PESERVERE IN YOUR FAITH: 33rd Sunday OTC

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Brothers and sisters as we approach the end of the liturgical year, our Holy mother Church offers us scripture readings which are apocalyptic in nature. The Greek word Apocalypse translates into Latin as Revelatio which means to unveil or to reveal something. Contrary to the common understanding these apocalyptic readings do not predict the end of the world thereby causing fear. Rather they reveal to us the great scope of God's plan, why he created us, his plan  to find and save us. This apocalyptic literature  generally presents a pattern in which darkness is in conflict with light and light coming on top or bad news and good news trying to inhabit the same space and good news becoming  victorious. In the readings,  good and evil are in conflict on many levels – within oneself, in families, among friends, in communities, between Church and state, between nations, and in the heavens. 

Although God is almighty, he allows good and evil to conflict with each other, and allows his people to choose sides. Once we choose, we have to fight for what we have chosen, and even when we are on God’s side, it will not be easy. There is always a price to pay for doing what is right, because evil is always fighting against the good.

In today’s gospel, Jesus appears to predict the end of the world. As mentioned earlier, there is doom and gloom: wars, fighting, persecution, prosecution, earthquakes, famine, plagues, imprisonment, betrayal, even death. But if we look closely at the details of this reading, we'll find that it's loaded with goodnews. Jesus saying to you and I that we have put our security on the things that the world provides; our families, our finances, our education, employment and even our nation. But He, Jesus, will take all these things away all the things that we put our security in so that we can put all our trust in him, our total Trust in Him alone and that in the midst of all tribulations, He is the power, the force we need. He is the solution and not the solution the world gives because he has already defeated evil. Then and only then would anyone enjoy the fullness of His ultimate plan for us. 

We pray that as we journey towards eternity, that we would remove all the things in our lives that we don't need and focus our attention on Jesus, the good shepherd who is the force, power and solution we need in life. 

 AMEN 

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