Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dominica XXXIII per Annum B
14 November 2021

 We are in the final few weeks of the Church’s liturgical year since the Church’s new year always begins with the First Sunday of Advent, just two weeks away.  These final weeks of the current liturgical year are marked by the images in the Scripture readings of times of darkness, tribulation, suffering, and destruction… images that call to mind the end of things, especially the end of earthly life and most especially God’s return in glory accompanied by the end of the world.  Thus, we hear today from the thirteenth chapter of St. Mark’s Gospel.  It is a very complicated Gospel chapter that can be difficult to grasp.  That difficulty is made the more so in this setting in that the Church picks only some verses of the chapter to give us a glimpse.   Thereby missing the whole context of the chapter can create its own confusion.  Furthermore, attempting to make some sense and application of the passage in a limited setting like a homily with only a few minutes to speak really won’t do justice to the chapter.

 Chapter thirteen is Jesus’ Discourse on the Mount of Olives.  After journeying over several chapters toward Jerusalem, our Blessed Lord has finally arrived in the holy city.  He has visited the Temple (as we heard from last week when Jesus was watching people and especially a poor widow put offerings into the Temple treasury).  And now, leaving the Temple he goes outside the city gates, across the Kidron Valley to the Mount of Olives, and speaks the selection we hear today presumably while looking back across the valley toward the Temple.  We need to know an important context that the Olivet Discourse is about two distinct but related events.  The Lord speaks about (1) the destruction of the Temple; and, (2) he speaks about the return in glory of the Son of man at the end of time and the end of the world.

 The initial context of Mark chapter 13 is not read in today’s selection.  That context comes in the first verses of chapter 13 when a disciple mentions to Jesus the magnificent stones and the building that is the Temple.  Jesus predicts the Temple’s destruction.  Then, on the Mt. of Olives, the apostles ask the Lord when this will take place.  Jesus responds by commenting on the two related events of the destruction of the Temple and his return in glory at the end of time.  One complication for us is that St. Mark has both events overlaid to show their relatedness and interconnectedness.  That interconnectedness makes sense in the Jewish mind because the Temple was viewed as an image, a microcosm, of the order of the whole universe.  Destroying the Temple is closely related to the destruction of the cosmos, the whole world, which will be part of the Lord’s return in glory.  This interconnectedness is not as clear to the modern mind and so we can get a bit lost in chapter 13, losing sight of which event and which timeline of cataclysmic signs refers to which event.  It is important for understanding chapter 13 to know which event (Temple destruction or return in glory at the end of time) Jesus is speaking of in any given moment.

 Throughout the Olivet Discourse Jesus is shifting in and out of references to both events because they are interconnected.  But at the end of the discourse Jesus notes an important difference between the destruction of the Temple and the end of the world when he returns in glory.  Our Lord predicts that the destruction of the Temple and the violent and deadly overthrow of Jerusalem will happen within one generation (40 years).  But as regards his return in glory with the end of the world, our Lord says we do not know when it will happen, not even the Son knows the day or the hour, only the Father.  The first event (Temple destruction) will have accompanying signs and you should be able to know it is coming (like the fig tree getting leaves and you know summer is near).  But the second event (return in glory with the end of the world), you won’t know the day nor the hour.  Here the lectionary stops today’s selection but Jesus goes on to use another image, the parable of servants not knowing when the master of the house will return and so they can only be watchful and prepared each day.  I hope you can see that in chapter 13 you have to keep clear which event is being referred to.  Otherwise you might conclude that our Lord predicted the end of the whole world in one generation and thereby got it wrong.  No, he predicted the destruction of the Temple and, in fact, it did happen in one generation, in about 40 years’ time.  Or you might conclude that he has told us both that we will be able to know the time of his return and that we will not be able to know.

 At this point this homily is feeling more like a lecture, but I wanted to set a foundation for some of the mysterious message of chapter 13, because it is mysterious and we all know well that with that mystery we can tend in our world to get wrapped up in movements, and ideas, and prophecies, and interminable YouTube videos… but we need to stay grounded and rooted, anchored, in what Jesus, and the Scriptures, and his Church actually teach.  With that in mind, I want to briefly highlight a lesson for us, something more like a homily.  In the first reading from the Book of the Prophet Daniel we hear the apocalyptic vision of Daniel that accompanies a time of great upheaval, trial, and distress.  It is an image of the end of things.  That reading gives us an Old Testament reference for one of the named Archangels, St. Michael, who is described as an angel prince warrior and a guardian of God’s people.  (So, our devotion to St. Michael and our trust in his protection is a piety with Old Testament origins.)  The reading shows us the upheaval of a great battle in heaven which is also manifested in the earthly realm.  But after this, those who are wise and just will awaken to an everlasting life and will shine brightly like the stars.  This teaches us a lesson that is maintained in the New Testament and which Jesus also demonstrates in his own life and teaches in his own words: Namely, that suffering precedes salvation.  The spiritual battles that are manifested also on earth, the mysterious and frightening cataclysmic events that accompany the end of the world and the Lord’s return in glory, and also our own struggles with sin and our need to confess, to grow in virtue, and to be saved… all these are examples of that scriptural lesson: that our normal or ordinary path to salvation passes through suffering.  I think we need to hear this because it can be easy for us to dismiss this.  Let’s face it, none of us wants to hear that.  It can be easy for us to treat dismissively or all-too-lightly the damage of our sins.  It can be easy for us to fail to go to confession as we should, letting month upon month, or more, build up the filth of moral decay.  It can be easy for us to dismiss the seriousness of God’s judgment and the call to a rigorous spiritual life marked by spiritual battle.  I think we can fall prey to these notions that dismiss suffering and battle and hard work, in part, because we live in such an age of comfort, casualness, and self-absorption.  We can tend to think of God’s judgment less objectively and instead approach that notion subjectively, thinking something like “Judgment?  Condemnation?  God would never do that to me!”  But you can’t read the Scriptures seriously without noting that some will pass the test and others will not.

 As we come to the end of a liturgical year and hear Scriptures that speak of the end of things, it can be a spiritually healthy opportunity to recall what the Church terms the Four Last Things, that is: Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell.  These are the end of things.  Our lot on earth passes through suffering and death.  Upon death we will each face our own unique particular judgment, which will be revealed at the end of time in the General Judgment when the Lord returns in glory.  And when that end comes we will find ourselves in one of two eternal destinies: that of heaven or hell.  Signs in the world around us won’t tell us conclusively when the Lord will return.  But they should serve to alert us to the reality of spiritual battle which we must undertake.  But let’s keep ourselves anchored in a truth: The Lord has already won the victory and generously gives us the tools and the strength for battle, even aiding us with his power and life in our frailty.  But we have to cooperate with those gifts, especially by prayer, regular practice of the sacramental life, and moral living.  The Lord’s love is constant and generous.  He sends us guardians, like St. Michael, to minister His own generous assistance.  We therefore must be like servants in the household who live each day simply finding confidence and peace in being prepared and alert for his return.