Thirty Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

We are coming towards the end of the liturgical year. Next Sunday is the last Sunday of the liturgical year and the following Sunday, the first Sunday of Advent, is the beginning of a new liturgical year. As the curtain comes down on the liturgical year, the Sunday readings highlight the reality of endings, of things coming to an end. The experience of ‘endings’ can be among the most painful and difficult of all our experiences. This is most obviously so when someone close to us dies. Even though our faith tells us that, for them, life has changed, not ended, and that, therefore, our relationship with them has changed, not ended, yet, we know that the kind of relationship we have always had with them has come to an end. In November we remember our loved ones who have died, and whom, we believe, are now sharing in God’s eternal life.

The beginning of today’s gospel reading is about endings, not so much the ending of a human life, but the ending of a hugely significant institution. Jesus announces the ending of the Temple in Jerusalem. This was a magnificent building of its time and was considered one of the wonders of the world. It dominated the city of Jerusalem; indeed, it could be said that it dominated the whole Jewish world of the time. Forty years after Jesus was crucified, in the year 70, that temple was destroyed by the Roman army in response to the Jewish revolt. The most significant institution of the Jewish faith was no more; this was an experience of ending on a cataclysmic scale. Yet, the Jewish faith survived; the religious leaders at the time build something new out of the ashes that remained while remaining in continuity with the past. It is often the way that when something that has been central to our lives, whether as individuals or as a community, comes crashing down around us, we find the strength and the wisdom from somewhere to keep going. Over time we can discover that the ending was also a beginning, that something grows from the great loss.

In the gospel reading, Jesus not only announces the coming assault on the Temple that would result in its destruction, he also announced the coming assault on his own community of believers. As he faced into his own passion, he foretold the passion of his followers. They would be persecuted and handed over to the political authorities; the members of their own families would betray them to these authorities; their way of life would generate great hatred from some. In a way, Jesus was referring to his disciples in every generation; he was talking about all of us. We may not have experienced persecutions because of our relationship with the Lord; we may not have been disowned by members of our families because of our commitment to the values of the gospel. Nonetheless, it is still the case that walking in ‘the way of the Lord’, can be as counter cultural today as it was when Jesus lived and when the gospels were first written. If we take that way seriously and try to live by it, especially in certain settings, it will cost us something. We may even stand to loose a great deal as a result. Our world, like the temple in Jerusalem, may come crashing down because of our commitment to the values of the gospel.

Yet, the message of today’s gospel reading is that if we courageously witness to the Lord and his values, regardless of how that is received, we will not ultimately be at a loss. Jesus declares, rather, that our endurance, our faithful witness, will win us our lives. The endurance the Lord talks about is a graced endurance; it is not down to us alone; it is an endurance that he makes possible through the power of the Holy Spirit. He promises that he will give us the wisdom and eloquence we need to witness to him in an enduring way. There is a striking image in today’s first reading of this empowering presence of the Lord, ‘But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will shine out with healing in its rays’. The risen Lord is the Son of God who shines upon us with his healing and life-giving love, and who promises that whoever follows him will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.

The endurance Jesus speaks about in the gospel reading, our faithful and courageous witness, may not express itself in grand deeds or striking gestures. It will more often mean doing the day to day things as the Lord would want them done. It will mean taking on the day with faith, hope and love. That is what Paul seems to be getting at in today’s second reading. He is bothered that some in the community are not doing the ordinary things well; they are ‘doing no work themselves and interfering with everyone else’s work’. Paul wants them to go on quietly working, using whatever gifts they have in the service of others. This may sound somewhat prosaic. Yet Paul was aware that the gospel was witnessed to and lived out in our ordinary day to day living. It is in that context that we display the graced endurance Jesus calls for in the gospel reading.