Now-Time and End-Time

Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, November 14, 2010
Malachi 3:19-20a 2 Thessalonians 3:7-12 Luke 21:5-11, 25-28

Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven, when all the proud and all evildoers will be rubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire, leaving them neither root nor branch, says the LORD of hosts. But for you who fear my name, there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays.

Gospel
The end of the Temple (Lk 21:5-11)

When some were admiring how the Temple was adorned with costly stones and votive offerings, Jesus said, “I tell you the day is coming when not a single stone will be left on top of another; it will all become one vast heap of rubble.” Then some asked him," Teacher, when will this happen? And what sign will there be that these things are about to happen?" He answered, “Do not let anyone mislead you. For many will come in my name, saying, `'I am he,’ and `The time has come.’ Do not follow them! When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for such things must happen first, but it will not immediately be the end.” Then he said to them further: “Nations and kingdoms will wage war against each other. And there will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues everywhere; and fearful events and great signs from the sky.”

The end of time (Lk 21:25-28)

There will be signs in the sun, the moon and the stars. On earth, countries will be in great distress. Nations will be frightened by roaring seas and raging tides. Men will faint from fear as they wait for what is coming over the whole earth; for the powers in space will be driven from their courses. Then the Son of Man will appear, coming in a cloud with great power and glory . When these things begin to happen, stand up and raise your heads, because your salvation is near.”

Introduction
33rd Sunday -- end of the church year

The Western World ends its old year on New Year’s Eve, the last day of December. For all practical purposes this 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time Church is the end of the church year. The Scripture readings this Sunday are about the End-time. Next Sunday, Nov. 21, the Church will celebrate the feast of Christ the King, as a triumphant finale to the church year. In response to the growing nationalism and secularism of the day, the feast of Christ the King, instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1925, was sandwiched in between the last Sunday of the church year and the first Sunday of Advent.

This year November 28 will be the first Sunday of Advent in preparation for Christmas 2010. Already in many city squares a towering Christmas tree has been constructed -- aglow with a thousand lights to ignite the spirit of holiday shopping in us, but especially to lighten up a world darkened by unending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a bad economy stressing many, ugly midterm elections dividing the nation, and political parties paralyzed by gridlock.

The end of the Temple

The Temple in Jerusalem was a marvelous human creation. It took 10,000 men to build it, 1000 priests as masons to construct its sacred sections, and 46 years to complete. Imagine then how shocked were some people when Jesus told them, as they were admiring the Temple before them, that, “The day is coming when not a single stone will be left on top of another; it will all become one vast heap of rubble.” (Lk. 21: 6) That was like standing in front of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, and telling Italian people that their marvelous creation which took 120 years to build was going to be destroyed.

Jesus’ prediction about the Temple’s destruction came true. In 66 AD, Jewish zealots began a revolt against the power of Rome. On the day of Passover, 70 AD, Roman legions surrounded the city and cut off all food and water supplies. After a siege of five months, Roman forces stormed Jerusalem and burned down the Temple. As Jesus predicted, not one stone was left on another; the only part of Herod’s Temple that remains standing today is a section of the western wall called the Wailing Wall.

Apocalypse – a literary genre

The second part of today’s gospel reading is an apocalypse -- a literary genre which appeared two centuries before and three centuries after Christ. An apocalypse paints a picture about an imminent End. It describes a stunning and momentous event which brings on the Messiah, who once and for all will fix everything that’s wrong with this world, but which man hasn’t been able to fix. That momentous event which brings on the age of the Messiah will occur in the near future, and will be accompanied by all kinds of signs:

There will be signs in the sun, the moon and the stars.
On earth, countries will be in great distress.
Nations will be frightened by roaring seas and raging tides.
Men will faint from fear as they wait
for what is coming over the whole earth;
for the powers in space will be driven from their courses.
Then the Son of Man will appear,
coming in a cloud with great power and glory.
When these things begin to happen,
stand up and raise your heads,
because your salvation is near.”
(Dan 7:13-14; Lk 21:25-28)

Challenged to wait as they were

For most of us an apocalypse is a strange and esoteric genre. Who of us are hoping and waiting for an End to the world which will fix once and for all everything that we couldn’t fix for ourselves? Who of us, in fact, are hoping and waiting for Christ’s second coming “in a cloud with great power and glory” to be our great Fixer. Teilhard de Chardin (that great mystic theologian of the End-time) writes, albeit with a tone of complaint,”We persist in saying that we wait in hopeful expectation of the coming of the Master. In reality we must admit, if we are sincere, that we no longer wait for anything!” (Divine Milieu)

We are undoubtedly different from Luke’s audience. At the same time, however, we are as much challenged as they were to wait for an event greatly longed for, but disappointingly delayed in coming. We might be waiting for a national or global event like economic recovery or an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Or we might be waiting for an event on a personal level like the results of a biopsy, a letter from an estranged child, or the safe return of a loved one from a tour of duty. Whatever the case, we, like Luke’s audience, know the challenge, the stress and the anxiety of waiting.

Despair of & belief in human endeavor

An apocalypse foretells that “Men will faint from fright as they wait for what is coming over the whole earth.” Strange to say, an apocalypse was written not to frighten people but to console them. It was written because human conditions were felt to be beyond human fixing, and in great need of nothing less than divine intervention. Strange to say, an apocalypse was inspired by a hope based upon despair: despair of human effort leads to hope in divine effort.

Some religious sects despair that human endeavor can fix what’s wrong with this world. They put all their trust in an End-time God who on the last day will do for them what they feel they can’t do for themselves. These `other-worldly’ people betake themselves not to action to fix things up, but to prayer that God will hasten the day of the Great Fixer, and that God will enable them to hold on until that great day comes. That‘s a light year away from the `this-worldly’ spirit of Teilhard de Chardin, who again writes in Divine Milieu, “Our faith imposes on us the right and the duty to throw ourselves into the things of this world.”

Most of us, however, believe in human endeavor, and are so busy trying to fix what needs fixing in this world that we have little room or need for an apocalyptic God to step in and do the job for us. We are not preoccupied with apocalyptic thoughts about “the Son of man coming in a cloud with great power and glory” to do for us what we can’t do for ourselves.

The culture of the instantaneous

Teilhard is, indeed, right when he says that if we’re sincere we must admit that we no longer wait for anything!” We are woefully blighted by a culture of the instantaneous which can’t bear waiting for anything. We don’t wait for food (by preparing a good healthy meal); we get it instantly at a McDonald’s drive-through. We don’t wait for mail; we get it instantly through e-mail. That is a light year away from the old days when the stagecoach or the pony express used to deliver the mail. It is even a light years away from the mailman today delivering his `snail mail.’

In a culture of the instantaneous we don’t wait until we have enough cash to buy the things we want or think we need; we now have a wallet full of credit cards to take care of that. In a culture of the instantaneous, we don’t even wait for Christmas anymore. Now days it arrives on the very Friday after Thanksgiving Thursday. Already a tall fully decorated Christmas tree stands at the entrance of a Wal-Mart Store. That, too, is a light year away from the old days when Christmas was religiously held off until Dec. 24. And yes, in a culture of the instantaneous, it was to be expected that the nation would have no patience whatsoever to wait for economic recovery; through the recent midterm elections it chose to `throw the bums out.’

End-time already & always upon us

The second part of today’s gospel is about the End-time. But does the End-time come only at the very end, or is it already and always upon us? Haven’t we already experienced “men fainting from fear” in the concentration camps of Auschwitz, Dachau, Buchenwald, etc., during the Nazi reign of terror? In 12 short years (1933-1945 VE Day) the Nazis systematically murdered 6,025,000 Jews and roughly 6,667,000 non-Jews, to make a grand total 12,692,000 people!
Isn’t the End-time already upon us? Haven’t we already experienced “nations and kingdoms waging war against each other” on our planet? The first half of the twentieth century was devastated by two horrific World Wars. The estimated total casualties of World War I is 18 million plus! The estimated total casualties of World War II is 22 million plus!

Isn’t the End-time already upon us in those two apocalyptic days of August 6 and 9, 1945, when two atomic bombs exploded upon Hiroshima and Nagasaki, bringing World War II to an end, and ushering in an utterly foreboding age? In those two blasts between 130,000 and 200,000 were killed, injured, or simply disappeared in atomic dust.

Isn’t the End-time already upon us? On September 11, 2001, we saw “men fainting from fear.”The scene of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, plumed in black billowing smoke, is indelibly burned into our imagination. On that day Islamic terrorists drove two 747s into the Twin Towers, killing 2,752 victims, among whom were 343 firefighters and 60 police officers. How more apocalyptic than that can life on earth get!

Conclusion
Both now-Time & End-Time people

We are Now-Time people who are called to roll up our sleeves and labor to fix the things we can fix, and to build a new heaven and earth. (Rev. 21:1) Our faith imposes that on us. We are also End-Time people “who have no permanent city here on earth, and who go in search of that city which is to come.” (Heb 13:14) Only there will the fruits of our labor be “freed of stain, burnished and transfigured, when Christ hands over to the Father `a kingdom eternal and universal, a kingdom of truth and life, of holiness and grace, of justice, love and peace. ’"

When we are Now-Time people only, we place too much hope in human endeavor. When we are End-Time only, we despair of human effort and place too much hope in God. The Church’s dismissal to us on this 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time (her End-time Sunday) is to go forth and be both.