SYNOPSIS OF OT XXXIII [B] HOMILY ON Mk 13:24-32 (L/15)
Introduction: Today’s readings give us the assurance that our God will be with us all the days of our lives and that we will have the ongoing presence of the Holy Spirit in our midst, guiding, protecting and strengthening us in spite of our necessary uncertainty concerning the end time when “Christ will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.” Each year at this time, the Church asks us to apply the “last things” – Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell — to ourselves.
Scripture lessons: The readings invite us to focus our attention on the threefold coming of Jesus: 1) His first coming according to the flesh, as Redeemer. 2) His second coming, either at our death, or at the end of time and the world, which will bring our salvation to completion. 3) His coming into our lives each time we step forward in genuine Christian living. The first reading with its vision of the archangel Michael, taken from the prophet Daniel (167 BC), was originally given to comfort and give hope to the Jewish people, persecuted by a cruel pagan king. In the second reading, the author of the letter to the Hebrews consoles believers suffering from “endtime phobia” with the knowledge that Jesus, who sits forever at God’s right hand, is our mediator. By his sacrificial death, he forgave our sins and sanctified us. Today’s Gospel, taken from Mark (69 AD), offered hope to early Christians persecuted by the Roman Emperor Nero, reminding them of Jesus’ words about his glorious return to earth with great power and glory as Judge, to gather and reward his elect. Daniel and Mark continue to remind us that God will ensure that the righteous will survive the ordeal and will find a place with Him. Through the parable of the fig tree, Jesus warns us all to read the “signs of the time,” reminding us that we must be ever prepared to give an account of our lives to Jesus when he comes in glory as our Judge, because we can not know“either the day or the hour” of his Second Coming.
Life messages:
1) Let us recognize the “second coming” of Jesus in our daily lives through everyday occurrences, always remembering that Jesus comes without warning. But let us not get frightened at the thought of Christ’s Second Coming because he is with us every day in the Holy Eucharist, in the Holy Bible and in our worshipping communities. We will be able to welcome him in his Second Coming as long as we faithfully do the will of God daily by serving our brothers and sisters, by recognizing Christ’s presence in them, and by getting reconciled with God and with our brothers and sisters every day.
2) We need to “learn the lesson from the fig tree.” This means that we are to watch and wait in a state of readiness. Instead of worrying about the endtime events, we are asked to live every day of our lives loving God living in others, by our committed service to them with sacrificial agape love.
OT XXXIII [B] SUNDAY: Dn 12:1-3; Heb 10:11-14, 18; Mk 13:24-32
Anecdote #1: The endtime phobia: French “prophet” and astrologer Nostradamus (1503-1566), foretold that the world would end when Easter fell on April 25. This happened in 1666, 1734, 1886 and 1943; it will occur again in 2038. In 1379, St. Vincent Ferrer (1350-1419), a Spanish Dominican monk, basing his prediction on the number of verses in the Book of Psalms (2,537 verses), predicted the demise of the world in AD 3936. By the end of 1998, the Mount of Olives Hotel, run by Palestinian Muslims, wrote to 2,000 Protestant Christian groups in the U.S. asking “How would you like to be reserving your rooms at the Mount of Olives Hotel, to wait for the‘second coming’ of Jesus on the first day of the new millennium, 2000 A.D.?” Some scientists fueled public anxiety by citing a series of possible ways, including nuclear war and collision with a comet, in which the world could come to an end. A very popular book in 1989 was 89 Reasons Why the World Will End in 1989. The Jehovah’s Witnesses frightened gullible followers at least 3 times during the last century with their “end of the world” predictions in 1914, 1918 and 1974. It is this paranoid fear that led people to die in the mass suicides organized by Heaven’s Gate and Jim Jones. The film Omega Code, released in October, 1999, was an independent movie funded by the Trinity Broadcasting Network, the largest Evangelical Christian TV network in the U.S. It was promoted by a team of 2,400 U.S. Evangelical pastors. The plot involved a portrayal of the “” at the imminent “Second coming” of Jesus, when “born again” and “saved” Christians, both alive and dead, are supposed to fly upward in the air to meet Jesus. The film was rated in the top 10 grossing movies for October, 1999. Over 17 million copies of Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins’ “Second Coming” novel, Left Behind,were sold by July 27, 2000. This is how modern man reacts to the reality of the coming of the end of the world. Hence, today’s readings remind us that we should be well prepared and always ready to meet Jesus at any time, daily in our brothers and sisters and at the end of our lives or the end of the world, whichever comes first.
# 2: Bingo first! Who cares about the Second coming?: There is a second group of people who ignore Christ’s Parousia and stick to their addictions. A woman was hurrying home from work. This was her Bingo night. Suddenly she spotted this fellow standing on the edge of the pavement holding aloft a placard which read: The end of the world is near. She went up to him and said, “You say the end of the world is near.” “That’s right, missus,” he replied. “But are you sure?” “Quite sure, missus.” “And you say it’s near.” “Yes, missus.” ”How near?” “Oh, very near.” “Could you be more precise?” “This very night, Missus.” She paused for a moment to reflect on this. Then in a voice full of anxiety, she asked, “Tell me, son. Will it be before or after Bingo?” (Flor McCarthy in New Sunday and Holy Day Liturgies).
Introduction: Today’s readings give us the assurance that our God will be with us all the days of our lives and that we will have the ongoing presence of the Holy Spirit in our midst guiding, protecting and strengthening us in spite of our necessary human uncertainty concerning the endtime when “Christ will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.” Next Sunday is the Thirty-fourth and last Sunday in our liturgical year when we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King, and the following Sunday marks the beginning of the Advent season with a new Liturgical Cycle. Each year at this time, the Church asks us to mediate on the “last things” – Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell — as they apply to us. The readings invite us to focus our attention on the threefold coming of Jesus: 1) His first coming according to the flesh, as Redeemer. 2) His second coming, either at our death, or at the end of time and the world, which will bring our salvation to completion. 3) His coming into our lives each time we step forward in genuine Christian living. The first reading with its vision of the archangel Michael, taken from the prophet Daniel (167 BC), was originally given to comfort and give hope to the Jewish people, persecuted by a cruel pagan king. In the second reading, the author of the letter to the Hebrews consoles believers suffering from “endtime phobia” with the knowledge that Jesus, who sits forever at God’s right hand, is our mediator. By his sacrificial death, he forgave our sins and sanctified us. Today’s Gospel, taken from Mark (69 AD), offered hope to early Christians persecuted by the Roman Emperor Nero, reminding them of Jesus’ words about his glorious return to earth with great power and glory as Judge, to gather and reward his elect. Though Daniel and Mark describe frightful scenes, their accounts also remind their audience that God will ensure that the righteous will survive the ordeal and will find a place with Him.Through the parable of the fig tree, Jesus warns us all to read the “signs of the time,” and reminds us that we must be ever prepared to give an account of our lives to Jesus our Judge, because we can not know “either the day or the hour” of our own death or of his second coming.
The first reading: In the second century BC, the Jews were conquered by the Greeks. The Greek king, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, tried to Hellenize the Jews by imposing Greek norms on them, by forbidding them to practice circumcision, by stripping the Temple of its valuables, by burning the Torah scrolls, by introducing the worship of Greek gods to the Jews and by forcing the Jews to join in the worship of these pagan gods. In this frightening and dangerous time, the Lord God’s prophetic message to Israel through Daniel addressed the needs of the suffering Jewish people, bolstering their morale and promising them the sure and definite intervention of Yahweh, their God of power and glory, even if they faced persecutions and hardship for a short term. Hence, they believed that Yahweh was on the verge of stepping into the world and definitively changing everything (Dan 12: 1-3). This short passage also describes the “great tribulation,” the “resurrection of the dead” and the Divine Judgment with its rewards for the wise and righteous and its punishments for the foolish and wicked. Thus, today’s selection from Daniel introduces the belief in the resurrection of the deadand makes the first mention in the Bible of “everlasting life,” while such a doctrine was almost unprecedented among Jews even in the second century.
Second Reading, : The letter to the Hebrews was written for Jewish converts to Christ, in part to help them cope with the loss of the comforts they had enjoyed within the institutions of Judaism and from which they had been excluded by their conversion. The author’s intent was to show that Jesus himself had replaced those old institutions and exceeded them. In today’s passage, the institutions in question are priesthood and sacrifices. The author asserts that the old, repetitious sacrifices were futile, while the one sacrifice of Jesus makes us perfect forever and wins the forgiveness of sin, rendering further sacrifice unnecessary. Furthermore, Jesus, the new and the only High Priest, has a seat at God’s right hand, closer than any other priest has ever come to Him. For Jesus’ sacrifice made possible the forgiveness of sins and the formation of a new relationship between God and humankind.
Exegesis: The context: Mark’s Gospel, written some 40 years after Jesus’ death, is the simplest, shortest, and oldest of the four Gospels. This week’s Gospel text is taken from the thirteenth chapter of Mark, which, together with Matthew 24 and Luke 21, is often called the “Little Apocalypse.” Apocalypse literally means unveiling. The whole of Mark’s thirteenth chapter is full of apocalyptic imagery and predictions borrowed from the Old Testament. Verses 24-27 are taken from images appearing in the prophecies of Joel (2:10), Isaiah (13:10 and 34:4), Daniel (7:13), Deuteronomy (30:3) and Zechariah (2:10). Jesus skillfully weaves all these various strands into one powerful vision. The Gospel of Mark was written in the year 69 AD, just one year before the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, at a time when the Romans were suppressing Jewish protests and persecuting Christians. Many Christians began wondering why Jesus did not return as he had promised. Some even wondered whether he had really been the promised Messiah. Hence, Mark tried to strengthen their faith by quoting Jesus’ predictions of the coming persecution of the faithful (13:9-13), the destruction of Jerusalem (13:2, 7-9, 14-20), the rise of the Anti-Christ (13:5-6, 21-23), the end of the world, and Christ’s Second Coming (13:24-26). Mark also offered hope to a persecuted community by reminding the people of Jesus’ promise that wars, natural disasters and betrayal by family members would be overcome when the Son of Man returned to gather in his loved ones.
The glorious coming of the Son of Man: In today’s Gospel, Jesus speaks about the displacement of celestial bodies at the end of the world, followed by the appearance of the Son of Man in glory to establish the Reign of God. The coming of the Son of Man, “in clouds with great power and glory,” echoes a passage in the Daniel. Cosmic disturbances of the sun, moon and stars are images traditionally associated with the manifestations of God’s judgment of Israel. Although no time-frame is given in the Gospels for the period between the destruction of Jerusalem and the final coming of Jesus as King and Lord of all, the early Christians believed that Jesus would come in their lifetime, based on their understanding of Jesus’ promise in Mark, “this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.”
Parable of the fig tree and warning for watchfulness: Jesus gives a warning lesson from the fig tree, using stock prophetic expressions well known to his listeners (Ezra 9:3; 13:1; Baruch 27:5-13; Amos 8:9; Joel 2:10, 3:15; Ezekiel 32: 7, 8; Isaiah 27:13, 35; Micah7:12; Zechariah 10:6-11). The fig tree sprouts its leaves in late spring heralding the summer season. The application of this image to the end of the world suggests that the end of the world will mean good times, or summer, for Jesus’ disciples, because their God will be bringing things to a triumphant end and His Truth, Love and Justice will prevail forever. But we must always be well prepared to face our judgment because we do not know the day nor the hour, either of the ending of the world or of our own call from this life. Hence, true disciples are to watch and wait in a state of readiness. Instead of worrying about the endtime events, we are asked to live every day of our lives in loving God living in others, by our committed service. Thus, we will enter into a deeper relationship with God, which will continue when we pass through death into a different kind of life.
Life messages: 1) Let us recognize the “second coming” of Jesus in our daily lives. Today’s Gospel reminds us of a “coming” of God which we tend to forget, namely, God’s daily coming to us in the ordinary events of our lives. We must learn to recognize and welcome Him in these everyday occurrences – happy, encouraging, painful or disappointing – always remembering that He comes without warning. Let us remember that the Lord is present wherever people treat each other with gentleness, generosity, and thoughtfulness. Hence, let us try to bring Jesus to earth, as Blessed Mother Teresa puts it: “by doing little things to others around us with great love.”
2) Let us take heart and not get frightened: The end of the world should never be thought of as depressing, disheartening or frightening because we are in the hands of a good and loving God. Christ’s second coming gives us the message that God is journeying with us in the trials and difficulties of life and that His word is ever-present as a light of hope. He speaks to us through the Bible. We have the Eucharist as a sign that God is with us, in our midst. Holy Communion is our point of direct, personal contact with God. That is why the holy Mass is special: the more fully and frequently we participate in the Mass, the more deeply the Lord can come to us, and the more completely He can remain with us. Let no one frighten us with disturbing descriptions of the end of the world because “the end” is all about the birth of everyone and everything into eternity.
3) Are we ready to meet our Lord with a clear conscience? Suppose we were to learn today that we had just one year to live – that we would die on November 15, 2016. What changes would we make in our lives? How would we spend our time, talents and wealth? What changes would we make in our priorities? Would we be concerned about the petty quarrels and bickering of life? No! The next twelve months would be the best year of our lives because we would spend our time doing loving, holy and worthwhile things.
4) “Learn the lesson from the fig tree.” Jesus tells us that our personal “endtime” is a prelude to eternal happiness. However, we are all so taken in by our secular culture’s fascination and glamour that we are sometimes embarrassed or saddened by the signs of our own approaching end. We foolishly consider growing old as an evil thing, rather than as a warning from a loving God to prepare to meet Him and to give an account of our lives. Our aches and pains and frequent “doctor’s appointments” in our senior years should remind us of God’s warning that we are growing unfit to live in this world, and that we have to get ready for another world of eternal happiness. Hence, let us take the spirit of the 27th Psalm: “Wait for the Lord. Take courage; be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord” (v. 14).
JOKE OF THE WEEK
#1: “You’ll wish you were Jewish!!” A Protestant minister and a Catholic priest enjoyed teasing their Jewish rabbi friend, continually asking him when he was going to convert to their faith. When the Holidays rolled around, the rabbi sent them a card with the following: “Season’s Greetings! Roses are reddish, Violets are bluish; When the Messiah comes, you’ll wish you were Jewish!!”
#2: Missed the “rapture” by a minute: A certain man, Herbert Washington by name, was so taken up by the nearness of Christ’s second coming and “the rapture” that he became a pain in the neck to his coworkers. So his coworkers hatched a plan to pay him back in his own coin. One day, when Herbert went to the washroom, they laid their work clothes on their chairs and hid in the supply room. When Herbert came back from the washroom, he thought the rapture had taken place. The Muslim janitor, who was part of the joke, pretended to have witnessed everyone disappear and ran around the office feigning panic. Herbert fell to the ground clutching his heart and screaming, “I knew you’d forget me, Jesus! What did I do wrong?” He was rushed to a local hospital with what was diagnosed as a mild heart attack. (Fr. Munachi).
#3: The Second Coming. A Sunday school teacher asked his class, “If I sold my house and my car, had a big garage sale and gave all my money to the Church, would that get me into Heaven? “NO!” the children all answered. “If I cleaned the Church every day, mowed the yard, and kept everything neat and tidy, would that get me into Heaven?” Again, the answer was, “NO!” Again the teacher asked, “Well, then, if I were kind to animals and gave candy to all the children, and loved my wife, would that get me into Heaven?” Again, they all answered, “NO!” “Well then how can I get into Heaven?” A five-year-old boy shouted out, “YOU GOTTA BE DEAD!” Good insight for a five-year old!
#4: Somnambulist or Methodist? “Be constantly on the watch! Stay awake,” Jesus commands. The signs-of-the-times are such that, clearly, this is no time for somnambulists. A somnambulist, as you know, is a person who walks in his sleep. On the eve of his wedding, a young man decided to confess all to his fiancée. He went to her and said, “My love, there is something I feel I must tell you before we are married; something you must know. It may make a difference in your feeling toward me. You see, I am a somnambulist.” The young lady thought for a moment, then replied, “Oh that’s all right. There’s no problem. I was raised a Methodist. We can go to your Church one Sunday and to mine the next.”