A Reflection for the 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year C).
Malachi 3:19-20 – 2Thess.3:7-12 – Luke 21:5-19.
The scripture readings today bear a prophetic message about the day and time when certain things will happen. The scriptures call such a day the day of the Lord.
The day of the Lord has been spoken about in the Scriptures for centuries before and after Christ, and certain phenomena are attributed to it. It is the day of God’s intervention in history when, as the responsorial psalm puts it, the Lord comes to rule the peoples with fairness. The day of the Lord can be understood more as a period rather than just a day (Ps90:4) when God’s plan for the world will be fulfilled. It is a period of Christ’s reign when everything will be made well – wrongs righted. The first reading spoke of this coming day of the Lord as the day when the Sun of justice shall rise for those who fear God, while evildoers are rewarded with retribution.
Generally, the bible talked about it with the sense of expectancy, nearness, and imminence (Ez.30:3; Joel2:1,3:14; Zeph1:7). It is the day of God’s visitation – when He visits the wicked and unbelievers with judgement and wrath (Isa 22; Amos 5), a day when terrible things will happen (Act2:20), and when God’s children and the righteous will be visited with salvation and restoration (Jer.30:1-17; Isa.10:27; Zach.13; Rom.11:26). As much as the bible talks about the day of Lord with some sense of imminence, it also shows us that it is not coming so soon as we expect it to be. God patiently waits for the salvation of many rather than their retribution (2Pet.3:8-15).
In Christianity, the day of the Lord has got another meaning. It is the day of the Lord’s resurrection, which we have adopted as our day of worship. We mark that day when Jesus, by his resurrection, gave us in clear visible sign, the hope of salvation and a vision into what the future holds for us who believe and follow in His steps. It is today: This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it (Ps.118:24). It is the day of the Lord, and we offer it to God for His praise and glory while looking forward to the final day; then we shall not celebrate the liturgy as we do now, because we shall be with God and see him face to face (Rev.22:4).
The Church has drawn us to reflect on the day of the Lord as we draw close to the end of the Liturgical year. Let us draw strength and inspiration from how Jesus instructed the people in the gospel who were admiring the aesthetics of the Temple. From hindsight, we can imagine that Jesus was alluding to the future destruction of their object of admiration. They had not gone beyond admiring stoneworks to admiring the most beautiful God for whom the Temple was erected. When one is captivated by the things that pass away, one tends to forget the Eternal. The emphasis in Jesus’ teaching is found in this statement: “take care not to be deceived.”
We must know that the passing things of life can deceive us and take our focus away from the Lord. Those with all they need and those who live in affluence should be aware that everything passes away, and they will have to leave this world someday. For those who are afraid of what the future may hold, we are reminded to take care that the cares of life don’t lead us away from God. Hunger and disease, sickness, disasters, and war can agitate and frighten us to the extent that we lose focus on the essential things in life, especially the care for our souls. This time is challenging economically for us as individuals and as a nation. We should take care and not forget to care for others as we struggle to care for ourselves.
Furthermore, St Paul writing his second letter to the Thessalonians (2R), identified how they had lost focus on doing important things in life, their labour, because they were expecting an imminent 2nd coming of Christ (Parousia). Some of them might have imagined the vanity of doing anything since Christ was coming soon, and they would leave everything behind. But Paul taught them they should wait on the Lord, not in idleness, but doing their work and earning their living.
How does the day of the Lord inspire you today? Today is our day, as it is the Lord’s day. It is a day we are reminded through the celebration of the Holy Mass of God’s love for us and how he wants us to care for one another even in difficult times. It is our day to witness to the Lord through our different actions and the care we give to our souls. It is our day to seek and practice justice, our day to heal the world, our day to provide food to the hungry, mend the brokenhearted, and liberate those in captivity. As long as the Lord’s day endures, keep witnessing to the Lord through the services you render in the Church and the community and the sacrifices you make for others. May our endurance win us our salvation. Amen. God bless you.