Homily for the 33rd Sunday (Year B)

As we approach the end of the Liturgical Year, (it ends next Sunday with the Feast of Christ the King) the “end times” are connected with the Lord’s Second Coming as presented in today’s Readings.

This means that the cataclysmic event we call “the end of the world,” the thought of which can strike terror in the human heart, might well be experienced, instead, as liberation from our sinful humanity which would bring our frightened human hearts hope, the depth of which has not yet spoken to our imagination, but converses constantly with our faith.

People of faith, then, can see beyond the limits of fear, to possibilities of hope… to the revelation of God’s love… to the peace and the joy of Heaven. This faith, this hope, this love are summed up for us in the Responsorial Psalm we just sang: “You are my inheritance, O Lord.”

We begin our consideration of the certainty of the end of the world as something not to be feared, but something to be prepared for and to recognize when it is revealed, in our passage from the prophet Daniel in which God gives us — not a dire warning — but insight into what within us might help us to overcome spiritual complacency, so that we might maintain a certain vigilance, recognizing God’s attempt to break into our consciousness.

God the Father reveals here that He will send the Archangel Michael. Michael was present with God before the creation of Man, and will also be present at the termination of earthly being. Michael battled with evil then, so at the end of time he will again do battle with evil, that is, with the “evil one”: While the devil will advocate against our meriting the eternal life of heaven, Michael will point out the good in us as it will remain and be recognized at the Final Judgment.

God the Father further reveals that “the wise shall shine brightly like the splendor of the firmament…” Though goodness and evil co-exist in time, only goodness will continue in the Presence of God in eternity. Our Lord Jesus takes up the theme of cosmic cataclysm when He predicts that “the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from the sky." However, following this tribulation, as evil comes to an end with the end of the world, God the Father’s prediction will be fulfilled beyond the darkness as “the wise will shine like the stars forever."

In order not to misread the Lord’s mention of heavenly bodies, He brings His analysis down to earth as He says, “Learn a lesson from the fig tree.” The fig tree is the last member of the arboreal world to leaf out in the spring. So, when waiting for nature to take its course, one might be tempted to think that the expected new life will never come, or to be so delayed as to focus one’s attention elsewhere.

The Lord might well say to us today, “Learn a lesson from the maple tree.” Its leaves have fallen as a sign of the coming winter, but the tree is not dead; it is merely dormant. There will be a resurrection of sorts in the spring. Then the Lord changes his analogy of “the end times” from signs in nature to the reality of His words, in words of profound significance: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.” Here is a wake-up call for those whose primary focus is saving the earth while caring little or nothing about saving souls.

Yes, the natural environment has been entrusted to our care, but human souls have also been entrusted to us, with a special call to protect the souls of the unborn. As Our Lord Jesus says Himself, that while everything created will eventually come to an end, as is God’s plan, the Lord’s words alone are eternal. And as God the Father said through the prophet Daniel, “… the wise shall shine brightly… like the stars, forever.”

Our souls will share in the eternity of Christ’s words, so our souls must have primacy over all the rest of Creation. Our lives, then, must be a dress rehearsal of Heaven, for, as Jesus has told us, no one knows the day nor the hour. But we can be certain of this: the end of the world has already begun. It began with the Resurrection of Christ. His Resurrection brought a change in the very mode of being for humanity, as we  profess when we pray the Apostles’ Creed, “I believe in the resurrection of the body and in life everlasting.”

Our Lord’s Resurrection has won for the human race this eternal, everlasting life which the heavens (the Universe) and the earth will not enjoy. Unlike the rest of Creation to whom God has spoken only once (“Let there be light… let there be the birds of the air…”) the Word of God and the words of Christ are eternal, and will accompany those who believe in them and put them into practice here and now, for all eternity.

This is why the Faithful can sing with faith, hope and true conviction, “You are my inheritance, O Lord.”