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 hopetelling us how it will be when He returns again in glory.
Todays Gospel is taken from the end of a long discourse in which He describes tribulations the likes of which havent been seen since the beginning of Gods creation (see Mark 13:9). He describes what amounts to a dissolution of Gods creation, a devolution of the world to its original state of formlessness and void.
First, human communitynations and kingdomswill 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 Gods presence (13:14).
Readings: Daniel 12:1-3 Psalm 16:5,8-11 Hebrews 10:11-14,18 Mark 13:24-32 |
In todays reading, God is described putting out the lights that He established in the sky in the very beginningthe 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 Testamentclouds, glory, and angels (see Daniel 7:13). He shows Himself to be the fulfillment of all Gods promises to save the elect, the faithful remnant (see Isaiah 43:6; Jeremiah 32:37).
As todays 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 todays Epistle envisions. We can wait in confidence knowing, as we pray in todays Psalm, that we will one day delight at His right hand forever.