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33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

November 16, 2025

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 Mal 3:19-20a

The Lord says this: 1 “See, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up,” says the Lord of hosts, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. 2 “But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings.”

Responsorial PsalmPs 98:5-6, 7-8, 9

R/. The Lord comes to rule the earth with justice.

Second Reading 2 Thes 3:7-12

Brothers and sisters, 7 you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were with you, 8 and we did not eat anyone’s bread without paying for it; but with toil and labour we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you. 9 This was not because we do not have that right, but in order to give you an example to imitate. 10 For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: “Anyone unwilling to work should not eat.” 11 For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. 12 Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.

Acclamation before the Gospel Lk 21:28

Gospel Lk 21:5-19

When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, Jesus said, 6 “As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.” 7 They asked him, “Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?” 8 And Jesus said, “Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is near!’ Do not go after them. 9 “When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.” 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; 11 there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven. 12 “But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. 13 “This will give you an opportunity to testify. 14 So make up your minds not to prepare your defence in advance; 15 for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. 16 “You will be betrayed even by parents, by brothers and sisters, and by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. 17 You will be hated by all because of my name. 18 But not a hair of your head will perish. 19 By your endurance you will gain your souls.”

Catena Nova

I wish you to be without anxiety. One who is without anxiety waits without fear until his Lord comes. For what sort of love of Christ is it to fear His Coming? Brothers and sisters, do we not have to blush for shame? We love Him, yet we fear His Coming? .... Do not think that because He is not coming just now, He will not come at all. He will come, you know not when and provided He finds you prepared, your ignorance of the time of His Coming, will not be held against you. (St. Augustine of Hippo)

The waters have risen and severe storms are upon us, but we do not fear drowning, for we stand firmly upon a rock. Let the sea rage, it cannot break the rock. Let the waves rise, they cannot sink the boat of Jesus. What are we to fear? Death? Life to me means Christ, and death is gain. Exile? The earth and its fullness belong to the Lord. The confiscation of goods? We brought nothing into this world, and we shall surely take nothing from it. I have only contempt for the world’s threats, I find its blessings laughable. I have no fear of poverty, no desire for wealth. I am not afraid of death nor do I long to live, except for your good. I concentrate therefore on the present situation, and I urge you, my friends, to have confidence. (St. John Chrysostom)

Trials are of two kinds. Either affliction will test our souls as gold is tried in a furnace, and make trial of us through patience, or the very prosperity of our lives will oftentimes, for many, be itself an occasion of trial and temptation. For it is equally difficult to keep the soul upright and undefeated in the midst of afflictions, as to keep oneself from insolence and pride in prosperity. (St. Basil the Great)

By patient endurance you will win life for yourselves, although to this must be added wholehearted thanksgiving, and prayer, and humility. For you must be ready to bless and praise your benefactor, God the Saviour of the world, who disposes all things, good or otherwise, for your benefit. The Apostle writes: With patient endurance we run the race of faith set before us. For what has more power than virtue? What more firmness or strength than patient endurance? Endurance, that is, for God’s sake. This is the queen of virtues, the foundation of virtue, a haven of tranquillity. It is peace in time of war, calm in rough waters, safety amidst treachery and danger. It makes those who practise it stronger than steel. No weapons or brandished bows, no turbulent troops and advancing siege engines, no flying spears or arrows can shake it. Not even the host of evil spirits, nor the dark array of hostile powers, nor the devil himself standing by with all his armies and devices will have power to injure the man or woman who has acquired this virtue through Christ. (St. Nilus of Sinai)

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. The Gospel warns us it is vain to speculate about the hour and the modalities of this formidable event. But it equally warns, it calls, us to expect it! Maybe expectation is the supreme Christian characteristic, and the one most distinctive of our faith. It is an historical fact that expectation has never ceased to guide the living expansion of our faith; it is like a torch raised on high…. The flame of expectation must be revived at all costs. At all costs we must renew ourselves in longing and hoping for the Great Coming. But that can’t happen unless the expectation is incarnate! What body is to be given to our expectation today? It has to be a fully and completely human hope! Look at the earth around us. Our race is visibly passing through a crisis of growth. All are becoming dimly aware of our world’s short-comings as well as its capacities. We have a sense of premonition as well as of expectation. Those who follow Christ mustn’t hesitate to harness this historical force. It needs us and we need it. Under pain of allowing this moment and its force to be lost, and perishing ourselves, we have to share the aspirations which make people today feel so strongly about the greatness of the human task, of our mind’s task in the immensity of our world. …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. With us and through us a body worthy of resurrection is being prepared for the coming of Christ. (Pierre Teilhard de Chardin)

It helps, now and then, to step back and take the long view. The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work. Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us. No statement says all that could be said. No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession brings perfection. No pastoral visit brings wholeness. No program accomplishes the Church's mission. No set of goals and objectives includes everything. This is what we are about: we plant seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities. We cannot do everything and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for God's grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own. (St. Oscar Romero)

We must not follow the alarmists who fuel fear of others and of the future, for fear paralyzes the heart and mind. Yet how often do we let ourselves be seduced by a frantic desire to know everything right now, by the itch of curiosity, by the latest sensational or scandalous news, by lurid stories, by the screaming of those who shout loudest and angriest, by those who tell us it is “now or never”. This haste, this everything right now, does not come from God. If we get worked up about the right now, we forget what remains forever: we follow the passing clouds and lose sight of the sky. Drawn by the latest outcry, we no longer find time for God or for our brother and sister living next door. How true this is today! In the frenzy of running, of achieving everything right now, anyone left behind is viewed as a nuisance. And considered disposable. How many elderly, unborn, disabled and poor persons are considered useless. We go our way in haste, without worrying that gaps are increasing, that the greed of a few is adding to the poverty of many others. As an antidote to haste, Jesus today proposes to each of us perseverance. “By your endurance you will gain your lives” (v. 19). Perseverance entails moving forward each day with our eyes fixed on what does not pass away: the Lord and our neighbour. This is why perseverance is the gift of God that preserves all his other gifts (cf. St. Augustine;, De Dono Perseverantiae, 2.4). Let us ask that each of us, and all of us as Church, may persevere in the good and not lose sight of what really counts. (Pope Francis)

Homily

What is it about that temple? The glory of Solomon’s reign, who built its first version, it was destroyed by the Babylonians. The second one, rebuilt in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, was much more modest. It would be desecrated at the time of the Maccabean revolt and then rededicated on the first Hanukkah. When King Herod restored its ancient splendor it must have seemed indestructible. But then the Romans destroyed it in 70AD leaving only the Western Wall where its ruins are wailed over until this day.

It seems Jesus had a complicated relationship with the temple. Luke tells us he grew up in a family that honored temple traditions including the annual pilgrimage festivals. John sets many scenes of Jesus’ public ministry in the temple — where he often clashed with the authorities — and where he would claim to be the true temple (Jn. 2:19). And then there was the famous incident where he drove the moneychangers from the temple precincts calling the place a “den of thieves.”

So there's no doubt “bricks and mortar” religion is secondary to Jesus’ preference for religion “in spirit and in truth.” And those costly stones and votive offerings of temple religion — so easy to admire — have no guarantee of survival. Indeed, the days would come when there would not be left a stone upon another stone that would not be thrown down (cf. G).

And what of politics — that other engine of human history alongside religion? Well, Jesus had a few predictions about that too. For one, he warned of false Messiahs who would beguile the masses, saying: See that you not be deceived, for many will come in my name, saying, 'I am he,' and 'The time has come.’ Do not follow them! (G). And while Luke himself might have been thinking of an unnamed Egyptian Jew he mentions in the Acts of the Apostles “who started a revolt and led four thousand terrorists out into the wilderness” (21:38) — there has never been a shortage of people ready to anoint a Messiah who promised he alone could fix the world's problems.

As for wars and insurrections which must happen first (G) before the wrap-up to human history, well, Luke probably had in mind the Zealots who tried to overthrow the Romans in the years prior to the destruction of the temple as recorded by Josephus in The Jewish War. Jesus himself was well aware of zealotry — one of his apostles, Simon, was a Zealot. And Judas was no doubt a sympathizer, his surname Iscariot possibly a corruption of Sicari — people who carried concealed daggers in the hope of killing Romans or their collaborators. Remember how Peter also had one of those daggers on his person in the Garden of Olives that he used to cut off the ear of the high priest's slave Malchus? They must have been disappointed when Jesus announced his approach to political violence: “Those who live by the sword will die by the sword.” But what would Americans know about concealed weapons?

And so it goes. War-mongering types like Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu are always with us. The recent threats to resume nuclear testing by the Commander-in-Chief along with the saber-rattling of his newly-minted "Secretary of War" also contribute to nation rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom (G). Often with religious lapdogs to support them.

And what about powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place (G). Go check out earthquaketrack.com. You’ll see of 109 of them in the past 24 hours! While the starvation of Gaza, the suspension of USAID — already responsible for the deaths of 600,000 people, most of them children — and the calamity in Sudan have led untold numbers starving or starved. (Cf. The New Yorker; November 5, 2025) As for plagues — have we already forgotten 2020? And astronomers have been mystified in recent weeks by an awesome sight come from the sky in the form of iatlas3, an interstellar visitor no one knows what to make of.

Finally, there's no shortage of believers — and not just the ones Luke knew about — who are being seized and persecuted and put to death (cf. G). For example, "Nigeria has become known as the world’s center of Christian martyrs. In any given year, the number of Christians killed by extremist groups is rarely less than 4,000—often more than in the rest of the world combined" (globalchristianrelief.org) .

So was Luke's prophecy fulfilled in his own day? Or in ours? Both, really. For there are people in every age ready to announce “the end is near,” citing the Bible as proof, but the truth is we've been living in the end times ever since Christ's resurrection inaugurated the new age of God's reign. What the Bible really does is keep us guessing about the day which is coming, blazing like an oven, when all the evildoers will be stubble and there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays (I) — so that by our perseverance we will secure our lives (cf. G).

That’s what Paul was trying to get across to those people in Thessalonika who were so convinced the Second Coming was just around the corner they quit working ‘cause, after all, what’s the point in saving for retirement when everything’s coming to an end anyway? To which the apostle responds with advice to keep busy, mind your own business, and work quietly (cf. II). Advice that's good for any age — including our own. Amen.

Intercessions (The Sunday Website; Joe Milner)

For the Church: that we may offer hope and vision to all the human family in times of confusion and chaos.

For the grace of perseverance: that God will strengthen and sustain us to remain faithful in our discipleship in times of trial and distress.

For courage: that we may face the future, with both its joy and sorrows, confident that God who makes all things work together, is always with us and desires to give us fullness of life.

For all who are experiencing an “end of their world”: For those who have become ill, lost employment, been divorced or who are grieving the death of a loved one: that they may know God’s comforting presence this day and be strengthened by God’s spirit.

For families that are divided and in opposition to one another: that God's peace may touch their hearts and lead them toward reconciliation and healing.

For all who are persecuted, deprived of their rights, and used as pawns by the powers of this world: that the Sun of Justice may rise for them, heal their wounds, and raise the lowly to high places.

For peace: that God will open new ways to ensure peace and help nations to renounce nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction.

For all who have died, particularly those who have served as our pastors, teachers, mentors and spiritual guides: that God will lead them into the fullness of life in God’s presence forever.

Lord God of all the ages, the One who is, who was, and who is to come, stir up within us a longing for your kingdom, steady our hearts in time of trial, and grant us patient endurance until the sun of justice dawns. We make our prayer through Christ our Lord. Amen. (ICEL; 1998)

Offertory Antiphon

Offertory Hymn

The day is coming, even now, A day of judgment-time most dire, When persecution shall ensue, And faith be tried as though by fire.

For those who face these times of stress, Endurance shall the battle stay: The Sun of Righteousness shall rise With healing in his ev’ry ray.

Work on in hope—the Lord will come, Although he seems to long delay. In courage wait, and faithful bide Throughout the coming battle-fray.

Communion Antiphon

Closing Hymn

Be still my soul, the Lord is on thy side. Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain. Leave to thy God to order and provide. In every change He faithful will remain.

Be still my soul, thy best, thy heavenly friend. Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still my soul when dearest friends depart. And all is darkened in the vale of tears. Then shalt thou better know His love, His heart. Who comes to soothe thy sorrow and thy fears

Be still my soul; the waves and winds shall know. His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below.

Be still my soul; the hour is hastening on. When we shall be forever with the Lord. When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone. Sorrow forgot - love's purest joys restored

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