Sunday November 14th : 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

“Don’t lose hope. ‘Summer is near!’” – Sunday Reflection by Brian Maher OMI

Mark 13:24-32

“Don’t lose hope. ‘Summer is near!’”

The first Christians lived in troubled times. From Rome, from the Jewish authorities they were hunted down, interrogated and possibly tortured and killed. Life and death, if you were a follower of Jesus, was that stark. We all know the story of St. Stephen, the first martyr, stoned to death while Paul, before his conversion, looked on and approved. Likewise we have all, I’m sure, seen Hollywood interpretations of Christians being thrown to the lions in Rome. The first Christians truly did risk death every day. They lived their faith in fear and isolation, supported only by one another.

To survive, to have the courage they needed to hold to the faith they had accepted and been newly baptised into, they needed hope. That hope came through the reality of the Resurrection – Jesus, put to death but raised from the dead, living in glory, and promising to be with his people forever. While that was the source of their hope, in a time of profound uncertainty, they also needed something in the future to hold on to, something to make sense of their suffering. And that is what today’s Gospel offered them. Not only was Jesus living and with his people but he was going to return, in great power and glory, to reward the faith of those who held true to his message and way of living.

In their uncertainty and persecution they were told, “Fear not! God has never, in the history of Israel, not honoured a promise or covenant he made with his people. Why would he start now? Therefore, hold your heads up. Jesus is returning…and returning soon…in power and glory to reward you.” It was a message of hope, based on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and his own words, “I will be with you always….”

Can’t you imagine them, at their secret meetings in each other’s homes, using the very words of today’s Gospel to support one another, giving new hope to those who may have lost a loved one.

The signs in the sky: The power and glory of the Risen Lord, who can overcome any power on Earth – be it Rome or the Jewish authorities.

His angels: sent to gather his chosen ones….. you! who have held on, trusting the faith passed on to you.

He will return soon: This very generation will see it happen!

An exact date and time: That is yet to be revealed, but “Summer is coming.”

You see, we can look at today’s Gospel as a warning of the power of God coming to wreak havoc on our world and bring punishment to his enemies. But that is not what those hearing this story would have seen in it.

For them it was a message of hope. Not a hope based on dreams and wishes but on the life, (his words and actions recounted by those who knew him), death (unjust and terrible), and resurrection (seen, touched, spoken to by his closest friends).

It was not a negative message about destruction but a superbly positive message that “Summer is near.”

We too live in troubled times, times of suffering, pain and uncertainty. Last week a person said to me, “You know, Covid has changed me. I am different now to the person I was before it…” How true! All of us in the world, rich and poor, regardless of colour, faith, or politics have come face to face with the fragility of life, the closeness of death and the awful uncertainty of not knowing if and when either I or a loved one will be struck down.

We too have lived, and maybe still live, in fear and isolation, terrified for ourselves and our loved ones, watching nightly the unspeakable tragedy of children, husbands, wives, partners whispering their goodbyes to loved ones through a mobile phone held by a doctor or nurse. If there is ever a time that we, as Christians, need a message of hope it is now.

So read the Gospel again, and like those men and women hearing it in the first century, hear it as they heard it. It talks of the “coming of Summer”, not Winter, it talks of hope and life and joy, not death and destruction and misery.

We live in similar times to those of the first followers of Jesus. They were uncertain, so are we; they were suffering, so are we; they were close, sometimes, to losing hope, so are we.

We share the same faith as they did. Faith in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, the person who said to them, “I am with you always.” and who says to us, “I am with you always.” For them “Summer did come” and with it peace and the survival of faith and hope. For us, it will come too. For God’s people, a promise made by their God was always kept, maybe not immediately, but throughout the Old Testament, every promise made was honoured. Why would we suppose that the promise of the Risen Lord “to be with us always” would not now also be honoured.

Pope Francis in 2013, named his first publication, “The Joy of the Gospel.” and the Gospel is just that…Joy…every word of it, and hope, not in something vague or invisible, but in a living person, Jesus, whose rising from the dead assured us that we can trust him…always…everywhere…with the certainty of a living faith.

As Christians we are called to witness to the joy of the Gospel, the unwavering hope we have that “Summer is near”, that the Risen Lord  is with us, that we have nothing to fear.

That’s the challenge!

Brian.

Brian is the director of Oblate Partners in Mission and is based at Denis Hurley House, Quex Road, Kilburn. If you have any comments, questions or thoughts on this scripture reflection, please feel welcome to email Brian at b.maher@oblates.ie

Thank you for reading and reflecting with us!