The readings that we hear today sound a bit ominous, like a plot for a blockbuster disaster movie. It’s the end of the Church year, and the readings we hear are about the end times, the final coming of Jesus. We hear in the first reading from prophet Daniel, “It shall be a time
unsurpassed in distress since nations begun in that time”. In the Gospel we hear Jesus tell his disciples, “In those days after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.” What are we to make of such distressing signs?
These occurrences would cause the people of Jesus time to be disturbed. The people relied on the natural phenomenon of the sun, moon, and stars as their GPS to navigate them in the day and night. They did not have the modern conveniences of GPS on cell phone to give them directions. Without them, they would be lost.
Jesus was trying to tell them that the world they relied on to guide their lives was about to change. But when was this change going to happen? Even Jesus did not know. He says, “But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, no the Son, but only the Father.” If Jesus did not know, this certainly was a cause of anxiety for the disciples.
The world that the disciples lived in was the Roman empire. This was a culture that certainly had great disregard for human life. If you wanted to survive in the Roman empire, it was necessary to follow the ways of the ruling power. Their rulers, Caesar, were thought to be divine. They also had many pagan gods. To survive in this world, it was necessary to worship these gods, and offer sacrifice to them through offerings of animals or grains. On top of these the people were required to pay taxes to the Roman government. These practices were a threat to the Jewish people, who only worshipped the one true God. If you did not comply with the demands, there were visible signs to warn the people. These signs were the so-called criminals who were crucified to warn the people of what happened if they were not compliant with the Romans. To survive in this world their guides were to follow the demands of the Roman rulers. They were the sun, moon, and stars that the people had to follow if they did not want to meet their end. What were the people to do?
The Psalm that we heard today was the key: You are my inheritance, O Lord! Instead of trusting the culture of the world, they were to trust in the Lord. Their inheritance is life in the Lord. The Psalm states: Therefore, my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices,
my body, too, abides in confidence;
because you will not abandon my soul to the netherworld,
nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption.
And
You will show me the path to life,
fullness of joys in your presence,
the delights at your right hand forever.
By trusting in the Lord, Jesus Christ, their inheritance would be eternal life. Jesus overcame the instrument of death, crucifixion, that the Romans used to control the people. Jesus’ rising from the dead was the new sign that the ways of the world no longer had power over the lives of the people. The real power was not that of brute force, but of sacrificial love.
Jesus told his disciples, “They will see 'the Son of Man coming in the clouds' with great power and glory, and then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of the sky.”
So, if we believe that the Lord is our inheritance, we should not fear in Jesus coming, because we are living as the Lord Jesus has taught us, loving God and loving neighbor. And by doing so, we will be the elect that is gathered from the four winds to be with him.
As the end of the Church year comes to an end, it’s a good time to reflect on whether we are loving God and our neighbor, or if we are following the culture of the world. If there is some way of the world that we are struggling with that causes us to sin, we don’t have struggle alone. We can come to Jesus, and ask him to forgive us, because as we heard in Hebrews, “he offered one sacrifice for our sins and took his seat forever at the right hand of God.” He took on our sins, so we can be reconciled to God. The Sacrament of confession is a tremendous healing remedy to return us to be in a right relationship with God. To continue in that relationship the Eucharist provides us the graces we need to overcome the power of the world and remind us of what we all desire, to be the elect that the angels gather to be with God. To remind us of this desire, remember to pray Psalm we sang today, You are my inheritance, O Lord!