The Mystery of Ourselves and Others
by Fr. David M. Knight
Monday, November 25, 2024
Thirty-Fourth Week of the Year
Rv 14:1-3, 4b-5/Lk 21:1-4(Lectionary 503)
Let’s begin with the Gospel today. Luke 21:1-4 shows a very ordinary woman doing a very ordinary thing: making her contribution at the temple. She only put in a couple of cents, so she must have been dressed in a way that didn’t attract much attention. Except from Jesus. He was astounded: he told his disciples, “This poor widow has put in more than all the rest... more than she could afford—every penny she had to live on!” The Gospel leaves it at that.
But Revelation 14:1-5 shows us the same Jesus, now in his glory as the “Lamb that was slain.” He is surrounded by the “hundred and forty-four thousand” he “ransomed from the world.” The number comes from twelve (the number of the twelve tribes of Israel which became the number of the twelve apostles, who are the “twelve foundations” of the Church) multiplied by twelve (which was the number for perfection or completeness), then multiplied again by a thousand. The number of people with Jesus was a “thousand times” greater than completeness! In other words, beyond imagination. These are those who had “his name and the name of his Father written on their foreheads.” We can be sure that “poor widow” from the Gospel was one of them.
The readings are telling us to see this widow—and everyone else who bears “the name of the Father of Jesus,” in a double light of mystery: the mystery of the present, and the mystery of that same present as it “is now and ever shall be” when brought to fulfillment at the “wedding banquet of the Lamb.”
The poor widow in the Gospel appeared very ordinary. But to Jesus, seeing with divine insight—the same divine insight we have through sharing in his own act of knowing by the gift of faith—she was not ordinary at all. She was glorified already with the divine life of God. The “name of his Father” was written on her heart, visible to faith, if not to human perception. The readings call us to see the mystery present right now in ourselves and in others. If we only see with our eyes and minds we are half blind. We need to use the light of faith.
The Book of Revelation invites us, in addition to that, to look ahead, to the mystery of the “end time.” To what will be. We need to see the present in the light of the future that is certain to come about: the victory and glory God promises to those who “follow the Lamb wherever he goes.” We have been “ransomed from the world,” “bought back” out of slavery to this world’s false attitudes and values, from enslavement to our culture with its fears and enticements. We sing a “new hymn” to the universe (“four living creatures”) and to the Church (elders”
Initiative: Get spiritual “cataract surgery.” See through the “implants” of faith.
Reflections brought to you by the Immersed in Christ Ministry
Even the psalm declares, “Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face.” I need grace to see every person as one who longs to see the face of God. Are my actions making God more visible?