Thirty Third Sunday of Ordinary Time
Mk 13:24-32
Dear Friends, The apocalyptic language that Mark uses in today’s gospel passage lends itself to many interpretations. It is deeply rooted in the many visionary messages of the Old Testament. This language points to Jesus’ teaching about the kingdom of God. We know this kingdom is a future and transcendent event. It is God’s will and plan to overcome the consequences of sin at the beginning and all through human history. This divine event is beyond our grasp. So, today’s gospel uses much imaginative language to attempt to describe the kingdom’s final breakthrough into our reality and the end of the world.
As we come to the conclusion of each Church year, we have a message about these fateful events of the end times. It is always dramatically different than the sensationalist message we hear every several months from one crazy group or another. The Gospel message is clear. We do not know and we will not know. Our task is clear: keep vigil. All other speculation and worry is useless. Today’s narrative is best understood as an invitation to vigilance and preparedness in how we live and wait for the coming of the Son of Man.
However, beyond vigilance, there are other messages for us in today’s readings. One is about suffering and injustice. Life’s difficulties are so often arbitrary and rooted in injustice and basic human ugliness.Like Mark’s audience in the earliest days of Christianity, we find suffering so hard to comprehend, especially when it is connected to our faithful commitment to the gospel
Today Mark is proclaiming with power and wisdom. God will have the last word in this sinful world. It will be a word issuing the victory of justice, compassion, reconciliation forgiveness and love. Our hope will be answered and it will wipe out all our worries. Faith and fortitude will give way to the final devastation of fear. We are being challenged to let our trust in God help us to see the world through the prism of anticipation that opens to our destiny in the Crucified and Risen Savior.
However, there is another dimension to today’s Gospel message that fits very well with our human experience. It refers to a common occurrence we all have. There are sudden and dramatic changes in our life that come from sickness, death, failure of personal relations, economic disaster or in our days, the consequences of climate change. When these things happen, it seems as if our world has come an end. We have to face up to a new reality that is frightening and strange. Often, hope seems totally out of reach.
One of the most powerful events of this kind in my experience was a deeply traumatic event of my sister, Mary. She found herself the mother of six children over the span of eight plus years. One morning her husband woke up with severe pain in his stomach. Several weeks later she was a young widow as the ravaging cancer took her husband away. With his death also gone was her world that centered on his love and support.
Mary was totally overwhelmed. For several weeks she could hardly get out of bed. Finally, one day she faced up to the new world. As a woman of deep faith, she took on the task of raising her children. She did a totally fantastic job overcoming all kinds of obstacles including having six teenagers at the same time. Any mother would rejoice to have the young adults that came from that family.
This is a clear example of what the gospel tells us what we need to do when our world seems to be shattered. We need to live life with a loving responsibility and trust in God. This is something that is going to happen to all of us more than a few times in our lifetime.
Today’s gospel says that when you see all these things happening “then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds.” (Mk 13:26) That means when our personal world falls apart, and the bottom drops out of our lives, we will be able to see past the ugliness and to see through the pain to the ultimate reality of things. Despite appearances, God is still in charge, still cares, still has the power to make things right and still intends to do just that -in God’s good time!
As we come to the conclusion of each Church year, we have a message about these fateful events of the end times. It is always dramatically different than the sensationalist message we hear every several months from one crazy group or another. The Gospel message is clear. We do not know and we will not know. Our task is clear: keep vigil. All other speculation and worry is useless. Today’s narrative is best understood as an invitation to vigilance and preparedness in how we live and wait for the coming of the Son of Man.
However, beyond vigilance, there are other messages for us in today’s readings. One is about suffering and injustice. Life’s difficulties are so often arbitrary and rooted in injustice and basic human ugliness.Like Mark’s audience in the earliest days of Christianity, we find suffering so hard to comprehend, especially when it is connected to our faithful commitment to the gospel
Today Mark is proclaiming with power and wisdom. God will have the last word in this sinful world. It will be a word issuing the victory of justice, compassion, reconciliation forgiveness and love. Our hope will be answered and it will wipe out all our worries. Faith and fortitude will give way to the final devastation of fear. We are being challenged to let our trust in God help us to see the world through the prism of anticipation that opens to our destiny in the Crucified and Risen Savior.
However, there is another dimension to today’s Gospel message that fits very well with our human experience. It refers to a common occurrence we all have. There are sudden and dramatic changes in our life that come from sickness, death, failure of personal relations, economic disaster or in our days, the consequences of climate change. When these things happen, it seems as if our world has come an end. We have to face up to a new reality that is frightening and strange. Often, hope seems totally out of reach.
One of the most powerful events of this kind in my experience was a deeply traumatic event of my sister, Mary. She found herself the mother of six children over the span of eight plus years. One morning her husband woke up with severe pain in his stomach. Several weeks later she was a young widow as the ravaging cancer took her husband away. With his death also gone was her world that centered on his love and support.
Mary was totally overwhelmed. For several weeks she could hardly get out of bed. Finally, one day she faced up to the new world. As a woman of deep faith, she took on the task of raising her children. She did a totally fantastic job overcoming all kinds of obstacles including having six teenagers at the same time. Any mother would rejoice to have the young adults that came from that family.
This is a clear example of what the gospel tells us what we need to do when our world seems to be shattered. We need to live life with a loving responsibility and trust in God. This is something that is going to happen to all of us more than a few times in our lifetime.
Today’s gospel says that when you see all these things happening “then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds.” (Mk 13:26) That means when our personal world falls apart, and the bottom drops out of our lives, we will be able to see past the ugliness and to see through the pain to the ultimate reality of things. Despite appearances, God is still in charge, still cares, still has the power to make things right and still intends to do just that -in God’s good time!
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