11/17/2024 - 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Antidote to End Time Frenzy

As we approach the end of the liturgical year, the theme of end times is proclaimed in the reading at the Eucharist. The word ‘Revelation’ comes from the Greek ‘apokalypsis’. The common feature of apocalyptic literature is an unfolding of matters generally unknown, such as heavenly regions or the events of the future by someone who has been granted a special revelation of these things by God, either directly or through an intermediary, such as an interpreting angel. In many cultures like the Mediterranean culture of Jesus time, when a bride walks towards the groom, she is wearing a veil; a veil which prevents her from seeing the groom clearly and becoming close to him. The intimacy that is initiated when the husband lifts his new wife's veil will be like that for the church when Christ returns. Christ is the groom, and the church is His bride.

Mark’s portrayal of the ‘lifting the veil’ does not have the romance and mystery of the wedding ceremony. He speaks about the trials, the omens, the shaking of the heavens, the Son of Man coming in clouds with power and glory upon the winds. Again, unlike many of the predictions of the imminence of the end of the world today, he says, "But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."

What lessons can we learn? The trick is not to reduce this teaching to a specific time and do some kind of decoding to determine the date. Rather this truth is speaking to every generation including our own. The end time happens to all, not only to each of us in facing our own sundering death, but to all of us together as a generation that will pass into the mist of disappearing ages, very much like the theme of the song: Parting Glass. But it is also a call to seize the moment to live life to the hilt, to love and invoke love, no matter where we will be on a trail or park bench or hospital bed. Life is God’s gift to us, and we need to live it as a gift to the world, wrapped in the grace of Christ’s redemption. It is to sing, with the psalmist: “For you are my God, you alone are my joy. Defend me, O Lord.” It is to welcome the opportunity of each moment, each breath.
 
 War has been on the rise since about 2012, after a decline in the 1990s and early 2000s. First came conflicts in Libya, Syria and Yemen, triggered by the 2011 Arab uprisings. Libya’s instability spilled south, helping set off a protracted crisis in the Sahel region. After a lull in conflict from 2016 to 2020, fresh waves of major combat followed: the 2020 Azerbaijani-Armenian war over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, horrific fighting in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region that began weeks later, the conflict prompted by the Myanmar army’s 2021 power grab and Russia’s 2022 assault on Ukraine. Add to those 2023’s devastation in the Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Israel-Gaza. Around the globe, more people are dying in fighting, being forced from their homes or in need of life-saving aid than in decades. 

While we may be squirming in our inner selves and become helpless watching these conflicts in our media, this revelation theme is calling us to action. First, let us examine what we can do and with what effect. We are not helpless and can be agents of change. “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference”.

Second, let our courage and wisdom rest in divine help and inspiration, who tells us: I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare, not for woe! Plans to give you a future full of hope. When you call Me, when you go to pray to Me, I will listen to you and bring you back. (Jer 29:11). Third, be an agent of peace with everyone within the reach of your hands and pay-it-forward with a multiplier effect and urgency to make God’s kingdom come.  Fr Tom Kunnel, C.O