33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time – Sunday 15th November 2015

33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

(Sunday 15th November 2015)

We are almost at the end of the Church’s Liturgical Cycle (there’s just two weeks left) and so in this week’s Gospel Jesus speaks about the “end times,” the final convulsions of the world. In fact, since Jesus’ Resurrection and Ascension into heaven, we believe that the world is already in its final stage. This final stage began with Christ’s victory over sin and death. Despite this victory, however, Christ’s kingdom has remained largely “under wraps” (or in gestation) and is awaiting its final fulfillment when all things will become subject to him. This fulfilment will happen when Christ will come again in great power and glory to judge the living and the dead. We are given the picture of the Son of Man coming back to earth in a cloud. We sometimes call this the Second Coming of Christ, and God, in his wisdom, has chosen not to reveal to us the exact day and hour when this will happen. We must wait patiently and be ready. When it does happen Jesus will send his angels to gather those who are just and good and receive them into his kingdom. Those who are wicked will be left to their wickedness, that is, separated from God just as they chose to be separated from him by the way they lived their lives. This state of separation is know as hell or eternal damnation. God longs for our souls to be united to him, but he can only receive into heaven those souls that have allowed themselves to be purified and made holy.

The Gospel also indicates to us that Jesus’ Second Coming will be preceded by a time of great upheaval and distress. This time will be one in which the Holy Spirit will be alive and active and many of the faithful will be courageous witnesses to Christ. But it will also be a time when the force of evil will be dealing its final destructive blows and luring people with false teaching. Jesus paints a picture of the sun darkening, the moon losing its brightness, the stars falling and the powers of heavens being shaken. A little later he speaks of heaven and earth passing away. By the way, when the bible speaks of “the heavens” – it usually means the celestial heavens, the planetary system and the stars. Heaven and earth passing away means that when Christ comes again the whole universe will pass away as we know it. This might make some people anxious, but the correct Christian response is that these words should excite us to awe and wonder, fear and trembling, at God’s majesty and Christ’s kingship. He is the Creator and Lord over the entire universe. The Second Coming of Christ is something that we should long for and pray for, rather than resist. How amazing it is that the words of Jesus – his preaching and teaching – have more power and permanence than the entire cosmos: “heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”

Notes:

In this very difficult Gospel passage a few items need to be explained:

(i)  Regarding Jesus’ words “I tell you solemnly, before this generation has passed away all these things will have taken place”, it is generally accepted by scholars that here Jesus is prophesying that the Temple in Jerusalem will be destroyed. The Temple in Jerusalem was indeed destroyed, in the year 70 AD, just a few decades after Our Lord’s time on earth and before the passing of that generation which made up his first disciples. The destruction of the temple would be a sign that the end times had begun.

(ii) In the last line of the Gospel it might appear that Jesus himself lacks knowledge. We are told that the Son of Man does not know the time when he will return to the earth in final glory. This needs to be explained because our faith teaches us that Jesus, the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, has access to all knowledge, as he is perfectly united to God the Father and the God the Holy Spirit. The Gospel is merely saying that God has chosen not to reveal “that day or hour” within the earthly mission of the Son, that is, within the human communication of Jesus to his followers.

(iii) When Jesus says that heaven will pass away He means the celestial heavens, not that state of blessed union with God which we call heaven.

Fr. Eamon Roche