Lector's Notes

 To the home page

of Lector's Notes

Feast of Christ the King, Year A, November 20, 2005

First reading, Ezekiel 34:11-12, 15:17

The Historical Situation: Ancient Israel's leaders were not always the caring shepherds they were supposed to be. The prophets' job is always to say how God wants things to be. In this passage, Ezekiel prophesies that God will eliminate the middle-men, becoming Israel's shepherd directly. The prophet utters this with great dismay at the poor earthly leadership, and great hope in the transcendent God.

Proclaiming It: Note that the prophet speaks in God's voice, in the first person, and use your own tone of voice to express his feelings about the situation. When God says I will do this, the unspoken meaning is because you bad shepherds will not. So emphasize all the occurrences of I and speak with the vehemence of prophetic outrage, especially in the early sentences.

On the other hand, the passage has a great tenderness in its concern for the people who have suffered from bad leadership. In the latter sentences, where God promises to bring back strays and heal the sick, express that tenderness, too.

Our Liturgical Setting: As usual, the first reading prepares us to hear the day's gospel. The link to the gospel is the reference to sheep and goats in the last sentence. Today's gospel is the famous last judgment scene from Matthew 25. Since this Sunday concludes the liturgical year, it's the last passage from Matthew that we'll hear for a while.

Second Reading, 1 Corinthians 15:20-26, 28

The Theological Background: That we will rise again on the last day is perhaps the most puzzling mystery of our faith. In this passage, Paul won't satisfy our curiosity. Rather, as he always does, Paul puts the issue in the context of the mission of Christ. Christ is the new Adam, who undoes the principal consequence of the first Adam's sin, which is death.

But Paul says that Christ has an even bigger agenda. He is to subject all cosmic powers to himself, and then to God. It's in that larger context that our resurrection is to occur. Perhaps our questions about what our resurrection will be like would seem trivial to Paul, when he's thinking on the grandest of scales.

Modern readers should remember that our view of the cosmos is quite simplified compared to that of the ancients. We believe in one God (in three Persons), and one devil, each of whom has an undetermined number of angels in his service. Then there's the material universe, and us, and that's all. Ancient writers, in contrast, thought of a more complex universe. They believed there were layers of spiritual powers, all unseen and probably competing, with more or less interest in human affairs. Even Moses didn't insist that there were no gods beside Yahweh, just that Israel shouldn't worship them. Saint Paul, centuries later, calls them not gods but sovereignties, authorities and powers. Christ, upon his return, is to subject them all to himself, and turn them over to his Father.

So what, the modern reader may ask. Well, it just means that this Christ, who took our flesh and endured our death, did so as part of a mission more broad than we might think. And the Father whom he reveals to us is God of more than the earth. This is the grand context in which we hope to rise from the dead. Copernicus may have kicked us out of the center of the universe, but Saint Paul places us unashamedly at the center of the eternal, all-encompassing plan of God.

Proclaiming It: The lector should find this more than a bit intimidating. The second half of this passage deserves the most solemn, dignified proclamation you can muster. I don't like the punctuation supplied by the translators in this part of the passage:

then,at his coming, those who belong to Christ;

then comes the end, ... That second clause marks a new logical section, and deserves a pause before you start it. Slow down your reading dramatically here. You're describing the climax of all, not just human, history.
Several other commentaries on these passages. All are thoughtful, all quite readable, from the scholarly to the popular.
Links may be incomplete more than a few weeks before the "due date."
Lutheran pastor and college teacher Dan Nelson's notes for a study group. Dan explains the texts verse-by-verse, and sometimes word-by-word, with cross-references to other Bible passages. Especially useful if you're puzzled about the meaning of a word or phrase in the readings.
Father Roger Karban's 1999 syndicated column about these readings,

and his 2002 column

The 2002 column of Jesuit Father Francis X. Cleary, From the site of the Saint Louis Review.
The Text This Week; links to Lectionaries of many churches, homilies, art works, movies touching scriptural themes, and other resources on the week's scripture Saint Louis University's excellent new liturgy site
This site posts its pages only a week before the given Sunday, and keeps its back issues posted for only about eight weeks.

The Lectionary selections in the frame at the left, if any, are there for your convenience. The publishers of the page in that frame have no connection, except for membership in the one Body of Christ, with the publisher of this page. Likewise the publishers of the pages on the links above.

Return to Lector's notes home page

Send email to the author.

Last modified: Tue Oct 18 18:01:34 CDT 2005