Homily for Thursday, Week 33 of Ordinary Time

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).