By Fr. Bernard Musondoli

Dn 12:1-3 / Heb 10:11- 14, 18 / Mk 13:24-32

For the last two thousand years (and even before,) people have speculated about the end of time. It seems that human nature leads people to speculate, especially about when the world might come to an end. Writers have been making money by imaging how it might all end. Today there is a popular series of novels that has attracted a lot of readership that feeds the imagination of what it will be like and how people might be involved in those end times.

Yet this gospel ends with "But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." Jesus indicates that he "the Son" doesn't even know, it makes it a sacrilegious to try and figure out when the end is coming. Usually the thought of the last judgment inspires us with a fear of the Lord, but my thought for today is that the same final judgment should give us who try to serve the Lord a great hope and joyful experience.

Yes we look forward with confident and happy hope to the coming of Jesus, powerful and glorious, and loving without limits. True, He will be fearsome to those who knowingly despise and ignore Him, but He will be powerful and glorious to those of us who try to praise, honor and follow Him.

Make no mistake you and I are in a spiritual war. In war the soldier struggles to avoid death by doing three basic things. One, the soldier learns everything he can about his job. Two, the soldier practices his training and skills over and over. Three, he knows beyond a doubt he is not a soldier of one. Soldiers depend on each other to accomplish their task.

You and I need to follow these same steps in our every day war. We need to learn every thing we can about our faith. We need to, filled with that knowledge and the graces provided through the sacraments, to be faithful over and over to the Lord Jesus and all that He taught. Third, and perhaps this is the one thing we leave out most, we need to have the unity that will allow us to depend on each other, our fellow saints past and present to win this war.

So back to the question at hand; how might today's liturgy and Gospel touch our human and Christian concerns? To begin with, there are two concerns we can only be curious about: When will the world end, and how? Is the last day tomorrow or thousands of years from now? Will it all end in ice or in fire? What we have to know is that the Kairos, the proper time is not about what you plan to do tomorrow it is about what you do today." What gives us security is not to know the hour of the end of the world, but the certainty of the presence of the Words of Jesus present in our life. Remember that what you are doing now determine how you prepare to welcome the Lord at his coming.

In the Second Reading, the author of the Letter to the Hebrews tells us that in order for us to be prepared for the coming of Christ we must always seek the friendship of God.  Only if we do this will we be able to make certain that we enjoy the eternal happiness that awaits those of us who follow God.  To help us to do this, the sacraments, especially Baptism, Confession and Holy Communion, can be very beneficial for us.  In Baptism, we are united with Christ and we obtain the right to call ourselves Christians.  In Confession, we are reconciled to God and we receive God’s pardon for our sins.  In Holy Communion, we are united more closely to Our Lord since we eat his Body and drink his Blood.

We don’t know when or how that will happen. Those issues really don’t matter. What really matters is the question whether we are faithful and true followers of Jesus. Few questions for our meditation:

1.      How much do I own, and how much am I sharing?

2.      What am I really doing, and why am I doing what I am doing?

3.       Am I happy, and am I making others happy?