Today is the second to last Sunday of the Church year. Next Sunday we will celebrate the Feast of Christ the King.
On this Sunday the readings traditionally speak about the end of the world, the end of time, the final coming of Jesus to take all peoples and all creation to himself. We hear that Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega: the source and the end of all things.
In the passage immediately before today’s Gospel, Jesus speaks about the coming fall and destruction of Jerusalem. For the Jews hearing this message, it foretells what would be a catastrophic experience for the Jews, even worse than the destruction of Rome and St Peter’s would be for us. Because, for the Jews, Jerusalem and its Temple was the very dwelling place of God. The predicted fall was not the first time the Temple had been desecrated and the Jews driven into exile. But in stark contrast, the coming destruction and exile from Jerusalem lasted not 60 years, as was the Babylonian Exile, but lasted nearly 2,000 years, until the Jewish state was re-established in 1948 after World War II. And it took another 69 years until Jerusalem once again was recognized as the capital of the Jewish nation in 2017. Even now a Muslim Mosque sits on the site of the Temple and that is not likely to change in the foreseeable future.
For the early Church, the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple were very significant events. Even in the letters of Paul, which predated the destruction of the city and Temple, he already speaks of the “new Temple”, which are the members of the Body of Christ. Christ, God, was now to be found in people and not in a building. That is why if there were to be a destruction of the Vatican and St Peter’s, it would not affect the essential nature of the Church. In the early Church, Christians assembled in private homes. Churches, as we know them, only came into existence when, because of the rapid growth of Christianity, private homes were too small. Assembly halls (‘basileus’ in Greek, from which the word “basilicas” is derived) had to be used which, in the course of time, were exclusively used for religious worship.
In today’s gospel (Mark 13:24-32), Jesus speaks of the appearance of the Son of Man in glory and the final establishment of the Reign of God. Many people will come under that Reign, probably many more than we might expect. Others may reject it forever and choose the outer darkness. In rejecting the Way of Jesus and the Kingship of God (and this is not necessarily the same thing as rejecting Christianity), they choose to be outsiders forever.
The Son of Man in this reading we understand is Jesus, the man who walks the earth, that the disciples knew and loved, now appearing in all the unparalleled glory of God’s own majesty. Today’s Gospel speaking about the Son of Man “coming in clouds with great power and glory” echoes a passage in the Book of Daniel, but in this gospel, the Son of Man is even more victorious.
His appearance is described in terms usually used in the Old Testament for the appearances of God himself. He sends out angels or messengers and gathers all God’s people together. In the Old Testament prophecies, God manifests his glory in the final days (see the First Reading for today, Daniel 12:1-3), and the scattered people are gathered to Jerusalem and to God himself. In the gospel today, they are gathered to the Son of Man, who commands the angels as if they were his own.
Thus, we have an affirmation of the central place Jesus, the Son of Man, has in the expectations of the Christians and a reflection of the divine role he is exercises.
The first half of today’s Gospel leans heavily on traditional language and ideas from the Old Testament. We, today, are to look at the inner meaning of these happenings. The cosmic disturbances about the sun, moon and stars are traditional ways of describing manifestations of God’s judgment of Israel.
In ancient times, people believed that the sun, moon and stars represented deities who controlled world affairs. Israel believed that when God acted, these celestial bodies would be disturbed. Think the Star of Bethlehem. What is being said here is that these celestial bodies, which other nations believed controlled history, would be shown to be helpless under the power of God. The sun and moon will stop giving light; stars will fall from the sky.
In Mark’s time, the belief in the power of the stars was very strong. In imperial China the role of the astronomers who could accurately predict eclipses was of the greatest importance. Because of their skill in such calculations, the Jesuit missionaries in 17th century China had access to the very throne of the emperor himself. And even today there are many people who religiously consult the astrology columns in our newspapers and on the internet.
While all these things are being forecast, there is no time frame given. There is no immediate link being given between the destruction of Jerusalem and the final coming of Jesus as King and Lord of all. Even so, the early Christians did expect that Jesus would come in their lifetime. This is reflected in the words, “This generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.” This was natural for those who grew up in the Jewish tradition, the end of Jerusalem could only mean the end of the world. Some centuries later, St. Augustine thought that the conquering of Rome by pagan barbarians was the end of Christian civilization. Obviously, that did not happen.
Jesus then gives a short parable or lesson from the fig tree. I have had, until a few years ago, two fig trees growing in my garden. They are kind of strange trees. They sprout their leaves only in the late spring, long after the other trees are in full leaf. At the end of summer, they drop their leaves long before other trees’ leaves start to change color. And they do not flower, not in the usual sense of the word. Yet they produce a marvelous fruit. Fig trees were (still are) prominent in the Middle East, and grow prolifically on the Mount of Olives, where Jesus is speaking. The people listening knew exactly what Jesus was saying that when the fig leaves appear, you know that summer is near.
Jesus, in effect, is saying that although the end of the world is being described in calamitous terms, his disciples are to respond with faith, with hope, with anticipation. The end of the world means good times, summer, for them. They are not signs that God has lost control of history but that he is bringing things to a triumphant end. It is indeed the victory of God and the twilight of all the lesser gods which men have created for themselves over the centuries.
Heaven and earth, the sun, moon, stars, galaxies and our own little planet may all disappear, but God’s Truth, Love and Justice will prevail forever.
Finally, despite the warnings that some people love to give, the ‘when’ of all this is completely unknown. As we came to the end of the millennium 24 years ago, and entered a new one, there were many who warned that “the end is near”. There are those who warn – based on various apparitions – that God, offended by so much evil, is going to take a terrible vengeance on our world.
This is highly dangerous language we must be careful to avoid. God does not take revenge. God is not hurt or offended by what we do. His is never-changing love. He has nothing but compassion for the sinner who does not, cannot hurt God but only hurts himself. God, in the language of the day, is totally proactive, not reactive! Like I said many times in these Daily Reflections, God will give us what we, in our lives, have chosen: to be forever with Him, or if we reject him, to be forever separated from him.
No one, says Jesus, not even he himself, knows when the end will come. It is not for us to worry about. Worrying will not help. On other hand, we should not play a kind of Russian roulette with life and keep putting off the day of our conversion to God. The only way is to live today and every day in his love and service. It is the present that determines the future; let us just concentrate on the here and now. Then we already have entered the Lord’s Kingdom and when, early or late, he comes to call us to himself, it will just be a reunion of old friends. In fact, he is already here and has always been here and always will be here. It is not that he will come to us but that we will enter a deeper relationship with him when we pass through death to a different kind of life.
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!