Catholic lectionary for 11 January 2021

King James Version (en)

King James Version (en)

Hebrews, Chapter 1, verses 1-6

¹ Christ, in these last times coming to us from the Father, ⁴ is preferred above the angels, both in person and office

¹God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,

²Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;

³Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

⁴Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

⁵For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?

⁶And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.

Read more:Hebrews, Chapter 1

Topics:

End of the World

Mark, Chapter 1, verses 14-20

¹⁴ he preacheth, ¹⁶ calleth Peter, Andrew, James and John

¹⁴Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,

¹⁵And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.

¹⁶Now as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.

¹⁷And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.

¹⁸And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him.

¹⁹And when he had gone a little further thence, he saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the ship mending their nets.

²⁰And straightway he called them: and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and went after him.

Read more:Mark, Chapter 1

NOTES

What is a calling? How can we find our calling and understand what God wants from us? So much has been said and written on this subject over two thousand years of Christian history that one might think no questions should remain, yet they do not grow any fewer. The apostles, however...

What is a calling? How can we find our calling and understand what God wants from us? So much has been said and written on this subject over two thousand years of Christian history that one might think no questions should remain, yet they do not grow any fewer. The apostles, however, or one might say the future apostles, faced no problem of choice and had neither doubts nor hesitation. Curiously, Jesus says nothing special to them, does not teach them anything or deliver long sermons; He simply invites each of them to follow Him. And they go, as though they had always been waiting for this encounter. Of course, they had most likely heard something about Jesus before and may even have heard Jesus Himself. But hearing is one thing, and leaving everything to follow Him is quite another. It is clear that a true calling is always revealed to a person with complete certainty.

One might, of course, say that this was a unique situation, for the Saviour Himself stood before them, and if the future apostles understood Who stood before them and where He was calling them, there was nothing surprising in their resolve. And yet the evangelists give examples of far less resolve among some of those whom Jesus called to follow Him in exactly the same way. On the other hand, can there be any discussion of a Christian's calling without that personal encounter with the Risen One, without which not only any calling, but Christianity itself is impossible? Apparently, the question of calling is resolved quite simply: a calling is that without which it is impossible to live, because life loses its meaning. And if a person still has questions, doubts or hesitation about whether a particular activity is his calling, then the answer is most likely negative. If the answer were positive, the person called to serve, whatever that service might be, could and would have no doubts or hesitation.

Of course, what is meant here is specifically doubts and hesitation concerning the content of the service itself, not the difficulties that may accompany it. Sometimes the cunning human mind, in its desire to spare its owner the difficulties and problems inherent in the service to which God is calling him, supplies doubts about whether the call is genuine and whether the decision already made or being made is right. But that is another matter, a question of spiritual honesty, without which no one can find his calling.

The Saviour's earthly ministry begins with the descent of God's Spirit, followed by the trial in the wilderness (described in greater detail by the other evangelists) and the ministry itself, the testimony to the Kingdom (Mark describes all this briefly and concisely). What, then, do we have before us: a unique feature of Jesus' ministry as Messiah, or...

The Saviour's earthly ministry begins with the descent of God's Spirit, followed by the trial in the wilderness (described in greater detail by the other evangelists) and the ministry itself, the testimony to the Kingdom (Mark describes all this briefly and concisely). What, then, do we have before us: a unique feature of Jesus' ministry as Messiah, or a certain universal spiritual algorithm (insofar as one can speak of algorithms in spiritual life at all)? Or perhaps both?

Of course, Christ's path is unique. Yet, on the other hand, Jesus was not born as a human being in order to have nothing in common with us, including in matters of spiritual life. We will probably not face trials like those that awaited Him in the wilderness, although something similar may quite possibly await us as well: the devil is not as inventive as he is sometimes thought to be. We will in any case have to bear witness to the Kingdom, provided that we are Christians not merely in name. And the descent of God's Spirit will also certainly become part of our spiritual life, unless, of course, we remain forever, in the spiritual sense, children who have taken the first step towards the Kingdom and stopped as soon as they crossed the threshold.

But how all this will happen remains an open question. Similar or identical spiritual processes sometimes take very different forms under different external conditions. They take their own form for each person, and there is no point in imitating someone else's spiritual life: it is useless in any case and almost always brings only harm.

Quite apart from the fact that, in the Messiah's case, such efforts look simply ridiculous as well. Jesus did not come into our world so that we would imitate His life, nor to force each of us to travel the same path that He travelled (in the end, none of us is capable of this, for one would have to be free from sin). Jesus came into the world to give us the Kingdom, to give it to everyone who wishes to enter it, and also to help us get there.

Of course, the way into the Kingdom is no less difficult than the way of righteousness in pre-Christian times, and it is just as impossible to travel it without God's help as it was to travel the way of righteousness without His help. But on the way into the Kingdom there is an obstacle that is in principle insurmountable for a human being: the sinfulness of fallen human nature. Even if a person is somehow able, with God's help, to walk the way of righteousness, any one of us can only be carried into the Kingdom in His arms. And Jesus' entire earthly path was necessary precisely so that He could later carry each of us into the Kingdom in His arms.

This, of course, by no means implies that there will be no trials in our lives or that we will not need the help of God's Spirit. It is impossible to travel the whole way in the Messiah's arms, and life in the Kingdom also requires the ability to walk. But He will help us overcome what is insurmountable for us. Otherwise we would have to forget about the Kingdom forever.

The author of the Letter to the Hebrews often turns to the theme of angels and the angelic hierarchy, comparing them with Christ. Such a comparison is characteristic precisely of the author of this Letter: no one besides him gives so much attention to the theme of angels...

The author of the Letter to the Hebrews often turns to the theme of angels and the angelic hierarchy, comparing them with Christ. Such a comparison is characteristic precisely of the author of this Letter: no one besides him gives so much attention to the theme of angels. Why did it suddenly become so relevant? Perhaps because the letter was written after the catastrophe of A.D. 70, when Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed as a result of another anti-Roman uprising.

Before A.D. 70, during the life of the apostle Paul, the most widespread form of messianism among the Jews was political messianism. The Messiah was expected as King and liberator, crushing Roman power and restoring an independent and strong Jewish state. But now, after this monstrous catastrophe, mystical messianism came to the foreground. Many people, and no doubt even some Christians, began to see in the Messiah not the Man who contained in Himself the fullness of God, but someone like an angel, a mediator between God and human beings. In that case the Kingdom was viewed as something mystical, having no relation to our world. This is how some understood the Savior's words about the Kingdom that is "not of this world."

Many were also troubled by the fact that Jerusalem and the Temple had been destroyed, everything the Savior had spoken of as signs of the end times had happened, and yet He Himself was not returning. Perhaps, these people thought, He was not going to return in the way His followers expected. Perhaps He had already come, had come in another world, in His otherworldly Kingdom, while here, in the fallen world, waiting for Him was useless. Then perhaps He would send angels to notify those whom He wished to save and take with Himself.

Meanwhile, in reality, the person of Christ as Savior and mediator between God and the faithful was pushed into the background, while certain "angels," "powers," "principalities," and other real or, more often, imagined entities that replaced and obscured Him moved to the foreground. And the author of the Letter, one of the disciples of the apostle Paul, reminds his readers that, having the Messiah as their Teacher and Savior, the faithful need no one and nothing else. Otherwise, instead of Christ and the Kingdom, there are endless mediators and hierarchies, first "heavenly" ones and then earthly ones. Christianity as life with Christ in His Kingdom disappears. In its place comes a certain religion that promises everything but gives nothing. At least, nothing that Christ can give.

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