Homily for 33d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
33d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Nov. 13, 2022
Luke 21: 5-19
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx

A homily similar in parts was preached to Scouts on Saturday afternoon in Putnam Valley, N.Y.

“By your perseverance you will secure your lives” (Luke 21: 19).

Our gospel reading today covers a lot of ground.  It begins with people admiring the beautiful Temple of God in Jerusalem, which was rebuilt by King Herod the Great and actually still under construction at the time of today’s episode, a generation after Herod’s death.

Then Jesus speaks of the Temple’s destruction, of the end times, and of the in-between time when his disciples will be persecuted.

“The days will come when there won’t be one stone upon another that won’t be thrown down” (21:6).  That foretells the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70 A.D. after a great Jewish rebellion, the siege of Jerusalem, and the city’s fall.  The entire city was laid waste.  It was a horrible experience for the Jewish people, and a horrible living memory for many of St. Luke’s readers.

The Last Judgment (Giotto)

Jesus jumps from that horror to the horrors that will precede his 2d coming:  “Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,” and ‘The time has come’” (21:8).  Those will be false claims.  But before Jesus returns, humanity will undergo a lot of bad times:  wars, natural disasters, omens in the heavens (21:9-11).  In truth, our history never seems to be without such tribulations.

The Christians for whom Luke wrote his Gospel and its sequel, the Acts of the Apostles, knew another form of tribulation:  “They will seize and persecute you, … they will have you led before kings and governors because of my name.  It will lead to your giving testimony.  You will be hated by all because of my name” (21:12-13,17).  Luke’s Greek word for “testimony” is marturion.  To give testimony is to bear witness, to be a martyr.

Over 20 centuries, tens of thousands of Jesus’ disciples have borne witness, even to imprisonment, exile, and shedding their blood.  In our own days we’ve witnessed the bloody martyrdom of numerous Christians in the Middle East and West Africa by Moslem terrorists.  In 2016, you may remember, a French priest, Fr. Jacques Hamel, was stabbed to death at the altar by terrorists.  In the 1980s American missionary nuns, many catechists, and St. Oscar Romero were assassinated by the rulers of El Salvador because they defended the rights of the poor.  Right now Card. Joseph Zen, retired bishop of Hong Kong (one of my fellow Salesians) is on trial for defending the human rights of his countrymen.

In our country in the last 2 years there have been several hundred instances of vandalism and arson against Catholic churches and religious statues, including at St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the cardinal’s residence.  There are people who hate Jesus Christ and his Church because we continue to give testimony to the truths he preached, especially about God’s love for every person from the moment of conception in mother’s womb until natural death.

Most of us won’t directly encounter that kind of violence, tho we might if we take part in a pro-life march or protest.

But all of us are called to give testimony to Jesus every day by our manner of life:  by our chastity and marital fidelity; by our honesty; by our respect for family members, neighbors, co-workers, and people we meet on the street or the highway; by our kindness and patience; by our care for the poor, the homeless, the sick, the refugee.

It’s a truth of our faith that Jesus will return:  “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.”  We don’t know when or how.  There have been false claims that Jesus has come or his coming is imminent.  Really, that’s of no concern.  The future is in God’s hands.  We are in God’s hands.  What matters is that “by your perseverance you will secure your lives.” You’ll achieve your eternal salvation by being a faithful follower of Jesus.  As the prophet Malachi announced in the Lord’s name, “For you who reverence my name, there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays” (3:20).  The prayer of the Mass said, “It is full and lasting happiness to serve with constancy the author of all that is good.”  Serving our Lord Jesus in this life is the key to our happiness—here and eternally.