Sunday’s gospel passage comes from an apocalyptic section of Luke’s gospel. Apocalyptic is a literary form full of codes that express oppressed people’s hope that good will triumph over evil, that a faithful God will rescue them from their enemies.
In apocalyptic writing the world is falling apart. The usually stable sun, moon, and stars fall from the sky; famines, plagues, and wars run rampant.
Apocalyptic works are like the spirituals that developed during slavery among African Americans; both put oppressed people’s hopes into code. The song “Steal Away to Jesus” had two meanings. A slave owner heard slaves seeking comfort in Jesus as their Savior. A slave heard the coast was clear to escape.
Apocalyptic writers describe visions that predict when evil will end. For example, the prophet Daniel describes a vision of four beasts—a lion with eagle wings, a devouring bear, a leopard with four heads and bird wings, a beast with iron teeth and ten horns. These beasts symbolize the nations that conquered Israel. Then the prophet sees the Ancient One coming to destroy the fourth beast, and one like a human coming on clouds to rule with justice. Read Daniel 7.1-14.
The Romans, who ruled Palestine in Jesus’ time, were the fifth empire to conquer the area. The Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, and the Greeks all made Israel part of their empires during the 600 years before Jesus. Apocalyptic writing influenced how many people thought. Many early Christians expected the risen Jesus, who triumphed over death, to come again in glory soon and create a new earth and new heaven in which God ruled.
Christian apocalyptic writing urges all who worry the world is getting crazier with no end in sight to trust Jesus’ teaching—be patient and faithful. This genre is like Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Divergent, or Harry Potter and their sequels, which create mythic battles between good and evil in imaginary worlds.
Such films in the science fiction genre affirm our human capacity for good and demonstrate the destructive power of the dark side. Apocalyptic affirms the enduring power of faith in Jesus, the messiah. Living his message will transform the world.
Basics about the bible
The bible is a whole library, not a single book. It holds 72 books between its covers. Of these books, 45 contain holy writings about the people of Israel’s experience of God—the Old Testament. The other 27 communicate Christians’ faith in Jesus, who taught us to love one another and even our enemies, who was crucified and raised from the dead as the promise of our own resurrection. This is the New Testament.
Genres or literary forms
A library or a bookstore puts books on its stacks or shelves by subjects—history, fiction, religion, poetry, cooking, travel. A movie rental store displays films in categories or genres—comedy, drama, action, mystery, musicals, horror, fantasy, documentary. In the same way even though the pages of the bible look alike, its books communicate in different genres.
A genre is a type or kind of literary work. We expect science fiction books to take us into futuristic, imaginary worlds. From poetry we expect carefully chosen words that create images and turns of expression that help us see and feel what the poet does. In a mystery we expect a plot with twists and turns to keep us guessing.
Old Testament literary forms
Because the bible contains writing from 2,000 to 4,000 years ago, its literary forms are not always familiar. The Old Testament includes creation stories, epic sagas about Israel’s early ancestors, collections of ancient laws, proverbs for teaching what is wise, 150 poems for worship called psalms, the history of Israel’s kings, the sermons of Israel’s prophets.
New Testament literary forms
The New Testament books come from the first century, most written from AD 50 to 100. These books include letters to early Christian communities from missionaries such as Paul, who founded them, or from other Church leaders. They include an apocalypse—an ancient form of literature somewhat like science fiction, and a genre Christians created called gospel.
A gospel is a narrative, but what makes this literary genre unique is that the gospel writers create these narratives by gathering together pieces of oral tradition. After Jesus’ death and resurrection, his disciples preached his good news orally throughout the Mediterranean world for 40 years. As they did the work of handing on Jesus’ words and deeds, the message took shape in many literary forms.
Some of Jesus’ teachings took the form of short sayings, such as, “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged.” “Love your enemies, do good to those who hurt you.”
Many of Jesus’ teachings take parable form. Parables compare the kingdom of God to experiences familiar in our lives—planting seeds, inviting guests to a wedding, leavening bread, paying workers their wages, finding a pearl so valuable a merchant spends everything to buy it. Parables invite us to see ourselves in them. Who am I like in the parable of the prodigal son—like the merciful father, the wasteful younger son, or the jealous older son?
The gospels contain stories of Jesus’ healing people or freeing them from evil spirits. These are miracle stories that often probe how faith heals.
The passion account that tells of Jesus’ arrest, trial, and crucifixion may be the earliest part of the gospel narrative to take form. The gospels also contain accounts of the risen Jesus’ appearances to his followers—his Easter appearances.
Sacred scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 81, also 110-114