Today’s readings are full of gloom and doom. Daniel talks about a time of unsurpassed stress where some who die shall be in “everlasting horror and disgrace.” Sounds like he is describing hell. In the Gospel Mark presents the end of time as being the day of tribulations, when the earth will shake and even the stars will fall out of the sky. These readings sound rather scary.
But are they? Daniel predicts that many will live forever. This is the earliest mention of resurrection found in the Bible. The wise will shine brightly and those who lead the many to justice will be like the stars forever. In the gospel, Jesus tells us the elect will be gathered from the end of the earth to the end of the sky. That sounds like heaven, doesn’t it?
These selections from Daniel and Mark are written in the literary genre called apocalyptic writing, which uses poetry and prose to engage our imagination and emotions, jolting us into recognizing the horrors of sin and the devastation that sin causes.
The early Christians did not look at the Second Coming and end of time with terror. Instead they believed the Lord would soon return to correct the injustices of the world. Christians were being persecuted and put to death in horrible ways. The Romans had no respect for anyone other than their own and killed men, women and children viciously and randomly. This is not what God created the world to be. The world was suffering from sin. Therefore, Christians prayed, “Come, Lord Jesus, come and recreate the world into your image.”
The world has not changed all that much since then. Even in our country, the land of the free, good people are still persecuted because of their ethnicity, race or faith. Others hold to their worldly convictions, choosing instead to ignore the gospel message to be loving, compassionate, and just.
And yet, the world is changing. There is hope that war will not have the last word. There is hope that starvation will become a bad memory. There is hope that racism and sexism will not in the end dance a jig together. There is hope that oppression will not have a lasting foothold over the vulnerable. There is hope that those who do evil will not prevail. There is hope that every life will be valued.
Evil is not part of God’s plan but is a byproduct of our free will and a consequence of choices we sometimes make. The visions we heard today rely on us taking an active role in the conquest of evil. We are assured that if we take up the battle against evil, good will prevail and we will join in the triumph of God’s forces. Daily we must strive to make the quality of life more humane and more Christian.
After that tribulation, Jesus said, “Then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.” That Good News inspired many Christians to live daringly, holding fast to their traditions despite the allure of the secular world. In the end, goodness triumph will prevail as the Lord gathers his own to himself.
Believing in the Lord and hoping in this promise, we turn our attention to the work at hand: preaching the Gospel through our words and deeds, striving to bring the light of Christ to others. Even when we feel rejected by people whom we love, we proclaim the Gospel for we believe that Christ is coming. We do not know when but we know that He, the Lord of Light, is coming and so we continue to pray as He taught us, “Thy Kingdom Come.”
Then we add, “thy will be done.” While to others who find themselves in the misery described by Daniel, God will say, “Thy will be done.”
A relevant question for us to ponder would be, “How committed to God’s will are we?” If we are committed to the Lord, we have no reason to fear the end of time, nor even the moment of our death.
Every day we pray for the strength to remain committed to God no matter what temptations or crisis we face. We do this every time we say the Lord’s Prayer, which ends with: “And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” What we are saying is, “Lord, protect us from the evil that can destroy us. Help us to be holy, to spend eternity with you and not be in everlasting disgrace.”
If we follow the Lord’s will, we need not fear the end of time nor the end of our own time, death. What we should fear is giving in to the world and rejecting God’s blueprint for living. Now that’s scary.