A Homily – The Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

First Reading – Daniel 12:1-3

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 15(16):5,8-11

Second Reading – Hebrews 10:11-14,18

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 24:42, 44

Alternative Acclamation – Luke 21:36

The Gospel According to Mark 13:24-32

 

(NJB) 

Listen!

God, the creator of the universe, God made creation and everyone in it free to make choices of their own.

Nothing is determined.

The entirety of creation exists in God, the whole of time and space are encompassed by the godhead, all our individual choices come into being through the power God has given us to determine our future for ourselves.

This radical state of freedom exists by the will of God, and our faith teaches us that despite the vicissitudes of evil we experience in the flesh, God will bring it all to the good in the end.

As a loving parent God is merciful, caring and forgiving; trust that God is humble in the administration of justice because God knows what we endure.

Be mindful.

All of God’s children share the same destiny and no-one is excluded from the divine family.

If you trust in God; your confidence in that trust will be its own reward.

God is good, and it is true to say that everything good flows from the divine, as all goodness belongs to God and everything is subject to…transformed by it in the end.

Look for the good of God in all creation, in everything that unfolds within the scope of your life.

Know this.

There are no alien gods.

The true God is the divine source of all being, The true God dwells within everyone and everything. We all worship the divine in our own way, even when we are worshipping next to someone at the same altar, according to the same rituals, using the same rites, articulating the same creeds and dogmas; we do this under auspices of our own misconceptions of the true God.

Be mindful.

Any representation of God is a manifestation of idolatry, whether our facsimiles are made of metal or stone, carved from wood, or composed of words, whether they are painted on canvass, or drawn among the stars. Even our best ideas and closest approximations are projections of the human mind, deviating from the supernal by orders of magnitude in each step between conception and application.

Remember.

God calls all of Gods children to God’s self, no one is left out.

 Know this.

 Jesus was not put to death as an offering for sin, this was not God’s purpose. God has nothing to do with the cult of animal sacrifice; the divine does not trade in blood magic or covet the smell of burning fat.

 It should be understood that in the earliest times, the offerings that were made at the temple, or prior to the temple at the altar in the wilderness, the priest’s portion was taken and distributed to the poorest of the poor. Such customs belonged to the social welfare system of the tribes.

 As corruption set in, overtime the priestly class used those offerings to enrich themselves, the poor were not allowed to approach the temple, on the grounds that they were ritually impure, and a priest would not go near them out of fear of contamination. The temple no longer distributed alms, and the people experienced the tithe to the temple as a tax which they could scarcely afford.

 When the church took the place of the temple, the cult of animal sacrifice was supposed to end, and the gifts of the church were meant to be free to any and all who chose to take up the way.

 Know this.

The future history of the world has not been written.

 Any supposition about our future here on earth is at best informed by real data and statistical analysis, and at worst merely a guess. We can know but little about the days and nights to come.

 There are thousands of ways in which the plans we have laid or the hopes which we cherish can come undone: lightning strikes, tornadoes twist, meteors fall, volcano explode.

 A person in the fullness of life may trip and fall, hit their head and die, leaving everything behind them…one stroke and we are dead, dead but not gone.

 We continue.

 God has promised to bring an end to suffering, injustice, hunger, illness. It is the proper content of Christian faith to believe in God’s promise, but the promises are not of this world.

 Having never been there I cannot speak of it. No one living has...anyone who says otherwise is trying to sell you something.

 We have been called to the belief in a loving God, to hope in the words of the prophets, to trust in the Gospel, to act as if the vision we have been promised will actually come to pass.

 We have been called to live our present lives as if the reality of those promises had taken shape in the present.

 This is the way.

 If we are just and loving, if we care for one another, we do not have to wait to enter the garden, it will be present among us. If we trust in the reality of the things we hope for, we are empowered to live our lives as if it were true.

 In so doing, God, who is always with us, becomes present to us like a burning bush or a column of fire, that we may approach without fear.

 Consider the gospel reading for today, it instructs us as to limits of human agency.

 Pay attention to the Gospel, and be mindful of the limits that attend all human agency…it is instructive.

 The authors of the Gospel had come to the end of their ability to narrate the life and mission of Jesus, at which point they allowed their own imagination, their own fears, their own misguided notions of what the mission of Jesus was, to enter the Church, usurping truth and wisdom.

 Jesus becomes transformed, no longer the humble teacher and preacher that he was in life, he becomes a figure like a monarch or a general descending from heaven in power and glory. Jesus would have been the first to tell them that power and glory are no substitute justice with mercy and peace through love.

 The same thing is true for individuals, for nations and all societies; we endure conflict and sue for peace, hope is born from despair, confusion is resolved by understanding. When we are farthest away from the light we are able to see it in greater focus, like the distant star narrowed to a point, it is able to guide us and draw us to itself...allow yourself to be drawn in by the light.

 Remember.

 Jesus did not return, he did not come back in the lifetime of the Gospel writers. They said he would but he didn’t, proving both themselves and their own teachers wrong about a pretty important article of their system of beliefs. As a result they allowed their hopes and fears to co-mingle and take shape as a series of lies which they introduced into the narrative of Jesus’ life, and Christians have been stuck with the task of interpreting these lies ever since…much to its detriment and the denigration of the way.

 

First Reading – Daniel 12:1-3

Some Will Wake to Everlasting Life, Some to Shame and Disgrace

‘At that time Michael will stand up, the great prince who mounts guard over your people. There is going to be a time of great distress, unparalleled since nations first came into existence. When that time comes, your own people will be spared, all those whose names are found written in the Book. Of those who lie sleeping in the dust of the earth many will awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting disgrace. The learned will shine as brightly as the vault of heaven, and those who have instructed many in virtue, as bright as stars for all eternity.’

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 15(16):5,8-11

Alleluia. Alleluia. Alleluia.

The Lord, my inheritance

Preserve me, Lord,

  I put my hope in you.

I have said to the Lord

  “You are my Lord,

  in you alone is all my good.”

As for the holy and noble men of the land,

  in them is all my delight.

But for those who run to alien gods,

  their sorrows are many.

I will not share in their libations of blood.

  I will not speak their names.

You, Lord, are my inheritance and my cup.

  You control my destiny,

the lot marked out for me is of the best,

  my inheritance is all I could ask for.

I will bless the Lord who gave me understanding;

  even in the night my heart will teach me wisdom.

I will hold the Lord for ever in my sight:

  with him at my side I can never be shaken.

Thus it is that my heart rejoices,

  heart and soul together;

  while my body rests in calm hope.

You will not leave my soul in the underworld.

  You will not let your chosen one see decay.

You will show me the paths of life,

  the fullness of joy before your face,

  and delights at your right hand until the end of time.

Amen.

O Lord, you will show me the fullness of joy in your presence. Alleluia.

Alleluia. Alleluia.

 

Second Reading – Hebrews 10:11-14,18

When All Sins Have Been Forgiven, there Can Be No More Sin-Offerings

All the priests stand at their duties every day, offering over and over again the same sacrifices which are quite incapable of taking sins away. He, on the other hand, has offered one single sacrifice for sins, and then taken his place forever, at the right hand of God, where he is now waiting until his enemies are made into a footstool for him. By virtue of that one single offering, he has achieved the eternal perfection of all whom he is sanctifying. When all sins have been forgiven, there can be no more sin offerings.

 

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 24:42, 44

Alleluia, alleluia!

Stay awake and stand ready, because you do not know the hour when the Son of Man is coming.

Alleluia!

 

Alternative Acclamation – Luke 21:36

Alleluia, alleluia!

Stay awake, praying at all times for the strength to stand with confidence before the Son of Man.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Mark 13:24-32

The Stars Will Fall from Heaven and the Powers in the Heavens Will Be Shaken

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘In those days, after the time of distress, the sun will be darkened, the moon will lose its brightness, the stars will come falling from heaven and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory; then too he will send the angels to gather his chosen from the four winds, from the ends of the world to the ends of heaven.

  ‘Take the fig tree as a parable: as soon as its twigs grow supple and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. So with you when you see these things happening: know that he is near, at the very gates. I tell you solemnly, before this generation has passed away all these things will have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

  ‘But as for that day or hour, nobody knows it, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son; no one but the Father.’

 

A Homily – The Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)