First Reading – Malachi 3:19-20a.
Second Reading – 2 Thessalonians 3:7-12.
Gospel – Luke 21:5-19.
On this second last Sunday of the Church’s liturgical year, we are called upon to reflect on the Day of Judgment and the end times and the importance of endurance.
In today’s Gospel Jesus assures the Apostles that he will be with them no matter what hardships they face. He teaches them that authentic Christian living is about meeting the challenges of the day and not just thinking about when the end will come.
In the First Reading prophet Malachi addresses the perennial problem, namely, why do evildoers prosper and just suffer. What is the value of living a just and pious life when the irreligious people look down on the observance of the law? The prophet tells them that the end of the world and the judgment will be terrible for the evildoer but joy for the faithful. He says that it will be bad news for those who have led lives of pure self-interest and sacrificed others for it. They chose to go their own way without God and God will allow them to continue doing so. But for those who have based their lives on being loyal to Truth and have spent their lives in the service of their God and seeking the well-being of their brothers and sisters, the sun of righteousness will shine out with healing in its rays.
In the Second Reading from the Second Letter of Paul to the Thessalonians, we have Paul’s harsh words for those who fall short of imitating the saints, their brothers and sisters in Christ. Admonishing the disorderly, Paul tells them that if they were unwilling to work, they should not eat. Here, Paul commands and exhorts in the Lord to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. Paul gives them his own example to show how he toiled day and night to earn his livelihood and never depended on them. Even though he did his ministry and worked for the people of God he lived by his own hard work.
The Gospel of today begins with Jesus commenting on the Temple of Jerusalem, a building which was one of the wonders of the ancient world. It was the heart and pride of all Jewish life; the very symbol of God’s presence among them. Yet Jesus tells his hearers, “All these things you are staring at now – the time will come when not a single stone will be left on another: everything will be destroyed.” Jesus warns his followers not to be deceived. The Christian life is to focus on the here and now and that will require strength and faith. The world will continue with wars and insurrections and there will continue to be natural disasters that defy explanation. None of these things necessarily means that the world is coming to an end. The teaching of Jesus does not offer us a way to predict the end of the world. Instead, the teaching of Jesus provides his followers with the spiritual resources needed to cope with the adversity and hardship that is part of life in the here and now. The final portion of the passage is directed to the disciples and sets forth what they can expect in the future. At the same time, we notice there are other disasters that destroy the lives of people and we need to look deeper into them, namely greed, envy, hatred, and fear which dominate peoples’ lives. But Jesus says something more to his own followers that there are some special things in store for them and they must not be surprised at them. He speaks of the possible persecution and hatred which people will show towards them. When Jesus speaks of the persecutions awaiting his disciples, he consoles them saying that they should not be anxious about how they are to behave, or what they are to say in such times. He even gives them the confidence and tells them that they are not even to prepare their defence, because Jesus himself will give them eloquence and a wisdom that none of their opponents will be able to resist or contradict. In the scriptures and in the history of the church there is an abundance of evidence that this promise of Jesus has been kept. The Gospel tells us that we are to get ready for that day when God will call us to ourselves. Our faith tells us that there is no need to live in fear and anxiety regarding the future. Rather, we are to focus on the present time, on today, the here, and now. Jesus promises his followers abundant suffering and persecutions. If they bear the sufferings for Christ’s name they will earn the true life, the eternal life of heaven. For this reason, the church wants to examine ourselves today regarding the response we have to such circumstances. A Church goer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. “I’ve gone for 30 years now,” he wrote, “and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can’t remember a single one of them. So, I think I’m wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all.” This started a real controversy in the “Letters to the Editor” column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher: “I’ve been married for 30 years now… In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this… They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!”