For man and all, come Lord Jesus 

By Steve Leininger

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/112820.cfm
Revelation 22:1-7
Psalm 95:1-2, 3-5, 6-7AB
Luke 21:34-36

You know the feeling. You are sitting in YOUR place in the church. You know, your pew, now socially distanced, but still the same place each week.

We are all wearing masks, had to sign up to reserve a seat, and sit in every other row. We don’t have hymnals because they have to be kept virus-free, same for the books with the readings.

In my advanced age, my hearing is fading, thanks to high frequency hearing loss and tinnitus. Pile the echo-y acoustics of a half-empty church and the angelic soprano voice of the young lady leading the responsorial Psalm on top of that, and strange things happen.

Luckily, the mask we are required to wear to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus also covers up the fact that we misheard the response. “For man and all, come Lord Jesus” we belt out under our N-95 attire. But we have ears that have not heard – correctly.

The actual responsorial for today’s Psalm is not from Psalm 95 at all, but from the last part of 1 Corinthians 16:22 and the last part of Revelation 22:20. The correct response is “Marana tha! Come, Lord Jesus!”, not the way I heard it “For man and all, come Lord Jesus!”

Wow, I’m glad we got that cleared up. Being dyslexic, this would have been my cue to kinda just skip over the “Marana tha!” and get on with writing up a reflection on the end of time / coming of the Lord messages in today’s readings. But those days are behind me. I figure that most everything in our readings is there for a reason and to leave this unfamiliar phrase (to me, anyway) untouched would be doing me at the very least a disfavor.

So, what do we know about “Marana tha?”

There are tools that allow you to search the Bible for words or phrases, so that you can look for connections. It turns out that Maranatha and any of its variations appears exactly once in the whole Bible! As noted earlier, it appears in the final verses of St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. Both Aramaic and Greek writings of the period were what scholars call scriptio continua (Latin for “continuous script”), a style of writing without spaces, or other marks between the words or sentences. The form also lacks punctuation or distinguished letter case. This sometimes puts scholars at odds to the precise context of an ancient written work.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, in its notes on 1 Corinthians 16:22, says “Marana tha: an Aramaic expression, probably used in the early Christian liturgy. As understood here (“O Lord, come!”), it is a prayer for the early return of Christ. If the Aramaic words are divided differently (Maran atha, “Our Lord has come”), it becomes a credal declaration. The former interpretation is supported by what appears to be a Greek equivalent of this acclamation in Rev 22:20 “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!”

Why might the parallel exclamation in Revelation be notable? It is in the second to the last verse of the last book of the Bible. Its closing statement position seems to me to justify understanding it as a prayer of great hope. Come, Lord Jesus!

The response for today really wasn’t “For man and all, come Lord Jesus.” It was the double-shot phrase “Marana tha! Come, Lord Jesus!” But it sounded right, didn’t it?

Let’s see if I can tie this all together with our readings. Our Gospel reading returns to a familiar theme. Be prepared! 

Jesus said to his disciples:

“Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy
from carousing and drunkenness
and the anxieties of daily life,
and that day catch you by surprise like a trap.
For that day will assault everyone
who lives on the face of the earth.
Be vigilant at all times
and pray that you have the strength
to escape the tribulations that are imminent
and to stand before the Son of Man.” 
[Luke 21:34-36]

This warning from Jesus comes at a time of great change and testing of the Apostles. In the very next chapter, Luke presents his account of the Last Supper. 

The first reading today is from the last chapter of Revelation. John’s description has moved beyond the horrors of the Apocalypse to equally vivid but more pastoral visions of the new heaven and earth. We have a river of life-giving water, sparkling like crystal, the tree of life, and the throne for God and the Lamb. There will be no need for lamp or sun, for the Lord has given them light.

The reading ends with Jesus proclaiming “Behold, I am coming soon.” This is the first of three times that Jesus assures us of his return in this final chapter of the Bible. After the third time, John exclaims “Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!”

So there we have it. Jesus’ time is growing near and he is giving his final instructions on readiness to his disciples. Will they “have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man?”

Marana tha! Come, Lord Jesus!