Thirty Third Sunday of the Year (Year C)

Thirty Third Sunday of the Year November 13, 2022

Malachi 3:19-20a; 2 Thessalonians 3:7-12; Luke 21:5-19

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Josh is the resident humanist in the neighbourhood . He does not go to church anymore. He goes about telling his friends that since God lives in everyone’s soul, it is not necessary for anyone to go to church to find God. His parish priest learns of this and decides to pay Josh a visit. The priest shows up in Josh’s house one cold winter evening and finds Josh warning himself by the fireside. Josh invites the priest to join him at the fireside, which he does. The priest does not talk about church attendance, although Josh suspects that is why he came. They talk about the weather. Meanwhile, the priest uses the fire-tongs to remove a burning piece of wood from the fire and places it all by itself beside the fireplace. Both men watch as the flames flicker and go out and in a short time white ash covers the once blazing piece of wood. Josh gets the message. He turns to the priest and says, “Father, I will be in church next Sunday.” Like that piece of wood we need fellowship with our brothers and sisters in the faith in order to maintain the fire of our own faith. We need the church.

Having read the gospel of the day let us reflect: How often in life do we “speak about the temple”, and how it is adorned, speaking of its splendour and beauty? Whatever temple we adore, be it our place of worship, an object, our home, family or even our bodies, Jesus reminds us that the day will come when it will no longer exist and “all will be thrown down”. Our pride and adoration of earthly things can distract us from God, the one we truly adore. We look forward to the time when nothing can separate us from the love of God – neither death nor things present, nor things to come, nor anything in creation.

In our current information age, there are many who speak in extreme words, exaggerating the truth and telling the news in alarming and unsettling ways. Unlike Jesus, they do not offer truth or life. I listen to him now and hear how he speaks to me of faith, hope and love.

Josh is an example of people who go to one extreme. There are people also who go the other extreme, people who see the presence of God only in churches and church services. We read about people like that in today’s gospel. We are not told exactly who they are but some of them are probably disciples of Jesus. They are fascinated with the splendour of the Jerusalem Temple built by Herod in over 46 years and lavishly adorned with gold and silver offerings of the people. For these people the Temple is God’s dwelling place on earth and the adornment of the Temple means that the people’s faith in God is strong. Can you imagine the shock on their faces when Jesus tells them that this Temple standing in all its glory and majesty is destined to be utterly destroyed leaving not one stone upon another? As predicted, the Jerusalem Temple was utterly destroyed in AD 70 by the Roman army under the command of Titus.

It is quiet easy to be deceived. Jesus warns his followers not to be deceived.  The Christian life is to focus on the here and now and that will require strength and faith. The world will continue with wars and insurrections and there will continue to be natural disasters that defy explanation.  None of these things necessarily means that the world is coming to an end.  The teaching of Jesus does not offer us a way to predict the end of the world.  Instead, the teaching of Jesus provides his followers with the spiritual resources needed to cope with the adversity and hardship that is part of life in the here and now.  The final portion of the passage is directed to the disciples and sets forth what they can expect in the future.

Indeed the Gospel of today tells us about the fall of Jerusalem. While Jesus was speaking of the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple, those who were with were associating this event with the arrival of the Kingdom of God on earth.  Many of Jesus' followers recognized Him as the Messiah and they wanted to crown Him as their King. So when Jesus spoke of destruction or anything that could be associated with war, his followers assumed that the day was near when Jesus would rule over them and the Roman domination would come to an end.

The Christian who, like the disciples in today’s gospel, sees God in the grandeur of the temple but not in other people is only telling half of the story. The Christian who, like Josh in our story, sees God in the human person but not in the temple also tells only half of the story. Today’s gospel, therefore, challenges us to endeavour to see and serve God both in the temple when we gather for worship and in one another after the worship. Remember, we treat the other person with respect and dignity not because they deserve it by their own conduct but because God in them deserves it. This way, our lives both in church and out of church, become one continuous act of service to the same God who dwells in the human soul as well as in the temple.

Happy Sunday