- Jimmy was about ten years old. A gang of teenagers gave him a lot of
trouble: they pushed him off the sidewalk, tripped him in the schoolyard,
and even stole his lunch money. For fear they would give him a beating or
cut him with the knife they flashed, Jimmy never told anyone. One day this
gang of punks got especially rough. Jimmy blurted out: I'm going to tell my
big brother on you." They sneered: "Bring him on. The bigger they are the
harder they fall."
Several days later the gang saw Jimmy coming down the street, walking beside a husky six-footer dressed in an army uniform with several rows of ribbons. It was Jimmy's big brother, Bob, just returned from Vietnam. Suddenly Bob demanded: "OK, you little punks, give him the money you took." They emptied their pockets and then promised to get the rest of the stolen money.
Usually the thought of the last judgment inspires us with a healthy fear of the Lord but our thought for today is that the same final judgment should give us who try to serve the Lord a great hope and joyful expectation, something like the hope in the heart of Jimmy that his big brother would straighten things out.
For us who try to follow Christ the thought of the last judgment should be a joyful, happy one. That is the theme of the words we pray right after the Our Father of this Mass:
- "In your mercy keep us free from sin, and protect us from all anxiety, as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ." Then the priest and people cry aloud: "For the kingdom the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever." [i]
Since then our culture has developed a bomb that can actually end the world, as we know it. TV programs such as The X-Files continue to play up the theme of alien invaders coming down to take over the bodies of humans. We seem to be fascinated by the thought that the world will end and we will be no more.
The church's stress on the end time is not meant to terrify us so much as to console us with the joyful thought that our redeemer, Jesus, is coming to save us as little Jimmy's soldier brother, Bob, came to save him from the school bullies.
In the first reading today the prophet Daniel presents a pretty horrific scene of end times. He is speaking to the Israelites. His message is really saying that God and God's people will be triumphant in the end. Daniel's reading represents the earliest scriptural reference to eternal life.
We've all heard the quip that there are two things Jesus doesn't know: when the world is going to end and how many orders of nuns there are. Well, Jesus' saying about not knowing when the end of the world is going to come is right here in Mark. Where the revelation about the nuns comes from, nobody knows.
Without sounding like a Greek class, it might be helpful to know that the word "apocalypse" is from the Greek word apokalyptein, meaning "to uncover." Kalyptein means "cover" and the prefix apo means "away from or "detached." In a word, apocalypse means to uncover, to reveal. And the word "revelation" is far more familiar than the word "apocalypse." This is probably why the last book of the Bible in Catholic circles was changed from the Apocalypse to the Book of Revelation in the new translations. It's a type of literature that appeared in Jewish circles around 200 B.C. to 150 A.D. It's a type of literature that the church likes to present here at the end of each church year - as well as in Advent to begin a new church year - as a warning for us to be awake and to wait for the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus. [ii]
In the Gospel Jesus predicts the fall of the temple, that magnificent and splendiferous building with its gold and shining walls reflecting the sun. But Jesus knew that the priests of the temple had become corrupt, together with the people.
The problem is not just that the temple failed to live up to its promise. It seems to be the case that as the architecture became more splendid, the possibility of genuine worship and the fulfillment of the mission of God's people dwindled. In the Middle Ages, St. Dominic made a pilgrimage to Rome. Pope Innocent III took him on a personal tour of the gilded, opulent Lateran basilica of St. John. Alluding to the reply of Peter and John to the lame man in Acts 3:6, the pope boasted, "No longer need we say 'Silver and gold have I none.'" But the humble Dominic answered, "Yes, and at the same time the church can no longer say 'Rise up and walk.'"
Church stuff, building programs, the care and feeding of the institution: these are merely means to an end, and are prickly and dangerous because they can consume our attention, and we miss the whole point. Frederick Buechner was right when he said: Maybe the best thing that could happen to the church would be for some great tidal wave of history to wash it all away - the church buildings tumbling, the church money all lost, the church bulletins blowing through the air like dead leaves, the differences between preachers and congregations all lost too. Then all we would have left would be each other and Christ, which was all there was in the first place. [iii]
Some preachers are always looking for the "signs" Jesus spoke of. Jesus calls the signs for which we are to watch "birth pangs." They are part of the labor that precedes the birth of a new life. In other words, God is at work where something new and good is being born - where new life is becoming possible. However, the events in South Africa that preceded the wondrous creation of a new society were laborious and painful. Nelson Mandela's years of imprisonment gave birth to his ascendance to the presidency. "The promise of birth, therefore, cannot be separated from the pain of labor," . Where new life is being born - where events are moving toward the creation of something fresh and good - those are the sign of God' s work in the world.
And those signs are everywhere! In one city of our nation, there is a new effort to supply health care to those who cannot afford it. A team of Christian doctors and counselors has come together to develop a holistic approach to the health of the poor and needy. This team works to provide preventive care and to help their patients develop new life styles. One of their facilities is called the "Health and Hope Center." A sign of the beginnings of new life and a new society. A sign of God's love changing us. [iv]
What will we be doing at the end of the world, what will we be thinking about? Everyone responds to things in his/her own way.
- Once, says Fr. James Smith, when I was preaching a fire-and-brimstone sermon, the electricity suddenly went out. I thought: "That should put the fear of the Lord in them!" But, alas, after Mass a woman told me: "When the lights went out, I thought: "There goes all the food in the fridge."
If the world were ending, says Fr. Smith, I would first wonder if I was angry with anyone, or they with me. That seems like a small worry; but then again, what else do people have except each other? We are thrust nervous into an anxious world; we are threatened from every quarter with irrational dangers. We need at least to have our rational relationships in harmony. Life can be burdensome in itself; it becomes intolerable under the displeasure of a fellow human. We owe each other at least this much; that we not be resentful over their very existence. [v]
What kind of person is that Jesus whom we are waiting for to come? He is like the fireman in this story.
- Years ago there was a fire at the Sailors' Home a Liverpool, and when the crowd assembled at the cry of "Fire!" they were appalled to see some men in the upper stories, crying for help. The fire escape was not nearly long enough to reach them. A longer ladder was brought and put against the burning building, but that, too, fell short of reaching them. Then an English sailor in the crowd, seeing the state of affairs, rushed up the ladder, balanced himself on the topmost rung with his feet, seized the bedroom window-sill with his hands, and then said to the men: "Quick, men, scramble over my body, and down you go." One by one the men came down, till all were saved, and then the sailor himself came down, his fingers blistered, his face burnt, his hair all gone; but he had saved the men.
How could one not look forward to such a redeemer with joy and hope?
[i] Msgr. Arthur Tonne, Five-Minute Homilies on the Gospels of Cycles of
A,B,C (Hillsboro, KS: Multi Business Press1977) pg. 114, November 2000.
[ii] Fr. Andrew Costello, "Apocalypse Now? Markings Readings" - 158, November
19, 2000.
[iii] Frederick Buechner, The Clown in the Belfry (San Francisco: Harper San
Francisco, 1992), p. 158) as quoted in "Proclaiming the text," Pulpit
Resource, 28 (4): 32 (Logos Productions Inc., 6160 Carmen Ave. East, Inver
Grove Heights MN 55076-4422) November 2000.
[iv] Robert Kysar, "Preaching the lesson," Lectionary Homiletics, 11 (12):
25 (Lectionary Homiletics, Inc., 13540 East Boundary Road, Building 2, Suite
105, Midlothian, VA 23112) November 2000.
[v] Fr. James Smith, "Are you ready?" Celebration 29 (11): 507 (Celebration,
115 East Armour Boulevard, Kansas City, MO 64111-1203) November 2000.
[vi] The Methodist Recorder, Nov. 8, 1928, as quoted in "The Gospel
according to Mark, " The Speaker's Bible (Grand Rapids, MI, Baker Book
House, 1978) ppg. 99-100, November 2000.
(Comments to Jerry at padre@tri-lakes.net. Jerry's book, Stories For All Seasons, is available at a discount through the Homiletic Resource Center.)