(REMEMBER TO PRAY IN THIS MONTH OF NOVEMBER FOR YOUR RELATIVES, LOVED ONES AND FRIENDS WHO HAVE DIED).
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”.
Mal 3:19-20a; 2Thess 3:7-12; Lk 21:5-19
“LORD, HELP ME TO WORK AND LEAD A GOOD LIFE UNTIL YOU COME AGAIN”.
As we draw closer toward the end of the Liturgical Year, which ends next Sunday, specifically, the Saturday of Christ the King’s Sunday, scriptures give us a constant reminder about the end times. They give us predictions regarding what will happen at the end of time, at the end of our earthly lives. However, as to when or the exact time the end-time will occur, we are not told and we do not know. Even the Son of Man himself says he does not know.
One thing scripture readings toward the end of the Liturgical Year aim at doing is to help us evaluate ourselves, our lives and our actions over the year. Where we have done well, we give praise and honour to God but where we have not done well, we humbly ask for forgiveness from God and then make amends for the coming year.
This is necessary because, since no one knows when the end-time will appear, it is good to always evaluate ourselves to put order, as well as sanity, in our lives and actions.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus focuses chiefly on the destruction of the temple and the persecution of the early Christians; “All that you see here, the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down… Before all this happens, however, they will seize and persecute you, they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons…” (Lk 21:5ff). In the portion of the Prophet Malachi we reflect on in the first reading, the Prophet issues a warning about the end-time; “Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven, when all the proud and all the evil doers will be stubble…” (Mal 3:19ff).
Predictions about the end-time are mostly frightening. They sound more frightening by the way some men and women of God present them to us. Jesus was aware that some of these preachers would cast fear into people regarding the end times, thereby misleading a lot of people. Already at the time of St. Paul, this was happening. Some men of God misinterpreted Paul’s teaching about the end-time, preaching falsely about it with the insistence that the world was already ending and that work was therefore useless.
This made some people not work but instead idled about, disturbing others who were working. St. Paul wrote this portion of his second letter to the Thessalonians to correct them. These false preachers or impostors failed to understand that work has great value in the light of eternity, because each of us will be judged at the end-time according to the way and manner we each committedly and dedicatedly discharge our responsibilities given to us by God in this life.
Also, in today’s Gospel, Jesus warns us against such false preachers or impostors and their predictions in which they claim to know the exact time the world will end. “Take care not to be misled. Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he’, and ‘The time is at hand’. Do not follow them”. We need to endure in whatever good thing we are doing in this life, while waiting for the day our life will end, but we do not know when.
Indeed, people who give such wrong predictions and messages about the end-time are not spiritually sound and balanced. At best, they are fanatics and fanatics are murderers and poisonous people. One simple, quick and genuine way to determine a spiritually sound person is to look at the person’s good performances or results in life; the person’s good and holy life and how his/her life positively affects or influences others in his/her family, co-workers, etc. Good and sound utterances, humble simplicity of life and good relationships with fellow human beings are also proof that one is spiritually sound.
A spiritually sound person, therefore, will not make predictions for fame, self-interests and personal gains, without considering their devastating effects on people, society and the world at large.
Let us be watchful and vigilant about such ‘confident predictors, for we will know them by their fruits’. Let us pray to always stay awake, prepare ourselves and put our lives in order, and discharge our responsibilities at all times with all dedication and commitment, while awaiting the end-time in our lives. Stay blessed and happy 33rd Sunday.
WE MEDITATE TODAY, SUNDAY, ON THE GLORIOUS MYSTERIES: ‘THE RESURRECTION, THE ASCENSION, THE DESCENT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, THE ASSUMPTION, AND THE CORONATION’. (WE PRAY FAITH, HOPE, LOVE OF GOD, GRACE OF A HAPPY DEATH AND TRUST IN MARY’S INTERCESSION)
“Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you, blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus: Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, sinners, now and at the hour of our death, Amen”.
PRAYER: “WE HAVE PARTAKEN OF THE GIFTS OF THIS SACRED MYSTERY, HUMBLY IMPLORING, O LORD, THAT WHAT YOUR SON COMMANDED US TO DO IN MEMORY OF HIM MAY BRING US GROWTH IN CHARITY. THROUGH CHRIST OUR LORD. AMEN”.
Rev. Fr. Aloysius Kpiebaya, Catholic Diocese of Wa, UW/R, Ghana. (00233) 0207867239/0545462863. Email: aloybaya20@yahoo.com.
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