Mark 13, 24-32:
Sunday, 14th November 2021 (33rd T O B)
We are coming to the end of the liturgical year, and this Sunday’s Word of God uses a language to which we are not accustomed, apocalyptic language, and describes to us the situation that will come about when the end of the present time arrives.
Although it might seem otherwise, this Sunday’s Gospel brings us a message of hope, even if it is expressed in mysterious, symbolic, apocalyptic language. It wants to convey the message that the world will come to an end, as will each one of us. For St. Mark, the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple serves as a symbol of the end times of the world and of history.
This language can convey to us some fear and unease and cause us to lose sight of God’s message of revelation: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away”. We will never know how or when, but we do know that “they will see the Son of Man coming in power and majesty”, “to gather his elect from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens”.
In the 1st reading, Daniel gives us a word of hope: “then your people will be saved, all those who are written in the book”. The Letter to the Hebrews contemplates Christ, conqueror of his enemies. And Jesus gives us an example to activate our hope and trust in his word: “learn from what the fig tree teaches you: when the branches become tender and the buds sprout, you know that spring is near; for when you see this happening, you know that he is near”.
The life of the human being is full of small hopes: the child, to grow up; the student, to pass; the sportsman, to win; the merchant, that business will go well; the unemployed, to find work… The hope of the Christian is “that your Kingdom may come to us”. And our waiting must be active, confident. May it make us green shoots in the midst of a society that has only placed its hope in the things of this life that is coming to an end.
Juan Ramón Gómez Pascual, cmf
