33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, November 13, 2022

Perseverance in the face of the unknown

Luke 21: 5–19

When some were talking about the Temple, remarking how it was adorned with fine stonework and votive offerings, he said, ‘All these things you are staring at now—the time will come when not a single stone will be left on another; everything will be destroyed.’

And they put to him this question, ‘Master,’ they said, ‘when will this happen, then, and what sign will there be that it is about to take place?’

But he said, ‘Take care not to be deceived, because many will come using my name and saying, “I am the one” and “The time is near at hand.” Refuse to join them. And when you hear of wars and revolutions, do not be terrified, for this is something that must happen first, but the end will not come at once.’

Then he said to them, ‘Nation will fight against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes and plagues and famines in various places; there will be terrifying events and great signs from heaven.

‘But before all this happens, you will be seized and persecuted; you will be handed over to the synagogues and to imprisonment, and brought before kings and governors for the sake of my name—and that will be your opportunity to bear witness. Make up your minds not to prepare your defense, because I myself shall give you an eloquence and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to resist or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relations and friends; and some of you will be put to death. You will be hated universally on account of my name, but not a hair of your head will be lost. Your perseverance will win you your lives.’

Music Meditations

• Goodness Is Stronger than Evil—Desmond Tutu and John Bell
• Jesus Remember Me—Taizé
• 10,0000 Reasons—Matt Redman
• Shepherd Me, O God—Marty Haugen (Psalms for the Church Year)

Opening Prayer

Lord, help me to get my priorities straight. Help me to see the transitory nature of so many of my goals and desires, my frustrations and resentments. I waste so my of my time and emotions building temples to success and achievement that will soon be torn down in in my life to come. Teach me to focus on your enduring message and let go of things that do not really matter.

Companions for the Journey

By Daniel J. Harrington, S.J., Professor of New Testament Studies at Weston, Mass:

From time to time someone predicts that the world is going to end on such-and-such a date. These predictions are typically greeted with a mixture of fear, ridicule and bemusement. In New Testament times many people seemed to have been concerned, if not with the end of the world, then at least with the dramatic arrival of God’s kingdom and the totally new situation that might accompany it.

Today’s Old Testament readings can help us get a sense of these expectations. Psalm 98, originally composed for the liturgical celebration of the kingship of God at the Temple in Jerusalem, came to be understood as prophesying the dramatic future intervention of God in human history and the establishing of a kingdom of justice for all. Likewise, in Malachi 3 the early biblical motif of “the day of the Lord” is pictured in dramatic imagery (“blazing like an oven”) and as bringing about the future destruction of evildoers and the proud. Even more detailed and graphic scenarios of the coming reign of God can be found in Jewish apocalyptic writings and in the Synoptic Gospels.

Today’s selection from Jesus’ apocalyptic discourse in Luke 21 presupposes such beliefs and images. In this situation Jesus responds as the prophet of God, a theme developed throughout this Gospel. As God’s prophet, Jesus warns against false prophets who pretend to know the details of God’s plan, gives hints of the events or signs that will accompany the coming of God’s kingdom in its fullness and warns about coming persecutions and even divisions within families.. This selection from Luke 21 ends with a sentence that is unique to Luke’s version of the apocalyptic discourse, “By your perseverance you will secure your lives.” The word translated as “perseverance” is sometimes rendered as “patience” or “endurance.” These are not popular virtues in 21st-century America. We want fast food, fast cars and fast computers. We have short attention spans; and we communicate in sound bites, e-mails and instant messages. The kind of perseverance recommended in today’s Gospel text, however, is not apathy or laziness or timidity. In the biblical concept of perseverance there is an element of active resistance in the face of opposition. It is inspired by confidence and hope in God. Hope and perseverance are two sides of the same coin. Hope without perseverance is anxiety and ends in madness. Perseverance without hope leads to resignation, fatalism and indifference.

As Christians we hope for the full coming of God’s kingdom, the resurrection of the dead, the last judgment and just rewards and punishments. We expect that these events all will come about in God’s own time and way. In the mean time we try to conduct our lives as people of faith, hope and love, fully aware of the fragility of human existence and of the world around us. In the midst of fast-paced change, we need the biblical kind of patience and perseverance to live one day at a time, seizing the moment and living it to its fullness, all the while moving forward in hope to eternal life in God’s kingdom.

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

By your perseverance you will secure your lives

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

From Rev Paul Gallagher, OFM: How important to Jesus was the Temple in Jerusalem? What are some current symbols of God’s abiding presence in your life? What, in my mind, is God’s “temple”? If I am God’s temple, do any of these predictions apply to me, and what are the implications of such an idea? What are some contemporary “temples”? Do some institutions and systems of modern western culture represent evil temples to others of different cultures? What might some of them be? (the Twin Towers for example) Do we fear that some of them might be brought down? What does it mean to us when we hear that the world as we humans know it is not the last stage of Salvation History? Why does the world have to end? Does it matter for us to know the timing of the end of the world? How do you react when you hear predictions about the end of the world as we know it? How can we be “ready”? What does Jesus say about taking literally such signs of the end of the world? Why do we continue to do so? What privileges, possession or way of life might I lose in an upending of the world’s values? How does a contemplation of end times comfort or frighten you? When my world is falling apart, and the usual supports are not there for me, what do I do? How can I thank those who have been a "sun of justice" and brought "healing rays" in my dark moments? What is the role of faith (trust) in the contemplation of end times? What does it mean to live faithful lives while we await a reign of justice? Where do we meet Christ in our lives? How can we go through all sorts of problems as disciples of Jesus and not have a “hair of our head” harmed? Define perseverance. How does the current world situation—the war in Ukraine, rising prices and food shortages for the poorest on the planet, illness—demand perseverance Describe a time in your life when you had to persevere in the face of difficulties. In what areas do you need to grow in perseverance and patience? From Rev Paul Gallagher, OFM: Are there experiences in your life that have had dramatic effects on how you understand your life, your relationship to others, or God? Did you take your feelings at that time to God in your prayer? In the poem “Hollow Men”, T. S. Eliot’s final lines are: This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper. What do you think Eliot meant? Jesus, who himself continued to pray and have hope in God, even as his world collapsed, has made a promise to us. He would not leave us on our own, but would send us his Spirit. We received that Spirit at our baptism. The Spirit is a persevering and praying Spirit within us. It enables us to be faithful no matter what world ends for us. The Spirit keeps us hope-filled when all we see in front of us is darkness and struggle. Is it hard to remember this? Why? What is the role of prayer for you as you face the challenges of life?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

Read Psalm 98 in its entirety. Then change the words around so that you address God personally. (I will sing a new song to you, Lord. You have done marvelous deeds) After each sentence reflect on what God has done for the world in general, and for you in particular. Write your own ending—just want do you want to happen when God once more governs the earth? What will be your role? What can you do to make the reign of God more possible here and now?

A Meditation in the Franciscan Style/ Action:

(Adapted from Walter Burghardt S.J., in Lovely in Eyes Not His)

Christ has come and he will come again. But don’t live your life in a crib that has passed or on a cloud that is yet to arrive. Christ our Lord is here now. Not only in the word you have heard and in the bread that is broken. He comes to you in every human person that crosses your path, haunts your eye, beats your ear. He warms himself in the winter on the grates of Market Street, begs for shelter at the homeless missions, cries for your compassion behind bars. In slum and condo, he grows old and unwept. He bleeds not only in Aleppo, but in every brutal rape, in every sneer or shoulder shrugged, in every student lonely amid campus laughter. He lies alone and afraid on every hospital bed. Dies again in each mother bereaved. And dear God, the children. From the skin-and-bones of the displaced children seeking asylum in our country and in Europe, through the thousands of battered bodies and shriveled souls that show up each year at places like Covenant House and Homeboy industries, to the uncounted victims of opioids and other drugs who “crash” on our streets.

The end that Jesus foretold—we cannot hasten it and we cannot delay it. It will come in God’s own time. Today’s gospel is not a betting pool—put a buck in and guess when Christ is coming again. Instead, this gospel commits you to act as if Christ were already here—because he is. And you clearly find him here in our Eucharistic liturgies. But do you find him out there? Where do you personally find Christ? At Catholic Worker House or in your dorm room? At hospitals or detention centers? In prison on or vacation? Just open your eyes and you will find Jesus there. And if you have already discovered Christ out there—what must you do? Only you know the answer to that question.

Meditation in the Ignatian Style/Consideration:

Read the following from Luke 12:16-21. For this farmer, it did not matter when the world was going to end; his world was ending way before he expected it. Has there ever been a time in your life when you behaved/ made choices as if you were going to live forever? What can you do to remind yourself that your life is God’s?

And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

Poetic Reflection:

Read the following poem by Robert Frost:

“Fire and Ice”

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice

Walter Burghardt, S.J., in Lovely in Eyes Not His, said that there are two things that will destroy our world from within: Lust (desire for power, possessions and need to determine what others do) and hatred (familial, cultural, racial, religious). Can you think of examples of both of these playing out in our lives today? In your mind which is currently the most dangerous?

Poetic Reflection:

“Ash Wednesday” is a long poem written by T. S. Eliot after his 1927 conversion to Anglicanism. It is a poem about the difficulty of religious belief, and concerned with personal salvation in an age of uncertainty. In “Ash Wednesday” Eliot's poetic persona, one who has lacked faith in the past, has somehow found the courage, through spiritual exhaustion, to seek faith. One of the points of the poem is that whether the entire world ends or not, our pesronal world will come to an end, and what we have concerned ourselves with in the past will no longer matter.

“Ash Wednesday”

Part I

Because I do not hope to turn again Because I do not hope Because I do not hope to turn Desiring this man’s gift and that man’s scope I no longer strive to strive towards such things (Why should the agèd eagle stretch its wings?) Why should I mourn The vanished power of the usual reign? Because I do not hope to know The infirm glory of the positive hour Because I do not think Because I know I shall not know The one veritable transitory power Because I cannot drink There, where trees flower, and springs flow, for there is nothing again Because I know that time is always time And place is always and only place And what is actual is actual only for one time And only for one place I rejoice that things are as they are and I renounce the blessèd face And renounce the voice Because I cannot hope to turn again Consequently I rejoice, having to construct something Upon which to rejoice And pray to God to have mercy upon us And pray that I may forget These matters that with myself I too much discuss Too much explain Because I do not hope to turn again Let these words answer For what is done, not to be done again May the judgement not be too heavy upon us Because these wings are no longer wings to fly But merely vans to beat the air The air which is now thoroughly small and dry Smaller and dryer than the will Teach us to care and not to care Teach us to sit still. Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death Pray for us now and at the hour of our death.

Further reading:

Ash Wednesday—T.S. Eliot Hollow Men—T.S. Eliot

Closing Prayer

Blessèd sister, holy mother, spirit of the fountain, spirit of the garden, Suffer us not to mock ourselves with falsehood Teach us to care and not to care Teach us to sit still Even among these rocks, Our peace in His will And even among these rocks Sister, mother And spirit of the river, spirit of the sea, Suffer me not to be separated And let my cry come unto Thee.