November 13
Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
“The Lord comes to rule the earth with justice.”
Reflection
We are very close to the end of the Liturgical Calendar Year, and as I’m sure you’ve noticed, our readings invite reflection on end times. Malachi in our first reading doesn’t hide it: “Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven, when all the proud and evildoers will be stubble…[it] will set them on fire” (Mal 3:19). Jesus’ words are particularly strong, too, and while he is first speaking to the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple (~70AD), he also articulates the persecutions the Church will inevitably face over the course of history and how they will recur in a particularly intense way before the Second Coming: Nations rising against nations, powerful earthquakes, famines, plagues, persecutions, division in families, bearing hatred for the name of Jesus…(Luke 21: 10-12, 16-17)
Have you put much thought to what we as Catholics believe about these ‘end times’? There is a temptation toward both extremes, namely, to become overly consumed about reading the signs of the times trying to align various sequences of events, or the other end, to have little or no concern about Jesus coming again at all. Both extremes here are not all that helpful. A healthy expectation of Jesus’ return coupled with our continual striving to grow in holiness will keep us rightly ordered and lead us toward finding Jesus’ return as a day that Malachi describes: “For those who fear My name, there will arise a sun of justice with its healing rays.”
Every Sunday we stand together profess that Jesus “will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.” It’s worth pulling out the Catechism of the Catholic Church to go a bit deeper (Paragraphs 668-682), but to be brief this is what’s going on: “Christ the Lord already reigns through the Church, but all the things of this world are not yet subjected to him. The triumph of Christ's kingdom will not come about without one last assault by the powers of evil. On Judgment Day at the end of the world, Christ will come in glory to achieve the definitive triumph of good over evil…to judge the living and the dead, the glorious Christ will reveal the secret disposition of hearts and will render to each man according to his works, and according to his acceptance or refusal of grace (cf. 680-682).
Keeping this in our perspective should inform how we go about our daily lives as disciples. All of us commit sin and are capable of doing evil, so in order to separate us from those who will end “as stubble,” let’s hurry with gratitude toward the Lord’s mercy rather than flee from Him or ignore Him…because at the end of the day we know we are the ones who continually need to accept his grace and his healing rays—and Jesus longs to embrace us with them!
Peace,
Fr. Foley
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