Sunday Gospel Comment
Alberic Jacovone OSB
YEAR C THIRTY-THIRD SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - 14.11.04 Mal 3,19-20; 2 Thess 3,7-12; Lk 21,5-19 Living Stones in God’s Temple The
end of the World.
Today is the second last Sunday of the Church’s Year, which always begins and
closes with a sober reflection about ‘THE END’ of life & time. The
Gospel deals with the end of the world. There have been and still are many
people, who attempt to predict the end of the world and prepare for it. These
predictions are made from reading in a strictly literal sense, those texts of
the Bible, known as ‘apocalyptic (it means end-of-the-world)
literature, and one of such texts is today’s Gospel. Sadly, such literalism
misses the point. True enough, the Bible says, and the Church believe that the
‘Last Day’ will surely come. We are even asked to long in joyful expectation
for Jesus’ coming at the end, when God will triumph over the forces of evil,
including death. The ‘Day of the Lord’ which was inaugurated at the
resurrection of Jesus will be completed with his final coming in glory. Indeed,
each time we celebrate the Eucharist, we re-live the
Lord’s death & Resurrection, make it present again for us, and look
forward for the final coming when God will establish his glorious kingdom. We
Christians are people who wait in joyful hope, but while we wait, we live in the
reality of present tragedies and tribulations, and still continue to establish
God’s kingdom on earth. Luke wishes to reassure his contemporaries and us
against catastrophes: they are not a sign of the “end”, but a warning
against our human wickedness. When tragedy occurs, we have no way to escape,
except into the liberating and healing love of God. There we are to find meaning
and strength, and from there we are to mediate to other people the same healing
and strength. The Bible -& Luke today- interpret tragedies as ‘days of the
Lord’s visitation’. We
are God’s Living Temple. Jesus
foretold the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and when it happened in 70AD, Luke interpreted this dreadful event as a
consequence of the peoples’ rejection of God’s visitation. In the Temple’s
destruction there is a warning about the importance of paying attention to
God’s word, wisdom and visitation. Sadly, we never find it easy to read the
‘signs of the time’. Calamities are part of life and are to be expected. The
reality is that so much of our time is lost in coping with negative forces:
death, loss, hurts, misfortunes, misunderstandings.. Luke says: in the midst of
evil, let’s never lose heart; indeed let’s live a life consistent with our
faith. We know that our life with its tragedies, frailty and suffering, is based
on the conviction that the Cross of Christ is never far away, but in the end,
God will never allow injustice to prevail. Jesus our Lord identifies with our
frail suffering condition. From his
cross, he understands & hurts with us; he asks us to trust in him, be strong
and never allow hurt to destroy us. Slowly, Luke helps us to move away from the
tragedy of the loss of a historical architectural structure, such as had been
the glorious Temple in Jerusalem and accept a new reality: the concept of a more
daring, & more spiritual Temple. A Temple, not made by human hands but
aligned by ‘living stones’, built into a structure which turns the new
Christian faith into the household of Christ. Yes, in Christ, we are the Body of
Christ, Head & Members: in it we operate as ‘living stones’, each with
our ‘talents, time and treasure’, through a variety of ministries, which
always include carrying the Cross of Jesus in one anther’s life, and reaching
out for those who are hurting and hit by tragedies: The Temple of Christ’s
Body represents the Risen Lord who however is one & the same as the
suffering & crucified Lord, hurting with us and being for us ‘the man from
Cyrene, helping us carry our cross. ______________________________________ |
