THIRTY-THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
18 NOVEMBER 2018
Those
who have children know their questions when they travel with the family by
car. It is the same question I asked my
Dad when he drove the family to holidays at his parents’ home in Lebanon,
Indiana: “when we will get there?” My Dad’s stock answer was always: “it is just around the corner.” When he retired and joined my brother’s
family and me on a hiking trip, I got even with him. He wanted to get to the end of the hike. Hearing the same response from me, he was not
amused! Today, parents can use their GPS
devices to give accurate information.
Since little children do not understand those terms, parents still say:
“It is just around the corner.”
In a sense,
this is the response Jesus gives to his disciples. He has already told them that the magnificent
temple, which had been under restoration for 40 years, would be destroyed. He is trying to prepare them for his own
death, when the sun will be darkened. He
tells them that the world as we know it will pass away, and that he will come
again in glory to gather his elect to himself.
Like children in their parents’ car, they want to know when these things
will happen. Because he himself does not
know that time, and because his disciples cannot understand God’s time, he uses
the same kind of apocalyptic language used in the Book of Daniel to say, “It is
just around the corner.”
Throughout
this month of November, we have been praying for those whom God has harvested
through death. With the Solemnity of
Christ the King next Sunday, we will come to the end this liturgical year. So, naturally, with our prayers for our
deceased loved ones and our focus on the end, we ask when the world as we know
it will end. Jesus gives the same
response to us that he gave to his first disciples: “It is just around the
corner.”
He speaks
this truth to us, not to make us anxious or to cause us to be consumed with
worry about death. He speaks this truth
to reinforce our faith. As the Letter to
the Hebrews tells us, Jesus Christ has already made the perfect sacrifice on
the cross to defeat the power of the enemy.
He has been raised from the dead and has ascended to the right hand of
the Father. We live in that time between
his victory and his return in glory.
But, the
enemy, the devil continues to prowl about the world seeking the ruin of our
souls. We live in this in-between time, when
we are stretched between Christ’s victory and his return in glory. The forces of sin and evil are very much in
evidence, and we experience them in our own lives and in the images of war and
terror from around the world. Last year,
I traveled with Margaret and Joseph Derbiszewski to Poland, where we visited
the Nazi concentration and extermination camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau. It was a stark and powerful reminder of the
existence of sin and evil in our world.
But as moving as it was, we went to lunch afterward. We did not smell the horrible smells or see
the horrific sights of the camps when they were in operation. The visit caused me to see the importance of
confronting my own sins and the damage we do by the sinful choices we make that
affect ourselves and others.
In this
in-between time, God remains in charge.
Knowing that our lives and the life of the world will come to an end, we
can take great hope in the Lord’s presence, not only in the sacramental life of
the Church, but also in our daily efforts to die to ourselves and turn more
completely to Christ. The Scriptures remind
us of our mortality not to oppress us and make us fearful, but to encourage us to
hope. The Letter to the Hebrews makes
one final point. Having won the victory
with his sacrifice on the cross, Jesus now is seated at the right hand of God
and waits until his enemies are made his footstool. That will happen when the Lord comes
again. For now, God is the parent
driving the car. Our destination is just
around the corner.
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