33^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time B); 11-14-2021

Dn 12:1-3.  Ps 16.  Heb 10:11-14,18.  Mk 13:24-32

Deacon Jim McFadden

         Many decades ago as a graduate student at Tulane University in New Orleans, I was out for an evening jog in the grassy area near the dorms. 

Behind me, I hear this abrupt command: “Stop where you are.”  My first thought was, “I’m not going to stop; I gotta finish my run.” But, I did stop, turned around, and there was this campus security cop pointing a gun right in my direction. In a crouched position, he said, “Whatta you’re doing here?”  Repressing a snarky response, I said, “I’m a grad student here and I’m on a jog.  Is there a problem

He holstered his gun, much to my relief, and said that there had been some robberies in the dorm rooms and he had to check me out.

            When someone points a gun at you, it really gets your attention.  In a similar fashion, today’s Gospel is doing the same.  Jesus, speaking outside the walls of the holy city of Jerusalem at the beginning of his Passion, said “…in those days of tribulation the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken” (Mk 13:24-25).  Jesus is not having us look to an apocalyptic future, but is trying to get our attention to live in the present well, to be super-vigilant, and to be ready to give an account of our life.

            In a way, this passage from Mark is reminiscent of the opening chapters of the Genesis Creation story: the sun, the moon, the stars— from the beginning of time shine in their proper order to bring light: a symbol of life.  But, in today’s Gospel, they are described in their decline, as they fall into darkness and chaos, a sign of the end. What’s going to replace them is  not another set of celestial luminaries, but a light that will be  radically unique and new: it will be the Lord Jesus, the Light of the world, who will come in all of his glory with all the saints.  In that encounter we will at last see his Face in the full light of the Trinity: a Face radiant with love, before which every human being will also appear as they are in absolute truth.  It’s Judgment time.

            People of God, human history, like our own personal story, cannot be understood as a simple succession of events.  Nor can it be understood in the light of some fatalistic, deterministic vision, as if all of us were preordained to a fate that does not allow for freedom and conversion.  In today’s Gospel, however, Jesus says that the history of peoples and individuals is integrated into a The Story—namely, Salvation History—in which our lives have a purpose within this Theo-drama.  Moreover, our lives will be fulfilled with the definitive encounter with the Lord.  We do not know the time nor the day in which this encounter will come about, which Jesus underscores when he says, “no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.  Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come” (vs. 32-33).

            Given that, we’re challenged to accept a basic principle about ourselves: “Heaven and earth will pass away,” Jesus says, “but my words will not pass away”

(v. 31).  This is the true crux, brothers and sisters.  This should get our attention.  On that day, each of us will have to understand whether the Word of God, the Son of God, has illuminated our personal existence or whether we have given our allegiance to our own words, our own agenda, our own Ego-Drama.  More than that, it will be a moment in which we abandoned ourselves definitively to our Father’s love and to entrust ourselves to his mercy.

            No one can escape this moment—there’s going to be no ‘get out of Judgment Day’ card.  We will stand before the Lord as we truly are.  All of our pretensions, all our rationalizations that we’ve concocted to validate our image we present to the world will not mean anything at this moment of reckoning.  They just won’t be useful, nor will the power of money in which we pretentiously believed that we could buy everything or everyone.  All that we bring to this Day is what we have accomplished in this life by believing in his Word and living as he operates: namely, self-giving love.  Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega: we either “moved, and lived, and had our being” in him or we didn’t.  We will take with us to this Judgment Day only what we have given during our time on Earth.

            As we move toward this Judgment Day, let us acknowledge the fragility and impermanence of our time on earth and of our limitations: we cannot make ourselves happy!  But, let us not fall into cynicism or frustration, but call us back to live out of our True Self, which is made in the image of God.  Let us take responsibility for our life, for our neighbor, and for the entire world.  Amen.