Let Us Prepare

Tuesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time C-2

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Ps 85 (84):9 The Lord speaks of peace to his people and his holy ones and to those who turn to him.\

Collect Stir up the will of your faithful, we pray, O Lord, that, striving more eagerly to bring your divine work to fruitful completion, they may receive in greater measure the healing remedies your kindness bestows. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

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Scripture today: Apocalypse 14:14-19; Psalm 95; Luke 21:5-11

With some people saying of the temple that it was adorned with valuable stones and gifts, Jesus said “These things which you see, the days will come in which there will not be left a stone upon a stone that will not be thrown down.” They asked him, “Master, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign when they will begin to take place?” He replied, “Take heed lest you be seduced; for many will come in my name, saying, I am he; and the time is at hand. Do not go after them. And when you hear of wars and seditions, do not be terrified. These things must first come to pass but the end is not so soon.” Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be great earthquakes in divers places, and plagues and famines and terrors from the heavens, and there will be great signs.” (Luke 21:5-11)

Let us Prepare I remember decades ago attending an address given by the editor of a Sydney daily newspaper that had a very wide circulation. He said that his work was to market news. News was his product, and his job was to find ways of selling it. I have often thought that few people realize the power of the media in forming the minds of people and of populations. When Pope Paul VI visited Sydney at the end of 1970 he addressed the journalists in French, telling them that they were world power number one. News, and commentary on the news, has dominated culture for much of the modern period, but one question that may be asked is, what is the impression left on people and populations of the meaning and destination of history? Day after day we are inundated with the latest news. There is this and that local or national conflict, this and that famine, earthquake or political upheaval. There is an ongoing succession of local news, interesting tit-bits, significant political, economic and social happenings, and world events. But what is it all adding up to in ultimate terms? Such a question would rarely enter the minds of many persons who assiduously follow the news in the press, on their televisions, radios, or on-line. The world is commonly thought to be a mere succession of events, more often than not in some crisis, and lurching on and on as might one drama after another. Time and history is a mere succession, with death intervening and achievements gained, but with history proceeding on nevertheless. Any talk of an ultimate meaning, an end-game to the world’s ongoing story, would be a little meaningless to the average person. Such questions would not occur to them — the world is assumed to be a given process, and more or less without end. But Christ has told us what the end-game will be. The world as we know it will indeed come to an end, and that end will be marked by the coming of Jesus Christ. We are reminded of this by our Lord’s talk of the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem. It could not be imagined then, but it happened.

All these things you see, our Lord tells his disciples, this spectacular building that is at the heart of the nation’s religious life, this treasure of the nation — it will all come to an end, and will be in pieces (Luke 21:5-11). What our Lord says of the Temple we ought take as an omen of the ultimate course and fate of the world. Just as the Temple was reduced to rubble, with its successor being the person of Jesus Christ, risen from the dead and living as Head of his Church, so too the end will entail the passing away of this world and its replacement by a new heaven and a new earth. This present world will be transformed and will be made glorious. How important to gain a place in it! We have been told of the end, and so we ought take daily account of it. The end of each individual life and the end of the world is the coming of Christ to judge. There may or may not be many great moments in the life of any one individual, but one moment will be undeniably and unavoidably great — it will be when Christ comes to judge him at the end, following his death. That moment will be great beyond measure. It will be the climax of all that has gone before, and will determine his eternal future. That moment, that event, is absolutely unavoidable. Buddha cannot avoid it, nor can Mahomet. Every single person on the face of the earth will have for his greatest moment his meeting with Christ at the end. So it will be for the world. There are many striking moments and phases in the history of the world, but at the end of history, all will be gathered before the Judge who will come in glory. He will separate the sheep from the goats, and then there will be heaven for the one, and hell for the other. This will be the climax of all moments for mankind and the world, when this our present scene will pass away. All will be made new, and whatever might have been the splendour of this present world in some of its elements, nothing will compare with the glory of the next. So each individual and all mankind together ought think of the end. There will be an end to the present scene, and that end will be a new beginning, for good or for ill. The defining thing will be our attitude to Jesus Christ.

Just as it is the wise and prudent thing for each individual to live in the light of his coming judgment, so it is the wise thing for the world as a whole to ask, where is all of this ultimately heading? God has revealed the answer to this and it is that all is heading towards the final coming of Jesus Christ the King of kings and Lord of lords. Let the world prepare for it, then! All should be done in such a way that the coming Judgment will pass well. It will be the greatest of all moments, and will be the door to everlasting glory, or to the terrible abyss.

(E.J.Tyler)

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