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33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

November 17, 2024

Fr. John Colacino C.PP.S.

Introit

Collect

Grant us, we pray, O Lord our God,
the constant gladness of being devoted to you,
for it is full and lasting happiness
to serve with constancy
the author of all that is good.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.

First Reading Dn 12:1-3

In the third year of King Cyrus a word was revealed to Daniel. The word was true and it concerned a great conflict. 1 “At that time Michael, the great prince, the protector of your people, shall arise. There shall be a time of anguish, such as has never occurred since nations first came into existence. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book. 2 Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 “Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.”

Responsorial Psalm Ps 16:5,8,9-10,11

R/. You are my inheritance, O Lord!

Second Reading Heb 10:11-14,18

Every priest stands day after day at his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, “he sat down at the right hand of God,” 13 and since then has been waiting “until his enemies would be made a footstool for his feet.” 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. 18 Where there is forgiveness of sin and lawless deeds, there is no longer any offering for sin.

Alleluia Lk 21:36

Gospel Mk 13:24-32

Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, opposite the temple and began to talk to his disciples about the end which is to come. 24 “In those days, after the time of suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, 25 and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. 26 “Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory. 27 Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. 28 “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. 29 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. 30 “Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. 31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. 32 “But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

Catena Nova

We do not preach only one coming of Christ, but a second as well, much more glorious than the first. The first coming was marked by patience; the second will bring the crown of a divine kingdom…In the first coming he endured the cross, despising the shame; in the second coming he will be in glory, escorted by an army of angels. We look then beyond the first coming and await the second… For there will be an end to this world, and the created world will be made new (St. Cyril of Jerusalem).

[The faithful will] reign with Christ, receiving as their inheritance that heavenly kingdom which cannot be shaken, living for ever in the ineffable light that knows no evening and is interrupted by no night, having fellowship with all the saints who have lived from the beginning of time, and enjoying delights beyond description in Abraham’s embrace, where all pain has fled away, and all grief and groaning. (St. Gregory Palamas).

My children, eternal life is being offered to us, the kingdom of heaven is made ready and Christ’s inheritance awaits us … So let us run from now on with increased energy and above all you, lazy, recalcitrant, dull of heart, friends of murmuring who, unless you improve, are like the cursed fig tree.… Let us seek out the fight, bravely pour with our sweat, adorn ourselves with crowns, gain praises and gather up, like a treasure, “what eye has not seen and ear has not heard and what has not entered the human heart” (1 Cor 2:9) (St. Theodore the Studite).

One day, the gospels tell us, the tension gradually accumulating between humanity and God will reach a kind of limit set when the world was created. The end will come. The presence of Christ will suddenly be revealed like a flash of lightening, shining from pole to pole, smashing through all the barriers which hid this presence or kept it confined. It will invade the earth. The attractive power of the Son of Man will lay hold of everything and unite it in his Body….We have been charged with keeping the flame of hope-filled longing ever alive in the world…. At all costs we must renew ourselves in longing and hoping for the Great Coming…. We mustn’t squander the energies we ought to devote to God’s plan. The more our race develops and grows, the better we can care for our world and all its beauty and variety, the more conscious we can become of our own and our world's potential to serve and love and adore God. (Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin).

Sooner or later the world must burn, and all things in it…. Sooner or later it will all be consumed by fire and nobody will be left – for by that time the last man in the universe will have discovered the bomb capable of destroying the universe and will have been unable to resist the temptation to throw the thing and get it over with…. But love laughs at the end of the world because love is the door to eternity and he who loves God is playing on the doorstep of eternity, and before anything can happen love will have drawn him over the sill and closed the door and he won’t bother about the world burning because he will know nothing but love (Fr. Thomas Merton).

In the “new heaven and the new earth” nothing that has ever been done or suffered in true self-abandonment will be lost. . . . All the treasures of the world will be brought into it. But they will be more beautiful and more precious than they were here because God’s grace will perfect in them what we would have wanted to express but were not able to (Fr. Hans Urs von Balthasar).

God is not going to abolish the universe of space, time and matter; he is going to renew it, to restore it, to fill it with new joy and purpose and delight, to take from it all that has corrupted it. . . . New creation has begun in Jesus. There is a pilgrim highway leading all the way from the cross and the empty tomb right through to God’s new creation (N.T. Wright).

Homily

Shortly after the “Second Russian Revolution” in 1989 Western reporters were allowed to enter, with their videocameras, the hallowed shrine in the Kremlin Wall where the architect of the First Revolution is buried, Vladimir Lenin. These reporters were also allowed to film the subterranean complex, filled with high tech equipment, having only one purpose: the preservation of Lenin’s body. Since his death in 1924, the body of Lenin has been perfectly embalmed. hermetically sealed in his glass coffin, looking like a wax figure in Madame Tussaud’s museum. Throngs of Russian citizens have filed into this eerie vault to visit this miracle of science, which according to the doctor in charge of the project, could last another century.

The same can’t be said, however, of Lenin’s revolution. For at the same time his lifeless corpse has been on view in the Kremlin, his images cast in bronze and iron, were toppled all over Mother Russia: pulled down by frustrated comrades who finally acknowledged his revolution to be as dead as he, a lifeless effigy, and like his monument, having no more than the appearance of life.

In these last weeks of the liturgical year, and right into the Advent season, our attention is turned toward the end of human history framed by Scripture as a last judgment. And one can imagine history’s greatest makers and shakers will be center stage on the “last day,” whether nicely preserved or rotted to the core, when they will be rustled from their tombs. Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; some shall live forever, others shall be an everlasting horror and disgrace (I).

Their victims will be there too: from Lenin’s Red Terror to Stalin’s Great Purge to Hitler’s Final Solution to Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward to Pol Pot’s Killing Fields and who knows how many roundups await us. But the wise shall shine brightly like the splendor of the firmament, and those who lead the many to justice shall be like the stars forever (I) – like the myriad martyrs whose blood was mingled together with countless other victims killed by these regimes, martyrs who witnessed by their resistance to One who has taken his seat forever at the right hand of God; and who now waits until his enemies are made his footstool (cf. II). In other words, who’s buried in Lenin’s tomb and his ilk.

Somber thoughts such as these belong to this time of year. When signs of life wane, sunsets comes sooner, light is scarcer, winds sweep away autumn color. And we are compelled to think of so many endings that comprise human life and history and how every generation stands under the judgment of God, the archangel Michael ready to blow the final trumpet, as if it were the last, including our own generation which will not pass away until all these things have taken place (G).

For whether it’s the great empires of this world, from Egypt to Greece to Rome to Russia, and yes, even the United States of America, to our own passing away in death, all worlds end sooner or later, yours, mine, and ours. All human projects prove temporary, provisional, finite, limited: all our fond hopes for earthly kingdoms that last are destined to wither in the sun of justice, Jesus Christ.

So in the end, all that matters will be those things which have prepared the way for his coming. Everything else will be consumed in the birth pangs attending the new heaven and the new earth. Every monument to human pride crashing down, as so many idols, to make way for the King of kings and Lord of lords.

And like the Christians of old who were thrown to the lions for their refusal to take part in emperor worship, we too must resist the idols of worldly power, exposing their lies -- the idols the world worships and looks to for salvation, the idols of a “new world order” or the “workers’ paradise” or “the great reset” or who want to make their country “great again,” but which will prove to be little more than the orders that have already come and gone, for heaven and earth will pass away, but the words of Jesus will never pass, for he sits at the right hand of God, living and real.

And as we celebrate the Eucharist until he comes again, we do so as communities of resistance, looking with hope to the future day when Christ will bring our stories and our histories to an end, and command us to rise from the ashes of this world’s folly, and share with him the life he alone confers, world without end. Amen.

Intercessions (Joe Milner; The Sunday Website)

For the Church: that we may be a light in times of confusion and turmoil through the witness of our lives and our compassionate care for others.

For all who are facing crisis, loss, or grief: that the Spirit of God will guide them, comfort them, and help them to face the future.

For all who live amidst bloodshed and violence: that the blood of those who have died may spur the living to greater efforts for the establishment of peace and justice in every society.

For all who have little hope: that God will open new opportunities for those who lack education, employment, healthcare, or safe housing and help them to move forth in faith.

For displaced persons: that God will guide those who have fled violence, famine, or natural disasters, keep them safe from harm, and lead them to places of safety.

For all who suffer with depression: that God will lift the darkness, give them new hope, and help them find support and acceptance.

For leaders of government: that God will give them an understanding of the critical needs of those whom they serve and wisdom to address them.

Your creation, O God, runs its appointed course, as from the ends of the earth you gather a people you call your own. Confirm us in the strength of your abiding word. Steady our hearts in the time of trial, so that on the day of the Son of Man we may without fear rejoice to behold his appearing. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen (ICEL; 1998)

Offertory Chant

Offertory Hymn (Healey Willan)

Lo, in the time appointed the Lord will come,
the mountains and hills will break forth in singing,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands:
for the Lord shall come into his everlasting kingdom
and on the throne of David
he shall reign forever.
Alleluia.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 16:5,8,9-10,11

Second Reading Heb 10:11-14,18

Alleluia Lk 21:36

Gospel Mk 13:24-32

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