The day of the Lord

For more commentary on this week's readings, see the Reflections on the Lectionary page, which includes Moore-Keish's current Living by the Word column as well as past magazine and blog content. For full-text access to all articles, subscribe to the Century.

In my Century lectionary column for this week, I wrote about Zephaniah 1 and 1 Thessalonians 5, with their shared theme of the “day of the Lord.” Zephaniah’s account is particularly fearsome, and it serves as important background for the medieval liturgical text “Dies Irae.”

I chose to focus on these passages because they are hard to hear. Initially they seem so alien, and yet on second reflection, their scenes of destruction are so terribly familiar. How do we address these difficult themes of judgment and destruction without either glorifying violence or co-opting God for our own pet causes?