33rd Sunday OT, Year C
Fr. Albert
St. Peter Catholic Church, New Iberia
The end is near! The end is near! Repent now, for we are living in the last days! In all seriousness, however, we are actually living in the last days. Really, the last days started when Jesus died on the Cross. Every day after that is among the “last days.” For us, the time to get right with God is right now, not when we see some cataclysmic warning sign. That is why Christ is keen on telling his disciples that they will “hear of wars and insurrections,” but that they should “not be terrified; for such things must happen first, but it will not immediately be the end.”
Will there be a certain time period of “final days” where things look really bad and then Christ will break through with victory in the end? Yes, there will be. You can find it right there in the Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 675. The Church will face a final trial and persecution. We will discover a “religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth.” Your job in all that? Stay with the Truth, the whole truth. But I’ll come back to that in a little while.
Regardless of that teaching, our concern should not be with catching at this or that sign. For some, the election of Barack Obama was the sign they were looking for. For others, it might have been the election of Hillary Clinton and right now some people are claiming that Trump’s rise to the presidency should be taken as that special sign. Whatever – That. Is. A. Distraction. If tomorrow someone shows up and claims that Trump is the antichrist and they are the new messiah… please ignore them entirely.
No, we should take a closer look at Christ’s teaching here. This is the time that the Church focuses our attention on the end of the world, not to scare us, but to give us hope. Really, Christ is talking about two different, but related events in this passage. Did you hear what started this topic? The disciples’ marveling at the Temple’s beauty. Christ’s response? Not a stone will remain standing. This is a prophecy – the foretelling of when the Temple in Jerusalem will be destroyed and all of Jerusalem with it. For that audience, such a prophecy is serious news. Can you imagine if a Muslim leader came on television and said that Mecca was going to be destroyed?
Muslims would act like it was a promise for the end of the world. The Jews of that time heard Jesus’ prophecy in the same way. For the Jews, the temple was the center of their religious life, it was the presence of God, and it was a microcosm, a special representation of the entire cosmos. When we human beings want to communicate something, we usually use words, gestures, and other signs that represent our meaning. When God, master and creator of the universe, wants to communicate something, he can do more than that. Yes, he uses words – we have Scripture and Tradition – but he can also use reality itself. God is pretty fond of using actual historical events to communicate with us and to foretell future events. Jesus is the New Moses and the New Adam, but Moses and Adam actually existed before. The Israelites actually ate manna in the desert, but that reality foreshadowed the greater reality of the Eucharist, which we have now.
So also, the destruction of the temple foreshadows the end of the world. But, when Christ originally said these things, the destruction of the Temple hadn’t happened yet, so he’s actually giving us a kind of double or layered prophecy. Christ says “there will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place; and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky.” In fact, we know that, shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem earthquakes and famines did happen. Really, these are almost always happening somewhere. But what about “mighty signs” from the sky? A Jewish historian tells us that, before the city was destroyed, there was some kind of comet or meteor in the sky for a year that looked like a flaming sword. He also mentions visions of chariots and even a voice from nowhere that announced the angels were leaving the city. This man was Jewish and had no reason to make this up in order to validate Christ’s prophecy.
It’s some pretty amazing stuff, but you know what? That’s still not Christ’s concern. He gives them this prophecy as a timeline, but his focus is when he says “before all this happens, however, they will seize and persecute you.” It is the persecution before that he wants his disciples to be focused on. Why? “It will lead to your giving testimony.” Now this is what Christ is after – the spread of the Gospel. All this prophecy is meant to give the disciples an idea of just how valuable the proclamation of the good news is. It’s so valuable that it is even worth suffering through arrest, torture, betrayal, the loss of your entire city, your family, your friends, and even your own death.
And he does not mince words about all they will suffer. As we see in the book of Acts, also written by Luke, this all comes true for them. But he warns them ahead of time so that he can prepare them. “Do not be terrified,” and “by your perseverance you will secure your lives.” But there is one thing that Christ does not explain here, though he does elsewhere. Why will they be persecuted so much? Because they will believe, live, and teach others the truth about Christ and his body the Church. People will reject this and persecute them for it.
Well, let’s go back to that comment I made about the Catechism at the beginning. There will be a final time period where many will fall into apostasy – apostasy is a three dollar word for turning your back on the Truth. The truth is often very inconvenient and uncomfortable. If Jesus Christ is real, if he really founded the Church, if the Bible and the Church’s Teaching are true – then I have to change my life. Sin is fun, addicting, and often pleasurable. Service to the poor, chastity, and worshiping God often seems to be boring and difficult. But, if we want to “secure our lives,” then we had better persevere.
Sure, the Acts of the Apostles shows us all their sufferings and persecutions, but also that they were full of Joy! Our Psalm foretells the coming of God in Judgment, but rather than fear, it shows clapping, music, and joy because he will bring justice. The Apostles suffered greatly, but they were filled with great love and the knowledge that God’s justice would prevail in the end, even if they had to die first.
And what about us? Donald Trump was elected president and many Christians are rejoicing that we will be spared the persecutions we would probably have faced under Hillary. That’s true enough, but we must not lose vigilance. For many Americans, the idea of our Country is like the great temple of Jerusalem. It is beautiful and awe-inspiring. We’d be devastated if something happened to it. Well, it will fall eventually. On top of that Christ promises persecution to those who are faithful. There are things about our future president that should cause us to be concerned – there are dangerous errors we need to correct and injustices wemust fight against. Yes, it means we will be persecuted, even by the people who may have been political allies for a time. But, the Gospel, the entire Gospel, with its demands of respecting the dignity of every person, it’s call to a life of holy poverty, it’s demand for generosity, and requirement to serve the least among us; it must be preached. For the Day of the Lord is coming, blazing like an oven.