Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2013
year C
Malachi 3:19-20a; Psalm 98:5-6, 7-8, 9; 2 Thessalonians
3:7-12; Luke 21:5-19
Everyone
of us face problems we may never be able to solve. Many of them have to do with
relationships. Sometimes we try to solve them emotionally rather than by
thinking and reason. However, the most important aspect of solving any problem
is looking at it within its context, that is, what are the factors that
surround it or affect it. So too it is with our reading of the Bible. The Bible
has to be read by looking at different features of the part we are reading..
First we have to look at who were the authors. The writers of the Bible were
always responding to something. In most
cases the author was answering someone's question about a particular situation
or about Jesus. As an example in the Gospel I just read Jesus was asked: When
will the end of the world happen? And how will we know when that is to happen?
This
leads to a second important part of understanding a Bible passage: what is
happening in our lives right now? The depth of the personal meaning a passage
has for us will vary depending on what is going on in our lives right now. For
example a passage about a healing miracle will have a certain meaning for
someone who is terribly ill and another meaning for someone who has never been
seriously sick.
This
information on the circumstances surrounding an event is very helpful for
approaching today’s readings. Our first reading is from the book of Malachi and
our Gospel passage was written by Luke.
They were all both written with an eye toward the future. The purpose of these passages is to help us
understand and cope with events occurring now and to help us find hope in our
future when God will prevail over everything.
Our
first reading is from the book of Malachi.
Malachi was a chronic complainer.
Yet he says that God is like the sun. It is the same sun that warms us
in winter but that can give us a serious sunburn in summer. God too is
experienced in different ways. The evil experience him as a blazing oven; the
good as a healing ray to give them spiritual warmth. And Malachi tells us that
a day is coming when God will show his divine face to all who are living. Malachi wanted to remind us that ultimately
God is in charge and that God will set all things right. It is this reminder
that helps us endure. He reminded the people that while things are bad in this
world, we are not really of this world. We can endure because this life is not
the one we were born for. We were born for life with God in heaven.
Paul faced an interesting problem with
the Catholics in Thessalonica. which he describes in our second reading. Many
of the Catholics there were so convinced that Jesus would return within their
lifetime that they were beginning to abandon the normal tasks of life including
their jobs. Many stopped working. They
were afraid that if today or tomorrow was the last day, they did not want to be
doing something bad. Paul reminds them that regardless of our last day we still
must take care of our daily work and responsibilities. We must carry out our responsibilities right
up until the day of our death. Paul was so serious about this that he told the
Christians not to support anyone who would not earn their keep.
Our
Gospel today was written by Luke at a time when people were also living in
fear. Accepting Jesus Christ had forced a change in lifestyle. Many were afraid
of the Roman authorities who did not like Jesus. Some were leaving Jesus out of
fear of persecution or even death.
Numerous
fundamentalist preachers on and off TV, keep telling us that we are in the last
days, and that the end of the world is coming soon. How do they know this? Because they take a sentence here and a
sentence there from the Bible and determine that the current events show that
the world as we know it is passing away. The early Christians also thought that
the world would end in their lifetime.
These
self proclaimed authorities. of course, ignore other passages such as in our
last reading today, where Jesus warns us about false alarms. Jesus cautions us
that we must be more concerned about living our faith day by day than worried
over the date of the end of the world. Jesus says of these false prophets: DO NOT
FOLLOW THEM.
Jesus
never promised his followers then or now freedom from trials, from sickness or
even from natural disasters like what happened recently in the
Philippines. He did promise that he
would be with us amid
disasters. Jesus made that promise from
his own experience. That experience was
finalize on the cross.
Often
we think God acts one way for good people and another way for bad. We often
believe that if the Lord isn't doing what we want, we simply have to change
from bad to good and he will give us what we need.
But today's three readings give some
different advice. We see a God who is always doing good things for his people
whether they are themselves good or bad.
His actions come across to us in different ways because we respond to
them in different ways.
Jesus
does say, though, that before that last day comes we will have to live
according to our belief. He says we are called to endure patiently. Jesus is
our model and our hope. That is why we
are here today. We need a weekly spiritual transfusion from Jesus that will
give us the strength to endure the
humanly unendurable; to hope where we see no hope; to continue the journey
when we feel our strength is at an end.
Today
and this week let us think about our own lives. Think of the opportunities we
have to do little things that no one even notices. Picking up a piece of trash
and disposing it properly. Smiling at someone who seems down. Thanking a clerk
at a checkout counter. Visiting a neighbor who is lonely or is grieving. Being
pleasant with co-worker. Giving a positive response. Being kind to a classmate
who has just been bullied. This is how
we fill our heart so that when the time comes, we take it with us. Best of all
Jesus is always with us to help and encourage us.
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