33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time
This Sunday as we head towards the end of the Liturgical Year we listen to Jesus’s words concerning the end times. The vision of the future in the Gospel Reading for this weekend doesn’t look very appealing. The bad news is delivered first of all. Jesus imagines a time of terror and trouble and persecution. People will be betrayed and handed over to the authorities. There will be wars and earthquakes and famines. Jesus says, “These things must happen.” Then there will be cosmic upheavals: “the sun will be darkened, the moon will lose its brightness, the stars will come falling from heaven”. After this catalogue of disaster there is the good news. Jesus looks beyond the time of distress to the final time, when the Son of Man will gather the scattered people of God to himself. Jesus sees beyond suffering and persecution to a future of peace with the father in heaven. God does not call us to be anxious, but he calls us to confidence in the message we hear in the gospel and proclaim in our lives that we remain in his light. Christ remains our high priest who has offered himself for the forgiveness of our sins. God knows what it is to be human.
The apocalyptic prophecies of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures are a cautionary tale even for us today. Even though the forces of wickedness take control, God is still the Lord of the Universe and all that is in it. These narratives are meant to provide us with hope to stay the course, to hold fast to the faith that resides in our hearts and souls. That faith is the foundation of our charity and provides our spirits with the energy that is hope. It may sound like a fluffy non relevant thing to speak of faith residing in our hearts. The experience of the Jews, in this period a couple of hundred years before Jesus, is an inspiration. Our hearts pretty much dictate our actions. It is the movement of our hearts that provides the energy to take on overwhelming odds and preserves us through all the struggles. It is the overwhelming power of what resides in the heart that provides us with wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. If our hearts are right, then our lives are based on the Truth that is God’s creative love. If our hearts are empty of that love, we tend to get overwhelmed by threatening despair and hopelessness. The Lord calls us to stay awake amidst the distractions of life, so that we will recognize him when he comes again. St. John of the Cross wrote, “When evening comes, you will be examined in love” (Sayings, 60).
We prepare for the day of Christ’s coming by recognizing him in our brothers and sisters and by knowing him through his word and sacraments. False securities and shallow guarantees will not sustain us in times of testing. God alone must be our hope as he has been for many people over the time of the COVID19 Pandemic and so many other troubled times. God’s ways must be our ways, so that when our securities and misplaced confidences fail us we can turn our eyes to God’s saving light and he will show us the way.
Fullerton T 