18.11.2007 - 33rd Sunday O.T. - Year C
First Reading: Mal 3,19-20 Psalm 98
Second Reading: II Thess 3,7-12 Gospel Reading: Luke 21,5-19

In conclusion to these reflections on holiness and becoming sanctified, I realise I have not accomplished very much. I almost feel the need to start all over again, but first I must start to put what I have written into practice. If I were to put into practice what I felt inspired to write, I would be able to say more! I hope to see your example, you who love Jesus and wish to glorify him together with Mary, his Mother, and all the saints who are preparing a welcome for us in heaven. In offering little acts of obedience to the Lord, in offering ourselves to the Father, in caring for our brothers and sisters, we will grow together and build a spiritual home of which the Father himself dreams. In this home he wishes to receive all people, above all those who do not know his love so that they might taste it and be nourished by it and in this way discover that he is the truth of our lives. When they stay in God's spiritual home even just for a short time, they will be illumined by the truth of his love and will be able to recognise Jesus and they will be filled with love for him and joy! And their joy will increase our joy; we are already joyful, but seeing that our faith and our daily efforts help others to come to Jesus, we will be overjoyed. Sometimes it is necessary to find help from someone who loves Jesus and lives for him. Many saints and spiritual fathers have set us an example and told us to look for someone trustworthy to be our guide on our journey on this earth in our search for Jesus, just as Tobias was told by his father! To look for the Word of God from a man who understands his will for us is an act of humility, but also a great joy: to find communion with someone on how to be obedient to God brings deep peace, serenity and courage which are sometimes necessary to be able to face difficult periods.

This Sunday is the last but one of the liturgical year; for this reason the readings are about the end of time, the end of things and the end of our earthly lives. In fact we realise the precariousness of everything and the danger in which we continually find ourselves due to illness, accidents or unexpected events. Jesus talks of this reality, hiding nothing and making no taboos. His words help us not to live superficially, to remain alert and to be aware of making idols of the beautiful things of this world. They are beautiful, attractive and useful and we admire those who make them, honouring them and making monuments to them and dedicating squares or streets to them. And we forget he who gave man the intelligence and the health which man needs to realise his inventions.
Today Jesus talks to his disciples about the artistic beauty of the temple of Jerusalem. They were overawed by the architecture of the building and the gold which made it shine. Jesus does not lose sight of man or of God. If man does not obey God, his beautiful creations are a trap. The wealth of the temple will attract the attention of thieves who will make it their own. They will have no interest in the artistic value and will destroy it completely just to get the gold! No stone will be left! These words proved to be prophetic of the temple of Jerusalem which was literally razed to the ground forty years after they were spoken, but they are also prophetic for thousands of other buildings made by men and Christians. And we should not forget that they are words which "do not pass", while our beautiful monuments, our cathedrals, our splendid palaces and all our social and charity works will have an end. We must not forget this, just as we must not forget to focus our attention on our inner lives, on our oneness with him in creating a spiritual structure that is pleasing to God.
Nothing in the world is stable or permanent. Nations move dragging with them their egoism, their arrogance and imposing their ways and sins with an innate destructive force. Those who listen to Jesus must be ready for these events and be ready to defend themselves from the attraction of what seems to be good in idolatry and atheism and be ready to testify to the only Saviour of mankind. Those who love Jesus do not have human securities which can sometimes be dangerous. They will sometimes even be betrayed by their relatives and be hated and cheated by those who claimed to love them. Earthquakes and disease are not to be feared as much as our own fragility in faith, our inability to testify. The future reserves many occasions when we will be able to manifest who we are, or better, who it is who gives us the strength to live, who gives us joy and the strength to love, who gives us meaning and direction. We will have the joy of offering to many the possibility of drawing close to Jesus' salvation, but we must be alert and aware of how to discern between what comes from God and what simply appears to be good. We must never forget that everything passes if we want to hold on to what remains or rather to he who remains and who truly loves us and is blessed for ever and ever!

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