“FIRST IMPRESSIONS”
33rd SUNDAY (B) November 17, 2024

Daniel 12: 1-3; Psalm 16; Hebrews
10: 11-14,18; Mark 13: 24-32

by Jude Siciliano, OP

Dear Preachers:

In difficult times God can seem distant and perhaps impotent. Going through serious trials some people ask, “Where is God? Why doesn’t God help me?” They might even say, “Can God help me?”

At these times some people need assurance and even a sign that God is not far away and preoccupied. During testing times people find solace and hope in apocalyptical literature. That’s what we have today. Our readings from Daniel and Mark contain apocalyptical language and are reminders that the Bible is more like a library of diverse books than one uniform piece of literature. The prophet Daniel is an apocalyptical book; the reading from Mark has Jesus speaking in apocalyptic images.

Today is the 2nd from the last Sunday in this liturgical year, our readings have turned apocalyptical with a focus on the end times. Such writings are usually stirred up when a people are in distress, especially from persecution. When the present is bad for God’s people they will look to the future, hoping God will someday rescue them. For them, apocalyptical texts speak to their current need for assurance.

Apocalyptical language can sound weird to the modern reader. It is symbolic language that speaks of dreams and visions. The people for whom it was written understood the texts were referring to real events, and were offering hope to those who needed it. Some modern biblical readers take the images literally. The people for whom they originally were meant did not. When I turn on the television I can quickly distinguish between the news and the weather report. The people to whom the apocalyptical texts were directed knew what they were reading.

The imagery in Daniel today will appear later in the Book of Revelation. Daniel wrote during the 2nd century BCE. The Israelites were afflicted with terrible persecution by the Syrians. They must have wondered, as we sometimes do when we are suffering: Where was God?; Why wasn’t God coming out to help them? Because the present was so bad the Book of Daniel directs the believers to the future when God’s angel Michael will come to free them from their afflictions. Things might go from bad to worse, but they were to sustain their hope because, Daniel prophesies, God will free them. Their suffering is not the end of the story, God will come with a final judgment. This reading contains the earliest statement in the Scriptures of the resurrection of the dead, “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake.”

This must have been an extraordinary piece of good news to the people in such misery. Despite appearances the Israelites were called to have faith in God’s saving power. The question for us is: “Can we do the same?” Daniel promises the dead shall rise and live forever and those who live justly will live in eternity and “shine brightly.” Who are the “shining stars” of our faith? Who have instilled hope in us? For them we give thanks at this Eucharist.

Isn’t the gospel reading scary? Jesus is near the end of his public ministry. In the next verses Mark will reveal the priests’ and scribes’ plan to arrest and kill him (14:1 ff). Jesus’ description of the end times contains language that sends chills up the spines of his disciples. He predicts there will be wars, false prophets, natural disasters, persecutions and betrayals. (It sounds a lot like what’s happening in our modern world!) We are tempted to skip today’s passage and turn the page in search of more consolation from the Scriptures.

Jesus warns that “the sun will be darkened.” Their accustomed world, with its signs of God’s favor, the temple and the city of Jerusalem, will be torn down. How terrifying and disorienting it will be for them! Their “lights”will be extinguished and they will not be able to see the familiar and reassuring. How could they find their way? Which direction should they turn?

But it sounds so contradictory. When it seems nothing could be worse, Jesus tells them “THEN” a significant change will happen in their lives; they will behold the appearance of “the Son of Man” coming to them. The disciples must have been confused by what Jesus was telling them. They had been following Jesus, hoping for a fulfillment of a “prosperity gospel.” They were Jesus’ followers and surely only good would come their way. After all, they had pinned their hopes on Jesus because he had proved his powers by his miracles and forceful preaching. Surely he would not fail them and his opposition triumph!

Jesus echoes their faith and hope speaking to them in apocalyptical language. He was preparing them for a terrible disappointment. But that would not be the end of the story. Amid the collapse Jesus is asking them to trust and have hope in him, even when their world turns dark.

As threatening as today’s gospel is, with all its vivid and stressful imagery of pain and despair, in the end it is not a gospel of doom. It certainly includes the harsh realities of life. As I write this in mid-October the leader of Hamas has been killed by the Israelis, along with 40,000 Palestinian civilians. We wonder, “What’s next?” Last week was the anniversary of the slaughter of the Israeli civilians; the war in Ukraine grinds on; Sudan is starving, the West in our country and parts of South America are suffering another drought and several more men had been executed here in our country. I will run out of ink before I can finish a list of the world’s present distress. And I have not even mentioned the agony of people I know who are suffering severe illnesses and family tragedies.

Amid his dire predictions, Jesus tells his followers to look well at the small buds about to blossom, harbingers of summertime. Distress is not the final word of the story. He speaks to us: look more closely. What signs of hope do we see that lift our spirits, ever so slightly, with hope. Hang on to them, they are reminders that God has not left us on our own, and are assurances Christ is coming with new life for us.

Jesus is advising us: Keep going – God is coming and will sustain us in our times of transitions. Next week is the feast of “Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.” Today’s gospel seems to be preparing us for a time of sobriety, vision and hope – Advent.

Click here for a link to this Sunday’s readings:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/111724.cfm