Advent is an unexpected and unwanted liturgical season. Yet, although no early Christian would have created Advent it is necessary, helpful, and potentially joyful. Let us look at why.
Advent means coming. It is often assumed that this is the coming of Jesus at his birth. This is less than half correct. Most of the prayers and readings for Advent are directed to Jesus’ return. Advent is divided into two sections “Early Advent” which extends from today to Dec 16th. Here, the attention is clearly on the Jesus’ return and the establishment of the Kingdom. As you have probably noticed, the Sunday readings for the last two weeks have also dwelt with this theme. The Nativity is emphasized only from the 17th to the 25th of December. We are clearly being called to look at and for the return of Jesus.
Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King. It was created by Pope Pius XI, Achille Ratti, in 1925 and to understand the feast you will need to know the Man. Let me tell you a story about him that occurred earlier that year.
The dust had settled from the First World War and revealed a changed world, every institution including the church was uncertain how to proceed, indeed, how to connect with people. Since the 1890s the Popes had realized that the rise of industrialism and the form of capitalism that supported it as well as the socialism and communism that opposed it had created unprecedented problems for a church that depended upon monarchial government and agricultural production. Pope Leo 13th in 1891 recognized the need for a just wage and the right of working people to organize to provide for a dignified and productive life. He sought to bring the church to accept this new reality and to embrace clerks, merchants and most importantly factory workers.
His call was not heeded by most bishops in the world and indeed was at some times and places actively resisted. The split widened between working people and the Church. One exception to this not very benign neglect was a young Belgian Priest, Joeph Cardijn. He not only saw the need to minister to young workers but to minister with them. He formed groups which eventually became the Young Christian Workers not only for catechetical instruction and prayer but for education and social action. He believed that they should control their own funds and decide on their own projects and causes. The motto of the group, which was taken up by Pope St John 23rd in the Second Vatican Council and Pope Francis in Fratelli Tutti was “See, Judge Act.”
We are in the final part of the gospel of Mark. Mark spends the last third of his gospel giving us almost a day to day detail of Jesus’s last week what we refer to as Holy Week, and the section today is from the Tuesday of that week.
Jesus has been at the temple and engages in dialog and in dispute with the leaders, but he has also used it as an opportunity to teach, as you might recall from last week, when he points out the widow who puts in her last two coins.
As it proceeds, Jesus is aware of what will be coming. And he knows that the expectations of the people will get disappointed because they were anticipating with his glorious entry into Jerusalem. They were anticipating that this would be the end of the Roman Empire at the end of the Roman control over their territory and that as the Messiah, he would be ushering in then the great revival of the Nation of Israel.
In today’s Gospel we discover that Jesus had sharp hearing but to understand how we know this we must understand where he was standing.
Jesus is in the temple area. It was a series of courtyards. The first and largest was the courtyard of the gentiles. This did not mean that only gentiles could use it but that everyone including gentiles could. The next was the court of the women which again was not just for women but for all Jews. The spaces narrowed further with a court for just Jewish men, then priests and finally the Holy of Holys which only the High Preist could enter once a year at Yom Kippur. The temple was huge and tremendously expensive to maintain. One revenue source was donations from visitors. The temple authorities were very shrewd. First, as they used coins, they made the collection boxes from metal. More and larger coins made more noise and caused more attention to be paid to the donor. They were in fact called the trumpets. Also, there were twelve of them, each one for a different purpose, from care of the gold of the temple to doweries for the daughters of poor priestly families. A person could donate to several of them, and everyone would hear their generosity. Truly getting a bang for their buck. And most importantly they were placed in the court of the women so women could donate as well.
This is where Jesus has placed himself. He sees the rich come forward and hears the conspicuous noise they made putting their large coins perhaps in several trumpets. They were aware of who they were and expected everyone to notice and admire.
There are several stories I have used for decades, and now find that they have revealed more about me than I would have thought or wanted. One of these I found years ago in a book about Zen Buddhism.
There was a young man who sought enlightenment. He travelled many miles across many countries to sit at the feet of a great master. When he saw him, he ran to him, cast himself at his feet and told him that he wished to be Enlighted. The master asked him how much he wanted to be Enlighted and he responded more than anything in the world. The master slapped him across the face and told him to come back when he was serious. The young man said had crossed deserts and mountains to see him wasn’t that proof enough. The Master slapped him again, only harder. The young man went away, got a job in the town and studied harder. The next year he returned to the Master, said the same thing, this time the Master smiled but said nothing to him. He returned to his job, waited another year but this time did not visit him in public but found him while he was bathing in a river. He waded out to him and again told him he wished enlightenment, the master asked again how much, and he answered more than anything in the world. The Master took him by hair and with surprising strength pushed him under the water. The young man struggled but could not break free, finally when he was about to drown he master released him. When he came out of the water, gasping for air, the Master calmly asked him “What did you think about under the water. He answered: “Air”. The Master told him to come back when he would think only of enlightenment.
Rich Romans placed seats at the front gates of their town houses for their clients. Clients were people dependent upon a patron for their jobs and intervening for them with higher authorities. When the patron went to the market or to court, his clients walked behind him to show his importance. There were literally his followers. The patron will in turn have been the client of someone greater and would have followed him to the Senate or another place of great importance. Mark’s gospel was written by and for Roman Christians and Mark seized on today’s story to show that Christians are not Jesus’ clients but his disciples and that disciples do not have clients but sisters and brothers. It is a hard lesson to learn, and one needed to be relearned in every generation, especially ours.
You wake up in the morning and find yourself back-to-back in bed with an unconscious violinist. A famous unconscious violinist. He has been found to have a fatal kidney ailment, and the Society of Music Lovers has canvassed all the available medical records and found that you alone have the right blood type to help. They have therefore kidnapped you, and last night the violinist’s circulatory system was plugged into yours, so that your kidneys can be used to extract poisons from his blood as well as your own. The director of the hospital now tells you,” To unplug you would be to kill him. But never mind, it’s only for nine months. By then he will have recovered from his ailment and can safely be unplugged from you.”