The Sun of Justice

Homily for the Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

As is always the case, the readings for the penultimate Sunday of the liturgical year focus our attention on a style of literature called apocalyptic. Two weeks from today, we will begin the season of Advent. The readings for the first Sunday of Advent are also from apocalyptic literature.

The literary style of apocalyptic is a peculiar one. While these readings seem to be prophetic and speaking about the future, the authors do not conceive themselves to be predicting what will happen. Rather, they are interpreting the present crisis in which they are involved as the last crisis of human history, to be followed very soon by its consummation.

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus seems to be predicting the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem. However, St. Luke’s Gospel does not appear in history until some 10 or 15 years after the actual destruction of that temple. Consequently, we must remember that Saint Luke is simply reporting what has happened, not what will happen.

The destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem was a traumatic experience for the Jewish people. Rome destroyed the Temple in late August or early September of the year 70 A.D. Shortly after the Temple of Jerusalem was destroyed, Jerusalem itself was ransacked and destroyed by the occupying Roman forces. Quite literally, the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem was the end of the world for these people. They simply could not understand how Jewish life would continue without the Temple.

By this time, Jewish Christians could see what was going to happen. They knew that persecutions were coming. Twenty-six years before the destruction of the Temple, the apostle James had been murdered by Herod Agrippa. Shortly after the destruction of the temple, both Peter and Paul would be martyred. All of this happens before the Gospel of St. Luke was written. Consequently, when Jesus predicts that they will be seized and persecuted, handed over to the synagogues and imprisoned, it was already happening. The Christians of that era would not be concerned about the future; they were living in fear in the present.

How should we read these so-called predictions? Actually, we find the answer in the very last line of the prophecy of Malachi that was proclaimed at the beginning of the Liturgy of the Word. “But for you who fear my name, there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays.” We should also pay attention to the last line of today’s Gospel text: “But not a hair on your head will be destroyed. By your perseverance you will secure your lives."

In the year 1542, Nicholas Copernicus published a work that changed the way the world viewed the universe. Before Copernicus published his manuscript, the scientific world considered the earth as the center of the universe. It was believed that the sun and the other planets of the universe revolved around planet Earth. Copernicus believed that the opposite was true. He believed that our sun was the center of the universe, and that all the planets of our universe revolved around our sun. This revolutionary thought did not change people’s opinion overnight. His views were challenged and debated for years afterwards. However, eventually, the scientists of our world adopted his thesis.

We stand in terrible need of a Copernican revolution. For too long, the human race has thought that they are the center of the universe. Just the opposite is true. God is center of the universe! God quietly maintains all that is: stars, galaxies, lands, oceans, cities, human hearts, butterfly wings, and so on. We owe reverence to God. God does not exist to serve me. It takes a spiritual transformation to think in this way. For those of us who stand in awe of God’s creative power and accept God as the priority of our lives, the words of Malachi and Jesus are true. Not a hair on our heads will be disturbed. For us, the healing rays of Jesus, the Son of Justice, will rise on the horizon, and we will live with God forever. However, the same cannot be said for those who still think of themselves as the center of the universe.