The Gospel reading from Luke starts with Jesus and His disciples wondering through the temple in Jerusalem, and obviously admiring the beauty and grandeur of this structure. We read that some were speaking about how magnificent it was, beautifully adorned with stones and gifts dedicated to God. This reminded me of our recent trip to Ireland when Mary Anne and I visited the new Catholic Cathedral in Galway. It was a magnificent structure completed in 1965 after six years of construction. It was huge with a seating capacity of over 1,500. The floors were all made of marble from Connemara, a place close by in Ireland famous for its marble. The pews were Utile mahogany from West Africa, and the ceilings were all Western Red Cedar from the West Coast of the US.
Overall, it was really an eye catcher, and great for the many pictures I took. Perhaps while there, if I had taken the time to listen to Jesus, I may have heard the same words that he spoke to his disciples in today’s Gospel: “As for all these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; and all will be thrown down”. With these words, I don’t believe that Jesus is denying the grandeur or the sacredness of the place. After all, is He not the one who drove out the buyers and sellers who were turning this temple into a market place.
What I believe he is saying is that there is something much more important going on here than what you are seeing with your eyes. What you see with your eyes is transient and passing in nature. Regardless of its magnificence and beauty, it is still an object of time, and time, in one way or another, will eventually erase all that from your view”. But there is something much more important going on here that you are not seeing. So what Jesus is saying in respect to the fate of this magnificent temple, and his further statements on the apocalypse is not so much an explanation of the destruction of the temple, or end of world as we know it, but the unveiling of a deeper truth. In fact apocalypse means unveiling. Something new to us is going to be unveiled; the curtain is being drawn back so that we may be able to see more clearly what is being revealed.
Therefore, our readings at this point of time before Advent become somewhat of a warning for us, a challenge to remain vigilant.
What do I mean by being vigilant? It means to be watchful, to be awake; not to be complacent to those things that threaten our relationship with God; not to be distracted by things that are impermanent in nature.
Malachi expresses this so forcibly in our first reading: “See, the day is coming, burning like an over, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings.” What is it that is being unveiled to us as we hear these somewhat harsh but prophetic words from Malachi?
As we move into Advent, our season of expectation and hope, and then into Lent and Easter, we discover what is being unveiled; “we discover the rising of the sun of righteousness with healing in its wings.”
The disciples, of course, respond to Jesus’ statement in the same manner as we often do our selves. They asked Him: “Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the signs that this “end” is about to take place?” And Jesus then goes into three things that they can expect to happen, and perhaps we can expect them to happen to us as well.
1. Many will come in His name claiming the “end is near. His advice: Don’t go after them; pay no attention to them.
2. There will be wars and insurrections, earthquakes, famines, plagues, but the end will not follow immediately.
3. For those who revere the name of Jesus, who open their lives to Him, they will experience resistance from those who do not. Some will even be arrested, persecuted, put and prison and may even die because of it. What does Jesus ask us to do? He asks us to witness to the truth. Rely upon Him to give us the words we are to say; rely on the wisdom that comes from the Holy Spirit, a wisdom that our opponents cannot withstand or contradict. The Gospel concludes with the very affirming words: “Not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.”
So in summary what are we to do in these in-between times: To remain vigilant. To be seekers and witnesses to the truth: To place our reliance on Christ and the Holy Spirit to guide us in carrying out our daily responsibilities: And as St. Paul suggests in our second reading to the Thessalonians: “Work quietly to earn your own living; labor so as not to be a burden on others.” Don’t be busybodies, living in idleness, as if some catastrophic event were about to be-fall you”. After all, we are first and foremost advent people. Our identities as Catholic Christians are founded on the hope, the expectation of Christ’s coming, and His daily abiding presence in our lives.
In one of the Dartmouth churches, hanging on a wall, there’s a banner with a scripture reading that I read as a reminder whenever I go there. It is from the prophet Micah: “O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you: Only three things: To act justly, to love tenderly, and to walk humbly with your God.”
When we do these three things, then we build our house on a foundation of rock, that neither rain nor wind can disturb.
“Not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.”
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