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(Malachi 3, 19-20; 2 Thess 3, 7-12; Luke 21, 5-19: 33rd Sunday of the Year C 2016)
Sometimes it appears that evil forces seem to prevail over the good and evil doers seem to be more powerful than sincere and honest people. For the unbelievers this does not constitute any problem. But for the believer it does, and they often ask: How is it that God watches things go so bad? How it is that God allows the just always to have the worse part? Is there no time when justice will be done? Such questions were posited by the Israelites of the time following the liberation from Babylon. This was a time, for various reasons, of deep crisis of delusion as the promises of the prophets seemed not to be fulfilled. It was a time of desperation that gave rise to religious infidelity, disorder in the area of morality and apostasy of the young ones
Sometimes it appears that evil forces seem to prevail over the good and evil doers seem to be more powerful than sincere and honest people. For the unbelievers this does not constitute any problem. But for the believer it does, and they often ask: How is it that God watches things go so bad? How it is that God allows the just always to have the worse part? Is there no time when justice will be done? Such questions were posited by the Israelites of the time following the liberation from Babylon. This was a time, for various reasons, of deep crisis of delusion as the promises of the prophets seemed not to be fulfilled. It was a time of desperation that gave rise to religious infidelity, disorder in the area of morality and apostasy of the young ones
In the Old Testament the expression, the Day of the Lord appears in several places. The Day of the Lord is the time of fulfillment of all God’s promises and the realization of the destiny of the world. It is a time when justice will be revealed, when the scales of righteousness will be balanced, when good will be rewarded and evil punished and when evil will no longer prevail over good, nor wicked men over honest and sincere people. Initially, Israel thought that this day would be a time of vindication and, therefore, of rejoicing for them. Some saw it as the day of liberation, and therefore, of joy and happiness. The prophets, however, were announcing that the day would be that of anger and fury. In the first reading of today, Malachi describes the day thus: The day is coming now, burning like a furnace; and all arrogant and the evil-doers will be like stubble. The prophets, like Malachi, set the Israelites straight on the issue, insisting that Israel itself would have to face the righteous anger of God. Israel will have to pay for its sinfulness; there would have to be just recompense. 
The gospel reading of today, which describes the destruction of Jerusalem that took place 70 years after the death of Christ is to be considered as a prefiguration of the end of the world, of the final judgment and the manifestation of the glory of Christ. To the admirers of the temple in Jerusalem, Jesus indicated that there would be a time when the magnificent temple would be so destroyed that no stone would lie on top of the other. The interlocutors of Jesus wanted to know when that would be and what signs would precede it. Jesus did not answer any of the questions but changed the discussion to what would happen at the end of the world and the glorious coming of his Kingdom. Even in this case, he did not indicate time or signs that would precede the event. What is to be taken home from the gospel reading is that the end of the world and the glorious coming back of Jesus will surely take place but not so immediate and imminent. Jesus did, however, stressed two things. First, is the indication to his disciples, on what would be happening in the short and long run of the history of the church and the world. They include civil issues like wars and revolutions; cosmic matters like earthquakes, pestilence and lack of essential commodities necessary for human life; political issues like persecution from the ruling class, or from ones members of the family. These are what to be expected in the course of the life of any Christian, at any given time and epoch. The second area where Jesus stressed was: In such circumstances as we have above how should the disciple of Christ then, and the Christian of today behave? This is at the heartbeat of Jesus. The disciples of Jesus and Christian of all ages should heed the following points: (a) He should not allow himself be swayed away from the correct path by false prophets who claim to be Messiahs or friends of the Messiah. The Christian is not to listen to them at all. (b) The Christian is not to allow himself be terrorised by stories about wars, revolutions, cosmic cataclysms; he is not to panic or be anxious on account of what is happening but he is to confront the situation holding on to his Christian values. (c) The Christian is to bear witness to his faith; the persecutions, threats and even the sacrifice of one’s life are occasions and opportunities for the Christian to express his love for Christ and the confidence he reposes on Christ. (d) He has to persevere in his faith, constant in his faithfulness to the gospel and coherent in his life
In practical terms and in summary, what the Lord Jesus wants from us and every Christian of every epoch is that we do not allow ourselves to be blocked or paralysed by any event at all, no matter how pernicious it may seem to be. Jesus has conquered all things on our behalf. We are not to live in inertia, or in disinterest in, or in alienation from, the concrete problems of this life. On the contrary, we are to get ourselves more involved, allowing our actions to be informed by the gospel values and courageously inserting ourselves in all ambients of life, be it social, economic, political, cultural, just as the Vatican Council II document exhorts us (Gaudium et see no. 37).
The problem of dis-engagement, inertia and parasite mentality resulting from the thought that everything finishes soon and that Christ’s glorious return was imminent was that of the church of Thessalonica (See 2nd Reading). Today we run the opposite risk of not engaging ourselves sufficiently in things that pertain to our Christian life. We neither think about the end of the world and the day of the judgment of the Lord, nor about the Day of the Lord. But taking the end of the world aside, our individual and personal lives are moving resolutely on its own towards their end and to particular judgment of God. We need to give this a serious thought so that within the time that is still at our disposal we would still be able to perform good works and transform not only our lives but also the ambient in which we live. May the good Lord grant us his grace and wisdom in today’s Sunday Eucharistic celebration
Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye
graphics by chukwubike oc
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