“Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

Redemption draws near when Christ is present…when Jesus begins to happen and is happening. Advent is a sort of beginning:

• It’s the beginning of the Church Year. This, in fact, is the first day of the new Church Year.
• It’s the start of looking at Jesus beginning to happen as He first came in the flesh. Being about a month out from Christmas, you might imagine looking at Mary and her belly, eight months along, and seeing the Kingdom of God right there in her womb.
• It’s the preparation and the beginning again of preparing for Jesus to happen for the last time as He comes again to judge the living and the dead. Looking back at His first coming is always done with a view toward expecting His Second Coming.

Jesus coming and being present is the nearness of your redemption.

The counter to that is when Christ is not present, redemption is nowhere near. And, lest I’m not clear, in His omnipresence, Jesus the Christ, in His full humanity and full divinity, is everywhere He wants to be. When I say, “when Christ is not present,” what I mean to say is where Christ is excluded.

You have heard the story of Jesus and the Ten Lepers countless times. It comes up every year at Thanksgiving, and depending on the lectionary used, it’s read a second time. You might even know some of it by heart. Consequently, you might already know some of the things I’m going to say about it. Jesus and His disciples were traveling through Samaria. As they came near a village, they were approached by ten men with leprosy. They cried out to Jesus, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” They didn’t call out with the usual cry to stay away since they were unclean. However, having heard of Jesus, they knew He could make them clean. “Go and show yourselves to the priests,” Jesus replied. On the way, all ten are made clean and would be declared as such by the priests, allowing them to return to their regular routines and lives. However, one of the ten, realizing that he was clean, returned to Jesus to thank Him; the priests could wait—Jesus had done to this man what he believed Jesus could. (cf. Luke 17:11-19)

You have also heard St. Paul’s exhortation to St. Timothy, though not as often. The second reading for a national day of thanksgiving can be taken from 1 Timothy 2, as was done today, or from Philippians 4. Still, the words to St. Timothy are also quite familiar to you, and you also might know what I would say about this text. There, St. Paul exhorted the young pastor and his flock to make supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks for all men, for kings and all who are in authority. Kings and those in authority would not be kings or have authority apart from God granting it to them. God gives government so that all people can live a quiet and peaceable life—so that believers can do so in godliness and reverence to Him. So you ought to pray to God for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and Donald Trump and JD Vance and Jared Polis and Dianne Primavera and the whole host of those to whom God has granted authority to govern this great land; and thank God for them and for this government, that by it you are able to live a quiet and peaceable life. For another, with regard to all men, including kings and those in authority, you ought to give thanks because God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (cf. 1 Timothy 2:1-14)

And you have also heard from Moses and his account of Israel as they were about to enter Canaan after their long exodus from Egypt. “Remember,” God told his chosen people; “[R]emember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness…” Through those 40 years, their clothes and shoes did not wear out, and God provided them just enough manna and quail to survive one day to the next. This He did to teach them that “man does not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” And why? Because He was about to bring them into a good land flowing with brooks and springs of water, land filled with wheat and barley and vines and figs and pomegranates and olive trees and honey. God’s chosen people were about to receive much more than they could have ever imagined after 40 years of want and destitution. And God says, “And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land he has given you.” (cf. Deuteronomy 8:1-10)

Jesus spoke about two types of people in today’s Gospel: the scribes and a widow.

The scribes were men who were trained in the Scriptures; “teachers of the Law” the Bibles in your seats call them. You could say these were the Pharisees right-hand men, their apprentices…they were practically Pharisees—so much so that they were often mentioned together in the same breath: “scribes and Pharisees.” They liked to put on a show, much like the Pharisees: they “like[d] to walk around in long robes and like[d] greetings in the marketplaces and [having] best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts,…and for a pretense make long prayers.” Jesus pointed out their hypocrisy.

Then, there’s the widow: she had very little. Jesus sat with His disciples watching people make their temple treasury donations. Those who were rich put in much. Then, the lowly widow happens by and puts in her 2 cents: “two small copper coins, which make a penny.” She gave two coins—barely a penny; nevertheless, it was all that she had. While the rest of the people gave a portion of their earnings—most probably keeping in line with the standard tithe donation—the widow gave all the money she had to the temple, keeping nothing for herself.

What can you take away from this?

There was an All Saints’ Day at the beginning of my ministry when I called it one of the happiest days in the church year. All Saints is a day set aside to recall with thanksgiving the faithful past—that is to say, those who have died faithful. All Saints is also a day set aside to be thankful for those faithful who are still here. Today is a day to be thankful for the faithful, and in case I’m not perfectly clear: it’s a day to be thankful for the gift of faith—thank God for pillars of the faith to look up to as examples of Christ’s work on and in them, be they dead to earth yet alive in Christ or alive on earth and alive in Christ. It’s not about worshiping or elevating saints to some undeserved (and, dare I say, unwanted) status in the Church, but about worshiping and thanking God for His work in, on, and for the Church for Christ’s sake. Today is All Saints’ Day, a day to gaze upon the effects of Christ work, as He died and rose again, establishing the Church, His Bride, and granting entrance into her for many millions upon millions of saints—is there anything greater to be happy and overjoyed about?

St. John recorded in his last tome a look at the multitude of saints as the angel shows him the bride of the Lamb. He described the greatest of cities, the Holy City, Jerusalem, wherein all the saints dwell, descending upon the Mountain of God. He related the millions of voices singing all the great songs that are still sung to this day in the liturgy. He described the saints and martyrs praying under the altar: “How long, O Lord?” He showed that in the end, all of the blessed, all who have lived and died in Christ, will forever be in the Light of His face and sing praise and worship Him.

The prophet Isaiah also had and saw the great city, with salvation its walls. All who would enter are those who enter by faith in God and His Christ. By faith, you see and know that all who have died in Christ are indeed alive and well in the eternal life they have gained through the righteousness that He has won and given.

Then, you can look around and remember blessed dead from this place. Even though you might still be in the throes of grief, you can recall with great joy the life in Christ that they had and still have. Rejoice that their robes have been washed clean, made white in the blood of the Lamb.

“And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.”

The kingdom of heaven suffers violence as the violent take it by force. However, as you read the Gospel accounts, there appears to be little in the way of violence with regard to what the kingdom of heaven suffers or how it is taken. Jesus walks on earth and is relatively unscathed only until He allows Himself to be captured, beaten, and crucified. Until Jesus’ time had come, there were only those who sought to stone Him and throw Him over the cliff, but failed—no account of a scraped knee, lacerated members, broken bones, bloody nose, or black eye; no account of battles and wars. Jesus walks around and teaches wherever He goes, healing the infirm, raising the dead to life, and forgiving the sins of the people.

Where was the kingdom of heaven suffering violence? How were the violent taking it by force?