1st Sunday of Advent - 2025 - Year A

Jeff Bagnall • 21 November 2025

The book of Isaiah as it is called in the Bible, is an extensive edited collection of writings that are drawn from at least three different time periods. Using the division of chapters and verses introduced in the 13 ^th and 16 ^th centuries, the first 39 chapters are from the earliest period when the prophet Isaiah lived, namely the last half of the 8 ^th century BC. From this section our first reading ( Isaiah 2:1-5) expresses in its own way the vision of the glorious future that it was believed God had planned for His creation. The significant political situation at this time is that Judah and its capital city Jerusalem were under threat from other nations. Isaiah, as a court prophet, must have been aware of this as well as of the religious situation. His religious belief was that God (that is to say their god) had chosen them to be the greatest nation of all, expressed at this time as the expectation that Jerusalem would eventually be the focus for all the nations. And so the visionary poem that is our text, is an expression of hope that all the nations will submit to the Law (in the first section of the bible) and together rejoice under Jerusalem’s supremacy in the worship of God. The climax of the vision is that there will be peace among all nations expressed poetically as “turning swords into ploughs and spears into pruning hooks.”

In the second reading ( Rom 13:11-14) it seems clear that things are not too good for the Christians in Rome, to whom the letter is addressed. Chapter 12 starts a section dealing with the End Time, and there was enough persecution under emperor Claudius (41-54 AD) and also under Nero (54-68 AD) to give the impression to Christians that the end of this world was at hand. Paul’s letter is his exposition of the good news that others were later to express in narrative form as Gospels. The message is “Do not be conformed to this age but be transformed” (Rom 12:2). In some way, for Paul the time is already with us, especially since we have been baptised – when we first believed; so now we must live in a changed way. A good example of this transformation is found in the Confessions of St Augustine, who was very much attached to the ‘secular’ world and couldn’t tear himself away. But then came the turning point in his life when he read the last two verses of our text.

In today’s gospel reading from ( Mt 24:37-44) we have a section of what is written about the second coming of the Son of Man. Parts of it appear to be taken from Mark and other parts from another document (sometimes called Q) that Luke also used. Matthew’s well-structured gospel has five extended discourses attributed to Jesus and this is part of the last one. It seems that the people at the time of Noah are said to be just going about their daily business and not thinking of anything else; yet according to the Genesis story, the people at the time were wicked, so much so that God regretted having created them. So the message for us is simply about being aware of the world of God in our ordinary day to day living; and so to live upright lives, and hence be ready when the expected judgment comes. Two people can appear to both be living ordinary lives, but one can be aware of the proximity of God in his world – hence it says “one will be taken, one will be left.”

See Jeffs Jotting s – Advent Talks 2022 Talk 1

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Jeff Bagnall was a lecturer for many years at Craiglockhart College teaching RE to many future Catholic Primary teachers.

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time - 2026 - Year A

by Jeff Bagnall • 19 August 2026

During the time of the prophet Isaiah, the kingdom of Judah was threatened by the Assyrian empire from the east. Isaiah had recommended trusting in God to save the people and God would be with them. But the king and leaders didn’t see it this way, they felt they would loose, and forfeit their privileged positions, if not their lives. They made some sort of a pact with the emperor of Assyria so that Jerusalem was spared, although the rest of the country was invaded. So Isaiah, as we read today , reprimand Shebna the royal steward, and announced a replacement, who will be the leader to make decisions in the future; he will have the symbols of office, the sash, the robe, the key to the ordering of the country’s affairs, and will keep them safe like the peg for a tent. This passage seems to be in the mind of Matthew when he writes of Peter receiving the leadership office in our gospel reading. But the historical events behind it challenge us severely in our relationship with our world and with God, just as the sermon on the mount in the New Testament does: if anyone wants your shirt give them your coat as well, if anyone strikes you turn the other cheek, love you enemies… (see Matthew 5:38-48).

Feast of the Assumption - Year A

14 August 2026

There was much apocalyptic literature in the centuries before and after Christ – among the Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Persian and even Indian literature. This literature which is about the development in the world of disasters and troubles expressed in dramatic stories, included those of evil ‘influences’ seeking to destroy the next ruler born to a chosen woman to be mother of the future ruler. Some form of these apocalyptic stories were part of Jewish literature – as also the book of Revelation in the N.T. which used to be called the Apocalypse in Catholic bibles, because of its similarity to such literature. Our first reading (from Revelations 12:1-6 ) for the Catholic feast of the Assumption includes an adaptation of this mythic scenario to the situation of Christianity under Roman persecution in the 1st century to encourage believers in Jesus and his resurrection – a faith that secures them safety in heaven, but how the rest of us, still living in our world, are still threatened by evil. The story could bring to mind the Assumption of Mary into heaven – waiting with Christ for the rest of us after our struggles against the evil forces in our world. There are ‘secular’ stories of old about such sort of events.