Homily for 33d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
33d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Nov. 16, 2025
Luke 21: 5-19
Villa Maria, Bronx
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx

“It will lead to your giving testimony” (Luke 21: 13).

A model of Herod's Temple

By Ariely - Own work, CC BY 3.0,

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4533576

The great Temple in Jerusalem, a most magnificent building, was still being rebuilt in Jesus’ time, 46 years after King Herod started the project.  For the Jews it was the home of the God whom they worshiped, the one God, creator of the universe, their friend and protector.

So Jesus’ prediction that it would be utterly destroyed, “not one stone left upon another” (21:6) was a shock.

St. Luke wrote his gospel after Jesus’ prophecy had been fulfilled.  A Roman army had crushed a Jewish rebellion and destroyed not only the Temple but the entire city after a long siege—war waged to suppress an insurrection foretold by Jesus (21:9).  If you go to Jerusalem today, the only remnant of the Temple that you’ll find is the famous “wailing wall,” the western retaining wall of the hill on which the Temple once stood.  In the Temple’s place stands the Muslim al-Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites.

The Romans celebrated their victory over the Jewish rebels by granting their general Titus a triumphant parade thru the Forum.  They didn’t have ticker tape, but they did build an arch in Titus’s honor.  You still can enter the Forum by walking under that arch, which bears carvings celebrating his conquest of Jerusalem.

   

 

Jesus links his people’s defeat and destruction to other cataclysmic events:  “powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place” (21:10), events not hard to forecast because they’re endemic to our lives on earth.  Such things, besides constant wars—Pope Francis counted about 30 conflicts going on now—and false prophets who claim, “I am he” (21:8), Christ returning or bearers of a new divine revelation or a new salvation, never end.  False messiahs—do you remember Jonestown and the Branch Davidians, not to mention monsters like Hitler and Mao—have appeared over and over, and Jesus’ advice, “Do not follow them!” (21:8), remains ever valid.

Likewise, constant war, even the danger of a nuclear war that could incinerate the earth, and constant natural disasters and plagues are not to shake our faith.

Nor are persecutions.  “They will hand you over” to the authorities “because of my name” (21:12), and you will be hated by all because of my name” (21:17).  The Roman authorities sporadically and viciously persecuted the Church.  As a companion of St. Paul, Luke witnessed that firsthand.  Persecution has been a constant of Christian history.  The 20th and 21st centuries have seen millions of Jesus’ followers sent to prisons, gulags, and firing squads.  Under the Nazis, the Dachau concentration camp was called the largest monastery in the world because of the thousands of priests there put to hard labor and medical experiments—including numerous Salesians; I lived with one survivor at Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey.  In our time, Catholics and other believers are kidnapped and tortured, slaughtered in raids, blown up by jihadists, and gunned down by death squads like St. Oscar Romero and other Central American martyrs.

From the USCCB

In such a context, Jesus tells us, “It will lead to your giving testimony,” to being witnesses; that, in fact, is what the word martyr means.  Whether under persecution or just the “ordinary” pressure of living as Christians, we testify to our faith in Jesus.  Pope Leo and our bishops have reminded us that our faith in Jesus requires giving witness to the dignity of every person, including migrants and refugees seeking personal safety and a livelihood.

Christ’s kingdom alone will stand forever.  He alone is the way, the truth, and the life.  He alone is worthy of our discipleship.  He alone satisfies the deepest desires of our hearts.  He is our “sun of justice with healing rays” (Mal 3:20), and “it is full and lasting happiness to serve with constancy the author of all that is good” (Collect).