33rd Sunday Ordinary Time

Readings: Malachi 3:19-20a, 2 Thessalonians 3:7-12, Luke 21:5-19

The Prophet Malachi speaks about the destruction of all that is not of God. You and I will need purification in order to live completely with God. In this life, you and I need to know God’s love for us. It is in responding to that love that we will be purified.

The Second Letter to the Thessalonians urges us all to work. There is no sense thinking that the world will end and that we will die and therefore there is no need to work any longer. The end is here. From the point of view of the Gospel, this is just foolishness. No one knows the day or the hour. We do not know when we will die or when the world will end. We know that we will die and we know that the world will end. But no one except God knows the time.

The Gospel of Luke speaks about all of the signs of the end times. Those signs are present in every age. Perhaps they are stronger in one age more than another, but they are always present. The world is always ending! We know that in the early Church some people got fascinated by this and spent their lives thinking about the end. Even today some people do that. The Gospel wants us to focus on the love of Christ and on sharing that love with others. There is no reason to be spending our time thinking of the end in a non-productive way. If we think of the end of the world and it helps us give more love and care to others, that is very good. If we think of the end of the world and it helps us live more faithful our present life, that is also very good.

The Scriptures are given to us to lead to us know God, to love God and to love one another. Sisters and brothers, let us give our lives over to the Lord, in His service, sharing His love with one anoth

 Fr. Terry