These verses are an almost verbatim repetition of
Jeremiah 23:5-6. In the precritical age, readers would have had no difficulty in
supposing that Jeremiah spoke the same oracle on two separate
occasions.
The common opinion among scholars today is that
Jeremiah 23
contains the prophet’s original oracle, and that
Jeremiah 33
is a revival of this oracle by one of his disciples in a later
situation.
Jeremiah had predicted that the Davidic dynasty would be restored
shortly after the fall of Jerusalem in 586. But the years of exile
were prolonged and the promise went unfulfilled. The exiles were
tempted to abandon their ancestral religion and adopt the religion
of the surrounding nations.
In this situation a later writer repeats Jeremiah’s prophecy.
No doubt its partial fulfillment was discerned in the return from
exile, but Christian faith has seen in it a promise that was not
fulfilled until the coming of Jesus, the real Messiah.
While we should not read into the phrase “The Lord is our
righteousness” the full Pauline meaning of
“righteousness,” the use of the word here provides a
background for Paul.
Righteousness is not an ethical or moral quality but the saving act
of Yhwh. The restoration of the Davidic monarchy after the Exile
will be seen as Yhwh’s mighty act of salvation. Christian
faith will see the advent of Christ as God’s final act of
salvation.
Responsorial Psalm: 25: 4-5, 8-9, 10, 14
Other verses of this psalm are used on the twenty-sixth Sunday of
the year in series A, the first Sunday of Lent in series B, and the
third Sunday of the year in series B.
The idea of Yhwh’s righteousness is picked up in the words
“truth” (that is, God’s fidelity to his promise)
and “salvation” in the first stanza, and
“steadfast love,” “faithfulness,” and
“covenant” in the third stanza.
The psalm, accordingly, should not be interpreted moralistically. It
speaks of patient waiting for the advent of Yhwh’s
righteousness.
Reading II: 1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2
This passage comes from the opening thanksgiving (first paragraph)
and intercession (second paragraph) of Philippians. If we accept the
recent theory that Philippians is a compilation of three different
letters sent by Paul to that community within a short period of
time, this passage would come from the second letter. Paul is in
prison at Ephesus (?). The Philipplans’ envoy, Epaphroditus,
who has brought along a “care package” for the
incarcerated Apostle, had fallen sick but has now recovered.
Paul has also heard rumors that false teachers had either arrived or
were about to arrive to stir up trouble in this faithful community,
and so he is somewhat anxious about them. He sends his second letter
(Phil 1:1-3:1; 4:47) to tell them the news about himself and Epaphroditus, and to
exhort them to unity. These concerns are reflected in the
thanksgiving and the intercession.
As in 1 Thessalonians (see last Sunday’s Second Reading), Paul regards the “day of Jesus Christ” (that is, the
parousia) as the terminal point of Christian maturation. Of course,
he thought that he and his readers, the majority anyhow, would still
be alive on that day and that therefore all spiritual growth would
take place entirely within their earthly existence.
Yet, by this time he had already written 1 Thessalonians and had
faced the problem of Christians who had died before the parousia. It
is therefore a reasonable extension of his meaning to suppose that
the parousia remains the term of spiritual growth for all believers,
including those already dead.
It is interesting that Paul characterizes Christian growth in the
ethical terminology of Stoicism: “knowledge,”
“discernment,” “approve what is excellent.”
Most interesting is the word for “discernment”
(aisthesis).
Knowing that the will of God in concrete situations requires a kind
of aesthetic sensibility, John A. T. Robinson once spoke of the
Christian as having a set of built-in antennae to tell him or her
what love requires in a particular situation. This, of course, is
not the whole truth about Christian ethics, but it is an important
factor and one to which the Apostle here gives countenance.
In series C we will be reading the Gospel of Luke in course.
Today’s selection, however, is out of course in order to
present Luke’s future-apocalyptic teaching on the first Sunday
of Advent, where it is particularly seasonable.
Although Luke follows Mark in his location of the apocalyptic
discourse (just before the passion narrative), he draws much of its
content from his special material. Only in
Luke 21:25, 26b, and 27
does he follow Mark closely.
The synoptic apocalypse was constantly adjusted so that it could
speak to the ever-changing situation of the early Christian
community.
Luke’s version, unlike Mark’s, regards the Church as
here to stay. This lengthy period is marked by “distress of
nations” and by human fear and foreboding. And in the
Christian community, slackness is setting in.
There is dissipation, drunkenness, and the “cares of this
life” (see the interpretation of the parable of the sower). In
such a situation Luke calls upon his contemporaries to watch and
pray.