[Salvation]

The Signs of the Times

Pastor’s Column

33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

November 18, 2012

 

“Learn a lesson from the fig tree. 

When its branch becomes tender and sprouts leaves, you know that summer is near. In the same way, when you see these things happening,

know that he is near, at the very gates.”

                                                          (from Mark 13:24-32)

 

          Most of us know that things in our lives can change very quickly. Certain moments are “hinges” – periods of life where things change radically, and they often happen without much warning. Yet we can be prepared if we are able to read the signs of the times. Jesus warns us in this Sunday’s gospel that the end of the world will catch many people by surprise, and one might add that the end of our own present age may pass just as quickly. There will be signs for us from God! But will we recognize them?

 

          Jesus uses the example of a fig tree. When I lived in San Diego, California, the neighbor next door had a big fig tree planted next to my porch. One night I was sitting on the patio, when I had the distinct feeling that I was being watched! I quickly turned out the porch light, went inside, got a flashlight, and shined it into the fig tree. Imagine my shock to find about 10 pairs of eyes staring back at me! A family of raccoons had found an easy meal, and my neighbor had no figs to eat that year. I might add that in the following year he learned how to protect his figs!

 

          It is ironic that these wild animals could read the signs of the times (the time that the figs were ripe) before the owner of the tree realized his figs were ready to eat. Might God be using signs like these in your everyday life to speak to you about coming events? Has the Lord given you a sign like this that you might have missed?

 

          Here is one we have all experienced (at least through the news). The East Coast has just been through a terrible hurricane – disaster, and as I write, many people are still without power in New York-New Jersey, weeks later. The Lord has made it clear in scripture that we cannot directly connect these kinds of disasters with particular sins (see Luke 13:1-4), but what can we learn? Jesus would tell us to be prepared! Life can change in an instant, and we have to be ready. What would you do if the electricity went out for three weeks? More to the point, if this were the last day of your life, would you be ready to meet the Lord? Hinge moments, in both world history and in our own lives, can come at any time.

                                                                                      Father Gary

[Salvation]

St. Paul Center Blog

Hope in Tribulation: Scott Hahn Reflects on the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Posted by Dr. Scott Hahn on 11.16.12 |

In this, the second-to-the-last week of the Church year, Jesus has finally made it to Jerusalem.

Near to His passion and death, He gives us a teaching of hope—telling us how it will be when He returns again in glory.

Today’s Gospel is taken from the end of a long discourse in which He describes tribulations the likes of which haven’t been seen “since the beginning of God’s creation” (see Mark 13:9). He describes what amounts to a dissolution of God’s creation, a “devolution” of the world to its original state of formlessness and void.

First, human community—nations and kingdoms—will break down (see Mark 13:7-8). Then the earth will stop yielding food and begin to shake apart (13:8). Next, the family will be torn apart from within and the last faithful individuals will be persecuted (13:9-13). Finally, the Temple will be desecrated, the earth emptied of God’s presence (13:14).

Readings:
Daniel 12:1-3
Psalm 16:5,8-11
Hebrews 10:11-14,18
Mark 13:24-32

In today’s reading, God is described putting out the lights that He established in the sky in the very beginning—the sun, the moon and the stars (see also Isaiah 13:10; 34:4). Into this “uncreated” darkness, the Son of Man, in Whom all things were made, will come.

Jesus has already told us that the Son of Man must be humiliated and killed (see Mark 8:31). Here He describes His ultimate victory, using royal-divine images drawn from the Old Testament—clouds, glory, and angels (see Daniel 7:13). He shows Himself to be the fulfillment of all God’s promises to save “the elect,” the faithful remnant (see Isaiah 43:6; Jeremiah 32:37).

As today’s First Reading tells us, this salvation will include the bodily resurrection of those who sleep in the dust.

We are to watch for this day, when His enemies are finally made His footstool, as today’s Epistle envisions. We can wait in confidence knowing, as we pray in today’s Psalm, that we will one day delight at His right hand forever.