, to weep for themselves and their children
(23:27-31). Recognition of the lion of
Judah, the Lamb of God, makes for peace.
Recognizing the authentic king and allegiance to him reconciles us with
God; his presence is the Lord’s “visitation, bringing redemption to his people”
(Luke 1:68) hailed by Zechariah. That
redemption isn’t liberation from Rome but from “the hand of enemies” (1:74) who
would prevent us from “worshiping God in holiness and righteousness” (1:75)—the
demonic powers. This redemption makes of
“every tribe and tongue, people and nation” joint citizens and priests of “a
kingdom for our God” (Rev 5:9-10). This
redemption forges what Augustine terms “the tranquility of order,” the right
order between us and God and among all people.
This is God’s hidden plan, revealed in the Lamb that would be slain (cf.
5:6) but would triumph (5:5).