Homily for the 33rd Sunday of ordinary time Year C
First Reading – Mal 3:19-20a
Second Reading – II Thes 3:7-12;
Gospel – Lk 21:5-19
Our readings today appear to focus on the one hand the end of the world and on the other the second coming of Christ. We have words of warning of persecution, wars and destruction but words too of encouragement and hope for the future. We are two weeks before the start of Advent, that period we look forward to leading to the birth of Christ, the start of a new year, yet today we can tell we are coming to the end of this liturgical year when in our Gospel it’s all about the end! Historically after Christ’s death, resurrection and ascension the followers of Christ believed that Jesus would return after a brief time. Our second reading indicates that because of it, no work was necessary, the kingdom of God had arrived so idleness was possible. When Jesus died his followers must have been distraught and thought that that was the end, what could they do now? We have just celebrated our day of remembrance and we reflected on the sacrifices so many made to achieve peace. And yet we are constantly reminded of all the wars and destruction that are taking place in the world today – a truly disturbing thought; and the first part of the reading from Malachi doesn’t help: ‘The day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evil doers, will be stubble.’ But on the other side he holds out a message of hope, ‘But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings.’ And the psalm too is full of a message of hope and joy, song and music: ‘Sing psalms to the Lord with the harp…trumpets and horn…let the rivers clap their hands…’
The Gospel passage tells the story of the signs before the destruction of Jerusalem. When Luke relates the prophetic words of Jesus spoken before his passion and death some forty years prior, he is writing after the great Jerusalem temple has been destroyed. He warns of false prophets, of nation against nation, earthquakes, famines. But this is to come he says. And he speaks with harsh words to those gathered in the temple of what will happen to them personally. But he goes on in times of such hardship it is the ‘opportunity to bear witness…and by your endurance you will gain your lives.’ If we have faith in times of uncertainty and doubt, faith is proved by suffering and endurance.
Paul says elsewhere ‘when I am weak I am strong.’ I wrote this (not the homily!) twelve years ago in March 2013. I can’t recall why as I don’t remember from my journals of anything specifically happening that would prompt me to write it but bringing it back perhaps summarises the message recorded in today’s readings and topically today in the world of 2025: from the thought of the end times and what that might mean, to the end times as we believe: salvation and eternal life.
“Suffering brings acceptance; acceptance brings hope; hope brings love; love brings faith; faith brings certainty, certainty brings salvation.”
What do we think Jesus means when he says the time will come when the temple will be destroyed, not a single stone left? There are perhaps three answers: one lies in last week’s Gospel where Jesus is in the temple with those who are defiling it and we can recall Fr Manoj’s reflection of Christ as the true temple: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” He was speaking of the sanctuary that was his body and in three days after his death he would rise. The second is Jesus’ prophesy that the temple as a building would be destroyed as it was forty years later in 70AD. The third was Jesus talking about the end of the world when he will return in power and glory. While buildings and possessions will not last forever but our faith and love and goodness can never be destroyed as these are gifts of God.
God has a plan but we don’t know what it is. What we do know is each and everyone of us is uniquely important in that plan and without each of us individually his plan is not complete. Through all adversity our endurance will win our lives, that in the end times we will rise again in the love of God as Christ rose from the dead. It is not always easy to follow Christ’s way of love but he promised to give us the strength and courage that we need. Through all adversity our endurance will gain us everlasting happiness with God at the end of time.
John Lennon wrote, and the same words were used in the film set in India, ‘The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel: ‘Everything will be okay in the end; if it’s not ok it’s not the end.’
For our final reflection can we listen out for the words of the priest following the Our Father, ‘…by the help of your mercy, we may be always free from sin and safe from all distress as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.’
By Deacon Rob W