Reflection for Tuesday, November 23, 2010: 34th week in Ordinary Time.
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Authors
Hamm, Dennis, S.J.
Issue Date
2010-11-23
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en_US
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When I read today's gospel reading from Luke and I hear Jesus say, "All that you see here-the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down," I have a vivid visual memory of seeing dismantled the very stones that Jesus was talking about. He is referring to the enormous blocks of Jerusalem sandstone, some of them as large as a railroad boxcar, that Herod the Great cut from a nearby quarry to build up the vast stone box that frames the huge platform that supported the temple sanctuary. What we call the Western Wall is a remnant of that magnificent structure, which still supports the Islamic shrine called the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aksa mosque that sit on what we still call the Temple Mount. Contemporary archeology has revealed the topmost stones that the invading Roman militia pushed off their base and caused them to fall way down to the first-century street bellow, where they still sit after nearly two thousand years. So what Jesus prophesied was fulfilled. The Romans came and dismantled the temple precincts in A.D. 70. And Jesus' point remains in place: the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 was indeed not the end.||As the Church focuses on the end-time passages from the New Testament at this season of the end of the liturgical year, it is crucial that we not be distracted by the Doomsday scenario cobbled together in the 19th century, the one that shows up in the "Left Behind" series of novels and which rivets the imaginations of many fundamentalist Christians. That scenario looks biblical, because it quotes various passages of Scripture but takes them out of context, creating a system of signs that was never intended by any of the biblical authors. (I dealt with this in some detail in a piece in the Creighton Magazine a few years ago, which is archived on this website *summer, 2005, beginning at page 46.) That scenario is all about trying to predict the second coming of Christ, rather than on living the mission that he established in the first coming.|Note that in today's reading Jesus says, "See that you not be deceived, for many will come in my name, saying, 'I and he,' and 'The time has come.'" He goes on in this speech to refer to the many things that must occur before the end. As in Mark's and Matthew's version of this discourse of Jesus, the main point is not to try to figure out the "schedule" of the end, but to stay alert in the time between-now already nearly 2000 years!-and live the gospel life as the Spirit leads us here and now.|Next time you hear someone say, "The end-times are coming," tell them, "According to the New Testament, we have been in the end-times for two millennia, ever since the Reign of God was inaugurated by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. As for the End of the end-times, the Bible tells us explicitly not go "go figure." Jesus urges us to get on with our lives and leave the ending of the end-times to the Father. Meanwhile, we are not to be distracted by the spooky imagery of the book of Revelation about the End (fire, ice, locusts) into thinking that God's creation is so much disposable trash. Transient as our planetary system may be, with only five billion years of energy left in our Sun, for the time being, our planet is our main focus to live the command to love our neighbor. That surely means taking seriously the management of our scarce fresh water reversing our contribution to a very threatening pattern of climate change.
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University Ministry, Creighton University.
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These reflections may not be sold or used commercially without permission. Personal or parish use is permitted.
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Lectionary number: 504