Winter is Coming - 33rd Sunday of OT, B
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From Kenrick-Glennon Seminary |
Winter is coming . . . or is it already here?! This is the most snow I’ve seen in my time
yet in St. Louis, but it’s all gone after three days! And it’s hard to believe that just a month
ago we were experiencing 90 degree weather.
In fact, this winter caught me completely off-guard, and as I was
wondering why, here’s what I determined.
At the seminary, I spend nearly all of my day inside. It’s one huge building; I can walk from my
room downstairs to the chapel, then over to the refectory, then to the
classrooms, library, other friends’ rooms, and so on. The only time I would need to go outside is
to walk the short distance over to the gym to work out. Thus, I’m not outside to notice the
temperature change, the changing leaves on the trees, and the animals preparing
for winter. I spend so much time in my
house that I’m not outside to see the signs of winter coming.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus makes the same claim. We can look at the fig tree to notice how it
is blooming, and we know that summer is coming.
By seeing the signs of summer, we are able to prepare for it. In a similar way, Jesus urges us to notice
the signs of his coming. If we aren’t
attentive to the signs of the times, which Jesus says is the brokenness of our
world, then we won’t be prepared for his coming. We can get so caught up being in our own
houses – our daily schedule, the tasks we need to do, our habits built up over
time, our consumption of media – that we don’t go outside of ourselves to
notice that Jesus is coming, or is already here. How can we be better prepared for this?
Our readings today have this encouragement: come outside of
the houses of our lives to notice Jesus coming.
So let’s take a few minutes to do so and be attentive to Jesus’ words
for us. The first reading presents us
with what we are preparing for, this powerful image of what it will be like at
the end of the universe and our lives.
“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.” What this is referring to is the last things:
death, judgment, heaven, and hell. In
the beginning, God created this universe and human beings to be in communion
with Him, to respond to His love and join Him in eternal life. But Adam and Eve broke that relationship
through their sin, and that sinfulness has continued throughout humanity. They turned away from God who is Life, and if
it weren’t for His redemption through Jesus, we would be doomed to eternal
death. Yet we still have this choice
that we will be judged on: will we receive this love and redemption and live
according to God’s plan for us, or will we turn away from Him through sin and
isolation? This is the choice of heaven
or hell. God created us with free will
to either receive or reject His love, expressed through relationship with Him
and by following His commandments and His grace, and it’s a real possibility for
all of us to go either way.
C.S. Lewis, the author of the Chronicles of Narnia and many
other books, wrote an essay called, “The Weight of Glory,” and here’s how he
states this same idea: “It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible
gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest, most uninteresting person you
can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be
strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now
meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.”
We don’t really think about this reality every day, but isn’t this the
most important thing, affecting all of us?
Then Lewis points out our role in this: “All day long we are, in some
degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in
the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the
circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all of our dealings with
one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no
ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.”
The Gospel continues on this theme: “And then they will see
‘the Son of Man coming in the clouds’ with great power and glory, and then he
will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the end
of the earth to the end of the sky.” We
say in the creed every Sunday that Jesus will come to judge the living and the
dead. This world as we know it will have
an end, but Jesus’ Kingdom will have no end.
We are created for this eternal life – when all injustice will be ended,
tears will be wiped away, and death’s dominion taken away.
So we can come outside of ourselves to see this reality, but
how do we enter into it? We know that we
are inflicted with our weakness, sinfulness, and woundedness – that we need
something more than what we can do on our own.
So this is where the second reading from the letter to the Hebrews comes
in. These past few weeks, we’ve been
hearing repeatedly that Christ is the high priest who has offered himself once
and for all for our sins. The Hebrew
priests would offer sacrifices in the Temple to atone for sin, but Jesus gave
himself once on the cross: “For by one offering he has made perfect forever
those who are being consecrated.”
However, you may be wondering: if this is the case, then why do we go to
Mass over and over again? Because the
Mass is not an additional sacrifice; it is the
sacrifice that Jesus offers. When
the bread and wine become His Body and Blood, separated by death for our
salvation, the sacrifice of Calvary is re-presented to us, and we are brought
to the foot of the cross, which stands eternally for us. All of our sins have been taken into this
sacrifice, and we can offer ourselves along with Jesus to the Father. This is why we come here every Sunday: while
Jesus’ sacrifice doesn’t change, we change and have new things to offer with
Him.
So when we attend Mass, when we are here, we are brought
outside of our houses to remember the eternal reality for which we exist. When I get bogged down by my daily schedule
and tasks, I can come here to the altar and offer it all up to Jesus, coming
out of myself and into His love. The
same thing can happen when we take time in daily prayer. Imagine, if I’m able to take just ten minutes
each day to talk with the Lord and read His Word in the Scriptures, then I’m
coming outside of my house every day to be refreshed in my true identity as His
child and see the signs of His coming.
We’re coming to the end of our liturgical year, which means
that Advent is right around the corner.
Advent is all about becoming prepared for Jesus’ coming, so I encourage
you to begin considering: how can you live during this Advent to know the Lord
in a deeper way? One simple possibility
is to consider attending daily Mass during the week. Or you can commit to spending ten minutes a
day in prayer. Or you can choose a
particular way to be generous to those around you, to those who are not mere
mortals but brothers and sisters in Christ.
In this way, when Christmas comes, we aren’t caught off-guard by it but
are ready to embrace Jesus with our whole lives.
Jesus is coming, and indeed, he’s already here. Are we ready?
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