34BKing18.     Daniel 7:13-17.   Jesus uses this term ‘Son of man’ from the book of Daniel to refer to himself.  I take it to be a practical way for Jesus to refer to himself as truly human, yet beyond the capacity of human perception, infinitely more than human.  In this passage in Daniel, God, the Ancient One, makes the Son of man king receiving “dominion, glory, and kingship,” with “all peoples, nations, and languages” serving him.  Unlike an ordinary human king, “his dominion is an everlasting dominion.”

John 18:33b-37.   The religious leaders of the Jews felt greatly threatened by the popularity of Jesus and that Jesus had confronted them on their using religion as tool to serve themselves and not the faith of the people.  They accused him before Pilate but it appears that Pilate could not get a handle on what the charges were that deserved such a furious upset against Jesus.  Strangely enough he was trying to get Jesus to tell him what he had done.  Jesus certainly did not appear to be the kind of person who was attempting to be king or military leader of anyone.  Jesus answered Pilate, “My kingdom does not belong to this world.”  “You say that I am a king.  For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.  Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”  To Pilate that response made absolutely no sense.  It is as if, we might say today, they were from two different planets or worlds.  Truth for Pilate was holding down his job with the emperor.  Truth for Jesus is the reality that is eternal, the Alpha and Omega, the same that always was, is now and always will be.  Truth is the very person of God.  Everything else lives for a short while and is dead the next.  As Jesus said in John 14:6a, “I am the truth, the life and the way.”  Everything else is fraudulent, falsely claiming to be the truth.

Revelation 1:5-8.   “Jesus Christ is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and ruler of the kings of the earth.  To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, who has made us into a kingdom, priests for his God and Father.”  He is the shepherd king, leading us by the sacrifice of himself on the cross from our being sinners to becoming saints into his kingdom, to be “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession.” (taken from Preface I of the Sundays in Ordinary Time)  In Romans 6:5, Paul writes, “If, then we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.”  Daily we are priests, not as ministerial priests saying the words of consecration but as lay persons who offer up our lives with Jesus on his cross through prayer so that we may live with him in heaven forever.

33B21.      Daniel 12:1-3.   This seems to have been written at a time when the pagan emperor Antiochus IV was cruelly attempting to force the Jews to give up Judaism and worship in his religion.  Daniel looks into the future to predict a cataclysmic event when those who remained faithful to Judaism would be rewarded eternally and those who apostatized would end in everlasting horror.

Mark 13:24-32.   Being made aware of the future enables us to live wisely in the present.  Jesus tells his Apostles that the earthly powers of that day would one day be destroyed and the victorious eternal power of God vested in him would be revealed.  “And then they will see ‘the son of man coming in the clouds’ with great power and glory, and then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of the sky.”  Jesus will come on the last day of this material universe to claim those who lived their lives in obedience to him and leave the rest behind.  To prepare for his coming at the end of the world is to live now each and every day in the Lord.

Hebrews 10:11-14, 18.  The Old Testament priests had to offer sacrifices frequently because their daily sacrifices were not sufficient to take away sins and so needed to be repeated.  Jesus’ sacrifice of himself as an act of love for us was done only once and was sufficient for all eternity.  So great and so wondrous is the love that Jesus had and still has for us.

33B18.    Daniel 12:1-3.  The book of Daniel predicts that “there shall be a time unsurpassed in distress.”  The wise and “those who lead many to justice” will live shining “like stars forever” but “others shall be an everlasting horror and disgrace.”

Mark 13:24-32.  I think that to begin to make sense of this reading one must go to and read the whole of Mark 13.  Jesus refers to a whole number of things that will happen in the future, combining them in a sort of stew as one that might be cooking over a hot fire.  In Mark 13:2 Jesus, in roughly 33 AD referring to the temple, says, “There will not be one stone left upon another that will not be thrown down.”  In fact the Jews, rebelling against the Romans, go to war against them in 66-70 AD and lose.  The Romans destroy the temple in 71 AD.  In time Jesus says there will be many disastrous events that will occur, but for followers of Christ, “these are the beginnings of the labor pains.”  Christians will be imprisoned but he says do not worry about how to respond.  Jesus says in Mark 13:11c, “For it will not be you who are speaking but the Holy Spirit” who speaks through you.  He continues in Mark 13:13: “You will be hated by all because of my name.  But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.”

Then Jesus says in Mark 13:14a, “When you see the desolating abomination standing where he should not” (Jesus does not say what or who this is, perhaps Satan himself), you must flee.  In Mark 13:22-23, he continues: “False messiahs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders in order to mislead, if that were possible, the elect. Be watchful!  I have told it all to you beforehand.”  In the next verse which begins our Sunday reading, Jesus says in effect the whole universe will disintegrate, “and then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in the clouds’ with great power and glory, and then he will send out his angels and gather [his] elect from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of the sky.” In absolute contrast to his first coming as a helpless infant, Jesus, now in his second coming as the mighty King calling his own, his elect, who have been loyal to him to the end, up into heaven.  Then Jesus seems to be at odds or variance with himself saying at first that he does know when these things will happen when he says, “this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place” and then saying he does not know when these things will take place, saying, “But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the only the Father.” My own understanding is that when Jesus says that these things will come to pass before this generation passes away is that each generation must think that the end may come before they pass away so that they may always be watchful and alert.  The term ‘elect’ is that Jesus chooses those who choose him.

Hebrews 10:11-14.  Jesus “offered one sacrifice for sins, and took his seat forever at the right hand of God; now he waits until his enemies are made his footstool.  Jesus, being divine as well as human, only needed to offer one sacrifice.  The Judaic priests who were simply human had to make many sacrifices.  When we join ourselves to Jesus’ sacrifice, we are made perfect.  He is God the Son who comes in power and glory.

32B21.    1 Kings 17:10-16.  During the time of a great drought, Elijah, the great prophet, went into pagan territory and called on a poverty stricken widow, first to give him “a small cupful of water,” and then “a bit of bread.” She told Elijah that she had only enough for her and her son’s last meal and then they would die.  Elijah assured her that “the jar of flour shall not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry,” until the drought ended.  In her simplicity she put herself in hands of Lord and the Lord provided.

Mark 12:38-44.  Jesus condemns the scribes for whom religion was all about what they could get for themselves but he commends the poor widow who gave all she could to the Lord in whom she put her trust.  She was virtually giving herself to the Lord.  She and the widow in the first reading lived their lives in hands of the Lord.

Hebrews 9:24-26.  Jesus is the eternal high priest who offered up himself to give us the opportunity to gain heaven and still appears before God the Father on our behalf.  He “will appear a second time” “to bring salvation to those who eagerly await him.”  Jesus still lives for us who live for him.

32B18.   1 Kings 17:10-16.   What a heart-wrenching account!  “Just now I was collecting a couple of sticks, to go in and prepare something for myself and my son; when we have eaten it, we shall die.”  Elijah was able to bring the life–sustaining power of God to her aid, saying, “For the Lord, the God of Israel, says, ‘The jar of flour shall not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry, until the day when the Lord sends rain upon the earth.’” The Lord provided in her dire need.  In Luke 1:53, Mary says, “The hungry he has filled with good things; the rich he has sent away empty.”

Mark 12:38-44.  Jesus calling his disciples to himself, saying, “This poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury.  For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.” God judges us individually on how much we do with how much we have.  Judgment is based not on a competition, one against the other but rather on our own individual effort.  When we are giving to God, we only give what God has given us.  He knows well what we are capable of. God is perfectly just, true to himself as a Father loving each of us, his children fairly.  He also condemns the scribes because they are only working for their self-interest and esteem.  “They will receive a very severe condemnation.”  This Sundays’ Psalm 146 says, “The fatherless and the widow he sustains, but the way of the wicked he thwarts.”

Hebrews 9:24-28.  Christ, who died for our benefit on the cross, ascends to heaven to “appear before God on our behalf.”  In John 14:6 Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  Infinitely superior to the priests of the Old Testament who had to offer sacrifices continuously, Christ offers himself only once on the cross to take away the sins of many.  He will come “a second time, not to take away sins but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await him.”  Christ suffered and died so that we may be his holy people, sinners made by the Lord into saints, prepared to enter heaven to adore him forever.

31B21.       Deuteronomy 6:2-6.    “Fear the Lord, your God, and keep” “all his statues and commandments.”  This means that we must treat God as God, the infinitely Almighty, and do everything he tells us to do without exception.   The Hebrews of that time did not believe in an afterlife.  Their reward was to be in this life by having an exceptionally long life.  Also the reward for their fidelity to God was a prosperous life in this world.  To be God’s People meant to have him as the one and only Lord of their lives to whom they gave themselves totally and to no other in any way.  He was everything for them and nothing else was anything.  This is true for us too as Christians.

Mark 12:28b-34.   “Hear, O Israel! The Lord God is Lord alone!” Give God the place he deserves in our lives!  May our God be the Almighty Gracious One of every moment we live in the here and hereafter!  Life is all God; death is everything else!  All the external rituals, both Hebrew and Christian, must be permeated with the presence of God and never just actions that are just external and are not filled with the giving over of ourselves to God.  To love God is to belong to God from the very depths of our beings.  Our bodies, the world around us and the devil lay claim to us every of moment of our lives.  We can never rest from the struggle that is required to belong to God and God alone.

Hebrews 7:23-28.  Jesus “is always able to save those who approach God through him, since he lives forever to make intercession for them.”  Jesus offered sacrifice for sins “once for all when he offered himself” on the cross.  Jesus is at once and at the same time, the priest who offers the sacrifice, the sacrifice itself which is he himself and the altar upon which the sacrifice is offered.  Through Jesus’ humanity, God has redeemed us in his suffering and death on the cross.   Jesus continues his heavenly priestly work daily in each and every one of us.

31B18.   Deuteronomy 6:2-6.  Moses gives the Hebrew Law or Torah to the Hebrews with its hundreds of commands and prohibitions. From my personal point of view this regime of training and discipline is like what a loving parent gives to their little children.  In the New Testament this same loving God expects that his sons and daughters will have developed to point where He then only has to give only far fewer commands that are far broader in the scope in what they demand of us. The best example of this is Matthew 5:48 where Jesus simply says: “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” In the Old Testament Law, God promises that observance will lead to a long life and to “a land flowing with milk and honey” as a reward.  I believe that observance of the Law in the proper spirit was given to the Hebrew people as the sure way to help them to grow in that all-consuming love of the Lord that is demanded by the first of the two great commandments.

Mark 12:28b-34.  We always hear and read the command: “You shall love the Lord our God.” Unfortunately it can easily give the impression that love begins with us.  1 John 4:19 clearly states: “We love because he first loved us.”  We go next to 1 John 4:9-10 which says, “In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him.  In this is love: not we have loved God, but that he has loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.” As we daily grow in the love that God has for us, we become more capable in turn, of loving God with all our heart, with all our mind, and with all our strength.  We cannot give what we do not have.  The only way to have a genuine life of love is to get it as a gift from God himself.  God is the ultimate source or root of all goodness.  Jesus says in John 15:5: “I am the vine, you are the branches.  Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.”

Secondly, we cannot love what we do not properly respect.  To respect God means to hold God in our hearts and minds for the person God truly is:  all-knowing; all-powerful; all present; all-loving.  However, we cannot truly and fully grasp who God is because he is infinite and we are finite.  Because he is “the Lord our God” and we are not God, we must live in total submission to his Will.  God is love; his Will is love.  To live in anything else but a total submission to the Will of God is not to live in his love.  In John 14:21 Jesus says: “Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”  In John 14:23, “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.”  If God does not give us the love with which to love we can have no true love for God.  To truly love God or neighbor means that God himself must live within us as the source of our life and love.

Hebrews 7:23-28.    “Jesus, because he remains forever, has a priesthood that does not pass away.   Therefore, he is always able to save those who approach God through him, since he lives forever to make intercession for them.”  Jesus, “who has been made perfect forever,” is the perfect priest to appeal to God for us.  In John 14:6, “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.’”  Jesus who loved us so much that he died on the cross for us is the sure way to heaven for us.  He is the sure way for us to live with our becoming love as he is love.

30B21.       Jeremiah 31:7-9.    “Shout with joy for Jacob,” “the Lord has delivered his people, the remnant of Israel.”  The Hebrew people had been taken into captivity by the conquering Babylonians.  The Lord promised that he would restore his people, “for I am a father to Israel.”

Psalm 126.   “The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.”  “Although they go forth weeping,” “they shall come back rejoicing” from captivity.

Mark 10:46-52.   Bartimaeus, crying out, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me,” showed that he put his faith and trust in Jesus.  In his position as a blind beggar on the side of the road many regarded him as to have no position or stature to have Jesus recognize his presence.    When he heard that Jesus was responding to his plea, he threw off his cloak, his only worthwhile possession, to open himself to the goodness of Jesus.  “Jesus told him, ‘Go your way; your faith has saved you.’  Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way.”  Unlike the rich man who held on to riches, Bartimaeus gave up what little he had, to gain the greatest riches anyone can possess.

Hebrews 5:1-6.      “Every high priest is taken from among men and made their representative before God, to offer gifts and sacrifice for sins.  He is able to deal patiently with the ignorant and erring, for he himself is beset by weakness and so, for this reason, must make sin offerings for himself as well as for the people.”  God called Jesus to be high priest.  “In the days when he was in the flesh, he offered prayers and supplications.” “Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered; and was made perfect, he became the source of salvation for all who obey him.” (Hebrews 5:7a & 8-9)  Jesus in his humanity grew in holiness as we are all called to do.  Not only is he a model for what we ought to be doing but even more importantly he stands before his Father to plead for us to be forgiven our sins and to grow in sanctity.  “The Lord has done” and is doing “great things for us; we are filled with joy.”

30B18.   Jeremiah 31:7-9.  “The Lord has delivered his people, the remnant of Israel.”  “They departed in tears, but I will console them and guide them.” “For I am a father to Israel.”  As the psalm response for Psalm 126 says, “The Lord had done great things for us; we are filled with joy.”  For their disobedience Israel had been led off to captivity by the Babylonians.  They had served their time in reparation.  The God of Israel loves his People and with paternal care leads them back to their homeland.

Mark 10:46-52.  Bartimaeus hears that Jesus of Nazareth is passing by but, probably because he has heard that Jesus has done miraculous things that only the Messiah could do, he calls out to him addressing him with the messianic title, son of David, instead of Jesus of Nazareth, which was his secular name.  Bartimaeus, in crying out, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me,” is saying what we say at the beginning of Mass: ‘Jesus, have mercy; Christ, have mercy’.  It was his way, and now our way, of requesting: ‘Make me physically whole; make me spiritually holy’ or ‘do great things for me’.  As Jesus’ Father led Israel out of the dark times of slavery, Jesus leads a son of Israel out of the darkness of his blindness.  When the disciples said to Bartimaeus, “‘Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you,’ he threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.” Traditionally Bartimaeus’ response to the invitation of Jesus is looked upon as his way of saying by his actions that he has abandoned seeking his strength from his own personal resources but is now totally dependent on, i.e. put his faith, in Jesus.  Jesus told him, ‘Go your way; your ‘faith has saved you.’ Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way.”  As with the remnant of Israel in Jeremiah, the Lord has done great things for Bartimaeus and he follows the Lord with great joy.  In the darkness of his blindness his faith opened him to be filled with the power of God.  Our weaknesses invite us to no longer be dependent on our own resources but rather to put our faith in the strength of the Lord.  Life is journey of having the sight to see Jesus leading us on the way to heaven and not be lost in the blindness of an earthly life.

Hebrews 5:1-6.  Every high priest in the Old Testament was just a human being but chosen by God.  Being human even the high priest “is beset by weakness and so, for this reason, must make sin offerings for himself as well as for the people.  No one takes this honor upon himself but only when called by God.”  Jesus too was called by God his Father to be the high priest.  It was the Father who glorified the Jesus, saying to him: “You are my son: this day I have begotten you!”  The God sets up the scenario for Jesus to be the high priest who opens up the gates of heaven by offering himself on the cross so that we may be delivered from captivity to sin to live in the promised land of heaven.  Now we can say: “The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.”

29B21.     Isaiah 53:10-11.  “The Lord was pleased to crush him in infirmity.”  “If he gives his life as an offering for sin,” “the will of the Lord shall be accomplished through him.”  “Through his suffering, my servant shall justify many, and their guilt he shall bear.”  We do not know about whom this was originally written.  However, clearly the Church places this selection here as a prophetic reference to the suffering Jesus.   Christianity places a positive value on suffering in our redemptive plan.

Mark 10:35-45.  “James and John, the sons of Zebedee,” said to Jesus, “Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left.”  Jesus makes it clear that to sit with him in his glory requires that one drinks the cup of suffering or undergoes the baptism of the fire of painful hardship.  Jesus assures them that one day they would have to endure the pain that he would later suffer.  The other Apostles were indignant that James and John were attempting to make a ‘power grab’.  Jesus makes it clear to them all that he was not about seeking worldly power but rather in bringing us to be servants of the God who is love.  “For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  Loving is to love “in the good times and in the bad” and never to “lord it over”others.  Greatness means to be holy in the eyes of God which often means to be lowly in the eyes of this world.

Hebrews 4:14-16. Jesus in his humanity was as vulnerable as we are, so that life was just as much a test, trial or challenge as it is for us.  For that reason in Jesus we have a mediator between us and God the Father who can truly “sympathize with our weaknesses.” “So let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.”  Accepting that we are weak so that we may live in the power of God will enable us to arrive to heaven.