Word to the Wise
Wednesday, November 28, 2018 - Wednesday in the 34th Week in Ordinary Time
[Rev 15:1-4 and Luke 21:12-19]Great and wonderful are your works, Lord God almighty. Just and true are your ways, O king of the nations. Who will not fear you, Lord, or glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed. [Revelation]
The quotation today is from the first scripture from Revelations, but both scriptures today from that book and the Gospel According to Luke are addressing the same kind of audience under similar circumstances with different forms of literature! The quote is a song of triumph by the martyrs who have been delivered by a new exodus (the sea of glass) and by shedding their blood they are joined to Christ who shed his blood for all the world. The community being addressed by John's vision was under persecution and he writes to them to encourage them to persevere to an ultimate victory.
The evangelist Luke is trying to do the same thing. He describes what is going on in the present by going back to Jesus' own prophecy about what his disciples would endure. It is the reality of picking up a cross and following him. This may seem far away from our comfortable existence, but it is very real in places like the Middle East and Africa at the present time. On another level it is the story of those facing death from drug lords in Central America. Encouragement to persevere is something we all need in the face of trials that test our faith in God's ultimate victory. John the visionary disciple and Luke the evangelist are dong their best to provide it. AMEN