13 Nov 2022 – 33rd Sunday (C)
13 Nov 2022 – 33rd Sunday (C)
World Day of the Poor
Towards the end of the church’s year, we remember the ‘last things’ and in particular, the Lord’s return. We should live our lives in the light of eternity
(1) Malachi 3:19-20
The Day of the Lord will bring condemnation or salvation
See, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings.
Responsorial: Psalm 97:5-9
R./: The Lord comes to rule the earth with justice
Sing psalms to the Lord with the harp
with the sound of music.
With trumpets and the sound of the horn
acclaim the King, the Lord. (R./)
Let the sea and all within it, thunder;
the world, and all its peoples.
Let the rivers clap their hands
and the hills ring out their joy
at the presence of the Lord. (R./)
For the Lord comes,
he comes to rule the earth.
He will rule the world with justice
and the people with fairness. (R./)
(2) 2 Thessalonians 3:7-12
All should try to earn their own living and not be burden to others
You yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were with you and we did not eat anyone’s bread without paying for it; but with toil and labour we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you. This was not because we do not have that right, but in order to give you an example to imitate.
For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat. For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.
Gospel: Luke 21:5-19
Jesus warns his disciples to beware of false prophets
When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, Jesus said, “As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.” They asked him, “Teacher, when will this be and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?”
And he said, “Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is near!’ Do not go after them. “When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.”
Then he aid to them, “Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.
“But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. This will give you an opportunity to testify. So make up your minds not to prepare your defence in advance; for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.
Judgment coming up
As we get older we get a clearer sense that life is short and that each of us will face the moment of death before very long. Last Sunday, we thought about the after-life and entrusting our future into God’s hands. But how literally to take what today’s Gospel says about the end of time? It is hard to know what to believe about the Last Day. There are sects and groups who claim to know the exact date of the Lord’s coming, and the failure of previous predictions does not appear to unduly discourage them from setting yet another date for Armageddon.
We are right to be wary of street-corner orators who delight in threats and warnings about catastrophes about to befall the world. Notice how Jesus warns against believing in such predictions. Even though he himself used the idea of the coming day of judgement as a motive to turn people’s hearts back to God, he also said that “no man knows the date, not even the Son, but the Father only.”
There are too many references to the Final Judgement in our Scripture for us to dismiss it as just a figure of speech. People of faith have benefitted from keeping the Judgement-Day as part of the horizon against which to assess the value of our daily activity. Seeing our problems and our successes in the light of eternity, (sub specie aeternitatis), puts them into a new and different light and one which helps us to judge as God sees things.
A devotional advice much favoured by preachers, was “always live as though each day may be your last?” Most people feel disinclined to centre much attention on the last things. Sobering and spiritually purifying on occasion, yes, especially in November; but most days, like Martha in the Gospel we are fully occupied with immediate tasks, busy with many things. Remember the practical advice given by St Paul to some people who were excitably looking out for the Lord’s return and neglecting their ordinary duties. “Go on quietly minding your own affairs,” he said in today’s reading. “And if anyone will not work, neither let him eat!”
Ready to meet him
Toward the end of the liturgical year we may wonder how to interpret the gospel predictions about the end of this world and the day of judgment. In the midst of all the dramatic language about wars and insurrections and earthquakes and dangers, we should keep in mind one certainty, that one day we will die. The moment of death will put an end, absolutely and beyond recall, to all our works, all our plans, all the seemingly vital concerns which motivate us day by day. Every human soul must cast off its earthly body and go into the unknown like a traveller into unexplored territory. Cardinal Newman wrote about the hereafter, “Do not fear that your life shall come to an end, but rather that it shall never have a beginning.” It is when our next life begins that we will clearly understand our present life. It will then be clear to us, to what extent we did our part in spreading God’s kingdom.
In these last Sundays of our church year we are meant to look beyond our immediate worries, troubles, interests and largely selfish concerns. The liturgy confronts us with the four last things death, judgment, heaven and hell. People who never look beyond the immediate here-and-now may resent us talking about these things, but there is nothing morbid about it. If we are exiles and wayfarers on this earth, we are drawing ever nearer to our ultimate home in heaven, a thought that need not fill us with sorrow, but with a longing to be with Christ in the life to come.
It is useless speculating about when Christ will return in glory, although many in the earlier years of the Church expected it to be within their own lifetime. His message is to be ever watchful, to let the thought of what is to come be a reminder of the shortness of our present life.We need not be alarmed by the mention of earthquakes, stars falling from the heavens, and the like. This Jewish apocalyptic imagery was used in the early Church to express hope for world-wide justice at the end of time. If we love God we need not be alarmed, for love casts out fear. But until the day when the Lord calls us, we go on preparing to meet him.
Key Message:
What are you going to do with your life from this point on?
Homily:
Today’s Gospel invites us to think about our next life. There will come a time where we come to the end of our life. Many people die disappointed or afraid. They are disappointed with the way they have lived and afraid because they face an unknown future. The time when we have to face all our past sins is ultimately our time of death. Unfortunately, there is no time left for us at that point of time. More than now we will want to live more at that point of time.
When we have no future, our past becomes our present.
The ways we have rebelled against God, the way we ignored God, the way we ignored our future, the way we ignored our responsibilities all matter to us then. What we think of as joy now will not give us any joy at that point of time. We will be proud of those moments where we have suffered because we know those tears are treasured by God and will earn us Heaven. If you are crying because you have a special child, you will be very happy thinking about it at the end of your life, because you have accomplished the purpose of your life.
So carry your cross peacefully.
What matters to us at that point of time will be what matters to God the most. Let us analyse now what matters to God the most? Our God the Father sent His only Son to suffer and die on the cross for the salvation of mankind. Our God is very interested in bringing us to Heaven, and also we take some more along with us to Heaven. Let us consider the two pointers:
1. How can we go to Heaven and live a life without regrets in Heaven?
2. How can we take some more people along with us to Heaven?
1. How can we go to Heaven and live a life without regrets in Heaven?
Think about what will please Jesus, the righteous judge at the end of your life. Write it down. Nothing else is important apart from this.
The Lord Jesus has a great personal interest in your life. He wants to accomplish something very specific in your life. Do not discredit or discount your own life. You are very valuable to God. That is why you are here. Do not think less of yourself in your mind. God uses simple people to accomplish His purpose. Stop criticising the person you are. Tell God “I give to you my entire life. Make me do all that you want me to accomplish”.
You do not have any idea what God can do through you when you submit yourself to Him. You cannot give yourself anything more worthy than to submit yourself to the will of God. You will stop wasting your life. You will not justify yourself by making excuses that you do not have time for God. You will not miss the blessings of obedience!!
Submitting to God’s will requires boldness and determination. Be determined to serve the will of God. All the people who worked for God and who did God’s will on earth suffered. But in Heaven now they are very happy and impressed about their own suffering on earth. Will they have one moment of regret in Heaven? No. Can they lament “I suffered too much on earth?” No. They will shout with joy, “I suffered too much on earth!!” in their royal castles built by their own works for God. God recompenses us for all our sufferings for eternity.
One day a person said, “I am exhausted from seeing Jesus suffering on the cross. I want to see Him enthroned as a King”. In his suffering he felt that Jesus was always hanging on the cross. He was always worshiping the suffering Jesus alone. He was wondering when Jesus would go from the cross to the throne so that he could also worship Him joyfully? He couldn’t take the silence of God. After a few days, the person said joyfully, “My Jesus has come back to His throne!!”
All the earthly sufferings, however deep it is, cannot sustain beyond this earth. Our sufferings are short-lived but will have eternal benefits. Are we frightened at the magnitude of suffering? Our Lord Jesus cried out at the garden of Gethsemane, “Father, please take this cup away from me. But let not my will but yours be done!!” He said this thrice. So even our Lord Jesus did not want to drink this cup of suffering. The sins of the whole world were too heavy for Him to carry. Out of sheer agony, He sweated like great drops of blood. But He drank the bitter cup only to follow the will of our loving Father. Now He is sitting triumphantly.
However bitter our cup is, it is always better to drink it!!
In Job’s book, within the first two chapters, Job loses everything. Up to the 42nd chapter, it is all conversations between Job’s friends and Job. In the last chapter, only God speaks. But God was a witness through all the 42 chapters. When we walk in righteousness and suffer, God will be our witness. God’s silence is not God’s absence. But it is His presence as a witness to our suffering. So let us rise up bold and stand for the Lord. If we share our tears with multiple people, only our tears will multiply. But if we share it with our Jesus alone, He will store our tears in a flask and will remember to recompense it. In the Bible we see that whoever came to our Lord crying, went away with joy.
St.Paul urges followers to “work quietly and to earn their own living.”. When we work quietly, God will shout for us at the appointed time. When Jesus was working quietly in the first 30 years of His life, God our Father shouted, “He is My Beloved Son”. When we do not shout for us, God will shout on behalf of us.
2. How can we take some more people along with us to Heaven?
In the book, “The Poem of Man-God”, we see the good thief lamenting on the cross seeing Mother Mary at the foot of the cross, “Mamma, if I had a mother like you, I would not have become a thief”. Was it the fault of the good thief’s mother, that this person became a thief?
Psalm 78 says that God commanded the fathers to teach their children so that the next generation would know them, and they in turn will teach their children. It is a very important responsibility for the parents to teach their children about God and inculcate a regular prayer life and develop a sweet conversation with God. The faith should be transferred from one generation to the next generation. If one generation misses out, then there is a chance for all the subsequent generations to forget Jesus. In our younger days, there was regular family prayer in all the Christian families. Now it is reduced very much. Earlier, Jesus was mandatory in School and at home. Now children go to School without praying, no prayer in Schools, after returning home also there is not much of prayer. The concept of praising and thanking God, singing lovely hymns to Jesus as a family are all missing. Where are we going? Yesterday, I asked a thirteen-year-old girl how her Catechism class was going on. The girl immediately replied “I am not learning about Jesus. I am only learning about my teacher’s wife.” It was very sad to hear these statements. Are we committed to take our children along with us to Heaven?
The second reading says that Paul did extra so that his life would be a good example for others. Because he was blessed with authority to preach the Gospel, he was also blessed with the responsibility to lead a Gospel life. The Lord Jesus says to us, “You are the light of the world”. The truth that can transform the life of the people around us is within us. We need to be the guiding light for people around us.
Once we understand that we can make a big difference to someone else’s life, it will transform our own life.
We have been bought with a price. The price is the Blood of our Lord Jesus. He has bought us and so we belong to Him. Our God has the right to tell us what we need to do with our finances, abilities and gifts. We need to get her vision right. We want to be the persons whom God wants us to be. Every single day of our life should be beneficial for God. Every night when Little Therésè of the Child Jesus was going to bed, she used to ask her sister, “Did I please God today?” That should be our goal.
When we as little children long to please God our Father, how much more our Heavenly Father will long to see us pleased?