Reflections on the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dear parishioners,

Happy Veterans Day to all our ex-service men and women, and all who are still serving to defend our freedom and liberties. Thank you for your service. May your labors be adequately acknowledged and rewarded.

As the liturgical season draws to its end, we will begin to see a shift in focus to the end of time, the last days, judgment and what follows. Last weekend the first reading presented us with the example of a Hebrew mother and her sons who demonstrated courage in the face of persecution, even to the point of willingly accepting bodily death in defense of the faith and traditions of their fathers. The story offered us one of the earliest Old Testament references to the belief in the resurrection, a life after death, implied in belief in the restoration of severed limbs. The saints, the heroes of our faith, did not see this earthly life as all there is. They believed that there is life even after death. And this faith urged them to live joyfully even when people treated them with contempt and so much hate. They knew that their destination was not this world, but the world which Christ had gone to prepare after his resurrection and ascension. They believed that God who created them and gave them their limbs was capable of restoring them if they had lost them in his service. This is the faith they bequeathed to their successors, and which has now come down to us. We believe that our earthly life is not an. absolute that must be preserved at all cost, especially if our heavenly life is in peril. While we live in this world, we live with the future return of the Lord in view. We long for Christ’s reappearing, when he would transform our mortal bodies into copies of his glorious body in heaven. This is why Christians are urged to use this world as though they do not, because the world as we know it is passing away (1 Corinthians 7:31; 1 John 2:17).

In this weekend’s first reading we see an expression of the motif of the “Day of the Lord” as used in the Old Testament. This “Day of the Lord” is suggestive of the Day of Judgment, when God would come strong against all of Israel’s enemies. It would be a day of reckoning, when the evildoers would be punished and the righteous redeemed. We see this expressly in the First reading. The prophet Malachi envisions that it would be a day of disaster for the proud and evildoers, whereas it would be a day of consolation for those who fear the Lord. This understanding was cause of great joy and hope for Israel as she looked forward to her vindication. This assurance was implicit in their longing for the coming of the Messiah. However, some prophets, like Amos, contended with this belief. He thought it to be erroneous, or at best, inadequate. For him, the day of the Lord would not be partial to the Israelites. They would also come under the scrutiny of the righteous and just judge, who would judge without partiality. Israel will not be spared simply because they are the chosen of the Lord. Their vindication would be on the basis of how they lived justly in their dealings with their neighbors, and how they walked humbly with the Lord. Whereas apocalyptic readings, such as the ones we have for this weekend tend to result in anxious speculations about the end, we have the assurance of Jesus, “Not a hair on your head will be destroyed.” We are not to be afraid of the end because God will take care of us. Even if our earthly life should come to its end, we will secure our true life, which never ends. It is for this life that the saints were willing to give, and in fact gave, their body to be mutilated and burned.

May all the saints continue to intercede for us as we go through our pilgrim journey on earth fraught with so many persecutions.