Sunday 15 November
Mark 13:24-32
There is no escaping apocalyptic writing when reading the Bible. We have to come to terms with the fact that some of what we read is dark and scary, bringing us face to face with the prospect of trials, tribulations and turmoil in the heavens. We can nevertheless discern a consoling light at the heart of such passages which overcomes the darkness and overwhelming effect of it all. The consolation is the coming of Jesus, the Son of Man, on the clouds. Borrowing the image of God’s deliverance from the prophet Daniel (Dan. 7:13-14), St Mark leaves us in no doubt that one day history will be wrapped up and the world will end.
When this will happen, no one knows: not the Church, not the Son, but only the Father (see v. 32). Drawing on all the wisdom of the ages which it teaches with authority, the Catechism of the Catholic Church states: ‘Since the Ascension Christ’s coming has been imminent even though ‘ it is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority’. This eschatological coming could be accomplished at any moment, even if both it and the final trial that will precede it are delayed’ (para. 673).
St Bernard of Clairvaux famously taught of the three comings of Christ: the first, the incarnation; the second, his return to earth; and the third, his coming into our lives and hearts. We are those who rejoice in his first coming and long for his second. Perhaps if we prayed and longed for Christ’s second coming more, we would in some small way usher it in.
Jesus urges his disciples to be on their guard and keep watch (v. 32). What are we to guard and keep watch over? Of course it is our minds, our hearts and our lives but it is also time. St Augustine said: ‘Time is a three-fold present: the present as we experience it, the past as a present memory and the future as an expectation.’ In guarding our time and keeping watch over it we learn to put our lives at God’s service, striving to live in his presence, with a growing awareness that the Lord of time will one day return in glory, and will wrap up time and history and usher in the kingdom of God forever.
‘Do not walk through time without leaving worthy evidence of your passage.’ (Pope John XXIII)
Hebrews 10:11-14, 18 • Mark 13:24-32
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