Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time – the Lord is Coming

 

Recently one of my seminary classmates brought me up short when I called to congratulate him on his 65th birthday.

He was the youngest in our class and the most athletic. When I asked how he was doing, he said “Just fine. But thinking a fair bit about death these days.”

He has some health challenges like most people our age, but he’s not dying. Really, all he’s doing is what the Church hopes we’ll all do as the liturgical year winds down.

The readings for today’s Mass aren’t particularly subtle. The Gospel talks about the end of the world, prefigured by the destruction of the temple at Jerusalem. The first reading is a prophecy about the end of the world—the day of the Lord’s wrath.

And the end of the world is the background to the second reading, which doesn’t even mention it. St. Paul is correcting the wrong thinking of those who are convinced that the end is so near that there’s no point working!

Wouldn’t it be nice to know when the world would come to an end? The Apostles are certainly keen to know the timetable for the destruction of the temple.

But elsewhere in the Gospels Jesus makes it clear that this is not information he wants us to have. In St. Matthew’s Gospel he says, “But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Mt 24:36)

So what’s the point of all the drama in today’s liturgy?

I think the Psalm gives us the key in one sentence: “The Lord is coming, coming to judge the earth.” What does it matter ‘when,’ if the coming is certain?

The opening prayer—or Collect—of today’s Mass tells us how to avoid fearing that day: by serving with constancy the author of all that is good. The first reading promises that even on the last day for those who revere God’s name the sun of righteousness shall rise with  healing in its wings.

Those who revere God’s name, who do their work quietly, and ultimately those who endure persecution, trials and tribulations will stand confidently before the Lord when he appears.

Given the fact that the teaching of today’s scriptures has been shared in the Church for two thousand years and the end of the world hasn’t happened I wondered whether something’s going on here that is more immediate.

It seems to me that the focus on the inevitable end of the world on an unknown day is meant to turn our minds and hearts to the inevitable end of our lives, also on an unknown day. Because the same principles apply: the day is coming, for each of us, and there will be a particular judgement that precedes the general judgement on the last day.

For some death comes gently, while for others it can be harder, but for all the promise is made: for those who revere God’s name the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings.

Two weeks ago, I summarized the message of my homily in four words: pray for the dead. Today I can summarize it in three words: think about death.

On this Sunday next year, the message is quite explicit. St. Paul says that since “the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night…let us not fall asleep as others do, but stay awake and be sober.”

Because what the word of God says about the world’s end applies equally to our own end. Maybe even more. It is easier to picture our own mortality than the fact that the world as we know it is passing away.

Let me end with some practical thoughts. November seems to be my month for important funerals. It began with Arlene Boreham’s, a beautiful celebration of our long-time parishioner. Yesterday morning I attended the funeral of Vito Curalli, the father of Nick, the conductor of our 9:00 am choir. And this coming Saturday I will celebrate the funeral for Connie Zweng, whose hundredth birthday party I attended not long ago.

I think that anyone, Catholic or non-Catholic would have been moved at the faith-filled funerals of Arlene and Vito and I expect the same will be true when Connie’s funeral Mass is celebrated.

The funerals of the righteous are wonderful homilies on the kind of readings we have heard today. They acknowledge the Lord as judge but show him a righteous and just judge ready not only to forgive but to reward. They are inevitably sad but are overlaid with joy and beauty.

I encourage everyone of a certain age to do some funeral planning. Practically, it can assist your loved ones. Spiritually, it can help you prepare and ponder.

And it can even have a certain element of fun. Long before her final illness, my friend and colleague Mary-lynn, Connie Zweng’s daughter, kept her funeral arrangements on her computer at work. If you annoyed her, she would take you off the list of readers or pall bearers. And you stayed off until you were back in her good graces. Not a bad way of dealing with life’s frustrations, all in all.

And also, a reminder that God never takes us off his list. Only we can do that, and we never want to stay off for long because life is short, and no one knows the day or the hour.