Second Sunday of Advent, 2024

Did you notice how precise the gospel passage started in regard to the historical situation? 

Luke wrote, "In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas.”


Notice how he didn't write, "Once upon a time,” or, “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.”


Why was it important to Saint Luke to record the names of those leaders and their positions? Because he wanted to tell the audience that what he was about to share actually happened.


It would be as if, 30 years from now, I wanted to tell people about something that happened around this time, so I would say something like, "Remember when Joe Biden was in his fourth year as president, Kathy Hochul was governor of New York, and Byron Brown just resigned as Mayor of Buffalo?” 


You would never suspect I was about to tell you a fairytale or legend, right? You would most certainly assume I was about to share something that actually happened.


Again, same thing with Saint Luke here in his gospel.


Even the prophets of the Old Testament, as symbolic as their language could be, were talking about things that were either happening or going to happen. The prophet Baruch, whom we heard from in the first reading, gives an example of this.


He's using symbolic language but he's talking about how there will be an actual time when the people of Jerusalem will not be in sorrow, but will have great joy.


He says, “Look to the east and see your children gathered from the east and the west. Led away on foot by their enemies they left you: but God will bring them back to you born aloft in glory as on royal thrones.” 


Again, his language is symbolic, but those words are referring to something that will actually happen and, for me, it brought to mind something quite historical from recent times in Israel. I’m thinking of a particular father who considered his very young daughter deceased who was abducted during the attack in Israel by Hamas on October 7, 2023. And, the way this father chose to cope with that tragedy was to believe she was no longer living.


But weeks later, to his astonishment, she was alive and well, and he received her back from her captors. And the level of joy this father expressed was at the level the Prophet Baruch was prophesying.


And that is the level of rejoicing the Prophet Baruch is saying all people of Jerusalem will be experiencing…but it’s not because of some political reality that is to come but because of the historical person of Jesus that has come.


…You are in the process of being saved by Jesus. From what? From an eternity we don’t want; from the very real possibility of not being with God forever. And, yet, if you trust in Jesus, he promises you will be with him forever. 


How thrilled should we feel? Probably like that father who received his daughter back.


Again, as Saint Luke made so clear: What we believe is not a matter of myth, fairytale, or legend but history methodically compiled, using eyewitness accounts and historical references to the best of the new testament writers’ ability. And they did this to tell us about what Jesus really taught and did for you, me, Israel, and all people.


How relieved and happy should we feel?

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