OMELIE / Omelie EN

14 nov 2021

14/11/2021 – 33rd Sunday in O.T. - B

14/11/2021 – 33^rd Sunday in O.T. - B

Reading 1 DN 12, 1-3 Psalm 15/16 Reading 2 HEB 10,11-14.18 Gospel MK 13,24-32

It is difficult to understand, and therefore to comment on, today’s readings. They speak a language we are not accustomed to. Will I be able to focus our attention on our Lord Jesus Christ at least?

“That day or hour”, only the Father knows them. Nobody can jump in to change them, to transform them: they are that day or hour in which the sun will be darkened and all created things will cease to be of use, because the Son of Man will come with great power and glory. It is a mysterious prophecy: what is it about? The end of the world? The persecution of the believers? The life of the Church?

We struggle and maybe we cannot understand: we would have to find ourselves in such a difficult and hard situation as the one which the early Christians were finding themselves in, and have a unweaving love for Jesus like theirs, in order to be able to understand the meaning of this way of talking. Anyway, we can sense the greatness and the novelty of the coming of the “Son of Man” “in the clouds with great power and glory”. This is a happening that needs to trouble the Christians' minds, so much so they need to be reminded of it even by the most common things happening in nature, like the sprouting of the fig leaves, “He is close, he is at the gates”.

The world is passing with all its important things, with all its gods: sun, moon, stars and powers, which are nothing but an image of what men give life to out of their dreams, their ambitions, their wishes, riches, vices and fake grandeur. Let us look at the great people in the world, who have ruled millions of people and whole peoples, who have done and undone laws and kingdoms, who have moved forward history for dozens of years: they have all met their ruin, and will do the same all those who are still trying to climb the heights of success, power, to give themselves a divine name.

Much higher above than everything and everyone is always Jesus, who has lowered Himself, who has been humiliated up to the point of dying on the cross. He stays high up on the Golgotha, on the cross, the throne of His glory. On the cross He has brought, and has shown us from there, the fullness of the love, the true face of God. He continues to be alive, to be the first, the most desired and the most looked for: He comes in the clouds, nobody can overturn Him and can steal His place. Our eyes are focused there, on Him. Our desire is Him. He has offered the sacrifice which makes us perfect, agreeable to God and able to truly be men. Thanks to that sacrifice our sins are forgiven, so we are made lighter and we can look at the future joyfully. Yes, we can look at the future, the future which goes beyond death, without anxiety or fear.

There will also be Michael “guardian of your people”. So we are accompanied by the loving and invincible power of God in each phase of our history. And nothing or nobody will be forgotten, because everyone will be awaken, “some shall live forever, others shall be an everlasting horror and disgrace”. The wise will get the place of the sun and the stars.

The great and odd images, frightening and reassuring, used by the writers of the sacred scriptures and by the Lord Himself, are there to give us a direction in the chaos of what is happening in this world. Jesus is truly our only security and our joy, as the psalm makes us sing: “O Lord, my allotted portion and my cup, you it is who hold fast my lot. I set the Lord ever before me; with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed”. Not fear, but firmness and stability to guide us towards the one who is coming, the one who the Father has sent as the Emmanuel, God with us.