4th Week of Holy Cross Homily Help

Sunday – Fourth Week After the Holy Cross

Reading: 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Concerning times and seasons, brothers, you have no need for anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief at night. When people are saying, “Peace and security,” then sudden disaster comes upon them, like labor pains upon a pregnant woman,and they will not escape. But you, brothers, are not in darkness, for that day to overtake you like a thief. For all of you are children of the light and children of the day. We are not of the night or of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay alert and sober. Those who sleep go to sleep at night, and those who are drunk get drunk at night. But since we are of the day, let us be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and the helmet that is hope for salvation. For God did not destine us for wrath, but to gain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live together with him. Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, as indeed you do.

I. Biblical Exegesis

[5:5] Children of the light: that is, belonging to the daylight of God’s personal revelation and expected to achieve it (an analogous development of imagery that appears in Jn 12:36).

[5:10] Characteristically, Paul plays on words suggesting ultimate and anticipated death and life. Union with the crucified and risen Lord at his parousia is anticipated in some measure in contrasted states of our temporal life. The essential element he urges is our indestructible personal union in Christ’s own life (see Rom 5:1–10).

II. Pope Benedict XVI

But how can the baptismal vocation be brought to fulfilment so as to be victorious in the struggle between the flesh and the spirit, between good and evil, a combat that marks our existence? In the Gospel passage today the Lord indicates to us three useful means: prayer, almsgiving and fasting. We also find useful references to this in St Paul’s experience and writings. Concerning prayer he urges us to be “constant”, and to be “watchful in it with thanksgiving” (Rm 12,12 Col 4,2), to “pray constantly” (1Th 5,17). Jesus is in the depths of our hearts. He makes himself present and his presence will remain, even if we speak and act in accordance with our professional duties. For this reason, in prayer there is within our hearts an inner presence of relationship with God, which gradually becomes also an explicit prayer. With regard to almsgiving the passages on the great collection for the poor brethren are certainly important (cf. 2Co 8-9) but it should be noted that for St Paul, love is the apex of the believer’s life, “the bond of perfection”; “and above all these”, he writes to the Colossians, “put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Col 3,14). He does not speak specifically of fasting but urges people frequently to have moderation, as a characteristic of those who are called to live in watchful expectation of the Lord (cf. 1Th 5,6-8 Tt 2,12). His reference to that spiritual “competitiveness” which calls for sobriety is also interesting: “Every athlete”, he writes to the Corinthians, “exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable” (1Co 9,25). The Christian must be disciplined in order to discover the way and truly reach the Lord.

Gospel: Matthew 24:45-51
“Who, then, is the faithful and prudent servant, whom the master has put in charge of his household to distribute to them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master on his arrival finds doing so. Amen, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property. But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is long delayed,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eat and drink with drunkards, the servant’s master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour and will punish him severely and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.

I. Biblical Exegesis

[24:45–51] The second part of the discourse (see note on Mt 24:1–25:46) begins with this parable of the faithful or unfaithful servant; cf. Lk 12:41–46. It is addressed to the leaders of Matthew’s church; the servant has been put in charge of his master’s household (Mt 24:45) even though that household is composed of those who are his fellow servants (Mt 24:49).

[24:45] To distribute…proper time: readiness for the master’s return means a vigilance that is accompanied by faithful performance of the duty assigned.

[24:48] My master…delayed: the note of delay is found also in the other parables of this section; cf. Mt 25:5, 19.

[24:51] Punish him severely: the Greek verb, found in the New Testament only here and in the Lucan parallel (Lk 12:46), means, literally, “cut in two.” With the hypocrites: see note on Mt 6:2. Matthew classes the unfaithful Christian leader with the unbelieving leaders of Judaism. Wailing and grinding of teeth: see note on Mt 8:11–12.

Sample Homily:

The early Christians understood the Day of the Lord to mean the Second Coming of Christ. It was a natural carry-over from their Jewish upbringing. And, as the gospel spread to the Gentiles, it soon became a part of their dogma.
In the Old Testament, the Day of the Lord was understood to be a cataclysmic event on the horizon, a day when God would intervene in the course of human history and the Promised Messiah would come and reign over all creation until the close of the age. The problem was, it didn’t happen. The early Christians waited and they watched and they more or less kept the faith, but Jesus didn’t appear in the clouds, as they’d expected. In the meantime, they continued to live under Roman occupation and, what’s worse, they were persecuted by the Jews. On top of all that, the faithful were beginning to die off. This created a crisis of faith: Was he coming or not?
Well, here we are 2,000 years later, and we’re still wondering. Like the early Christians, we live between the no longer and the not yet: Jesus no longer walks on this earth as one of us; but then, he has not yet returned in glory.
So, what are we to do? That’s the question. And it’s often answered in one of two ways. On the one hand are those faithful Christians whose primary mission is to keep the message alive, not lose the Spirit or the enthusiasm or the hope that Jesus will return at any moment, and, as far as they’re concerned, that’s what we live for – his imminent return.
There is a small congregation of Hispanic Christians building a new church. They’re doing the construction themselves, interestingly, one of the first additions to the new building, even before they got a roof over their heads, was a portable outdoor sign with detachable letters. On it they placed a message for all to see: “Jesus Viene,” Jesus is coming.
For many Christians, that’s the primary message of the gospel: Jesus is coming. It’s only a matter of time. Prepare to meet the Lord. The problem is it’s hard to keep the excitement going.
A preacher once told the story that when he was a child growing up in Southwest Arkansas, there was a sign by the side of the road – Highway 67 going to Little Rock or Highway 71 going to Fayetteville – but there was this rather large concrete marker perched up on the hillside that announced, “Jesus is Coming!” He thought to himself there’s something wrong here. There’s a double message. If Jesus is really going to appear at any moment, shouldn’t the sign be made out of cardboard or paper? Maybe even be held on a stick by some faithful prophet? But reinforced concrete?
Well, you get the point: There are those Christians today who live for the Second Coming. At the same time, there are equally faithful Christians who believe that the Second Coming has already occurred. They point to Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit. For them Jesus’ promise to come again has been fulfilled, only in a different form than was first expected. For them, God is with us here and now, and if God is with us, what more could you ask?
For these Christians, what’s important is not that we watch and wait for Jesus to return in the clouds, but that we work together for peace and justice in the world today. As far as they’re concerned, God has already given us all we need to establish his kingdom on earth; now, it’s up to us to do it.
The promise is we’ll experience the presence of the living Christ along the way. This is what Albert Schweitzer said in his book, The Quest of the Historical Jesus:
“He comes to us as One unknown,
without a name, as of old, by the lake-side,
He came to those men who knew Him not.
He speaks to us the same word: ‘Follow thou me!’
and sets us to the tasks which He has to fulfill for our time.
He commands.
And to those who obey Him, whether they be wise or simple,
He will reveal Himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings
which they shall pass through in His fellowship,
and, as an ineffable mystery,
they shall learn in their own experience Who He is.” (p. 403)
So, let’s see … we’ve got this one group of Christians who say, “Jesus is coming,” and another who say, “He’s already here.” So, what do we say?
Our faith can be summarized in three short phrases: “Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.” That is to say . . .
—We believe in the historical Jesus who lived among us and showed us how to live in community with God and each other, and who died for the forgiveness of our sins.
—We believe that Jesus was raised from the dead and is with us, even now, in the form of the Holy Spirit to lead us and inspire us in our mission to reconcile the world to God.
—And we believe that Christ will come again at the close of the age to reign in glory over all of God’s creation.
We express this faith every time we celebrate the Sacraments.
“Every time you eat this bread or drink this cup
you proclaim the saving death of our Lord Jesus Christ
until he comes again.”
And so, this is the essence of our faith: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. As for when the Second Coming will take place, Jesus told his disciples, “But no one knows of that day and hour, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only.” (Mt. 24:36)
The truth is nobody knows when the day of the Lord will come. It could come today. It might not come for another thousand years. In a sense, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that we live each day in preparation for the moment in which we’ll be called to account for how we’ve spent our time, used our resources and kept the faith.