Today’s Gospel foretells the second coming of Jesus. This is a powerful and cryptic text and we would be overreacting if we said we fully understand it.
The Angels, he said, will gather his chosen ones from the four winds. It is both a wonderful and a terrible idea, that we shall be chosen, because it suggests that we may not be chosen, too. There will be many whom the angels do not choose, and this should be a reminder to us, to live more consciously, more attentively, to the will of God, that we may more truly inhabit the Gospel message in all that we are and do, in how we speak and act. After all, nobody knows when this will happen. And, as Scripture says elsewhere, he will come like a thief in the night.
All of what we know will pass away, he says. All, but his words. So, we must cleave to them as to a ledge in a tricky place. Yes, eventually, all that we know moves on, passes away as we die, and yet we will be carried by God to a new place. Carried by the Spirit who used the Gospel to transform us. Even as we live, we may feel that our only constant is the Gospel, especially in light of the world we currently live in, when environmental disaster looms large and goes largely ignored.
Then, let us renew our efforts to hear the Gospel, to properly hear it, with our hearts and our ears truly open to the Spirit who works to move us. For in his moving us, we are transformed. And in our transformation, the heavenly Kingdom we shall become.
GOSPEL
The Lord be with you.
And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark 13:24-32
Glory to you, O Lord.
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘In those days, after the time of distress, the sun will be darkened, the moon will lose its brightness, the stars will come falling from heaven and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.
‘And then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory; then too he will send the angels to gather his chosen from the four winds, from the ends of the world to the ends of heaven.
‘Take the fig tree as a parable: as soon as its twigs grow supple and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. So with you, when you see these things happening: know that he is near, at the very gates. I tell you solemnly, before this generation has passed away all these things will have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
‘But as for that day or hour, nobody knows it, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son; no one but the Father.’
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.