33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Mark 13, 24-32

The end of the world!!! Various people have anticipated it, various people have tried to predict when it will happen and so far we’re still around to tell the story.

Throughout the centuries, we have been fed of stories of doom and gloom of catastrophic events that will happen here on earth before the end of time. We even had movies about the earth being hit with a comet that would wipe out all life on earth as we know it. There’s also a movie about the earth being rocked with a massive earthquake followed by a roaring tsunami wiping out most of the human beings in its wake. Of course, we would not rule out the possibility of those things happening and if ever we would not know when will this be happening.

In the gospel for today, Jesus is predicting the coming back of the “Son of Man” in his glory. He also accompanies that coming with extraordinary celestial events and even made allusions that it will happen during the lifetime of those who heard him say those things but he definitely stopped saying the exact time it would happen.

During the time of Christ, there’s a big anticipation on the coming of the Messiah. And there even had predictions that his arrival will be accompanied with celestial signs. Do you remember about the star that the wise men from the East had followed? At that time, Israel was under the occupation of the Roman Empire and there’s anticipation among the Jews that the Messiah would come, build an army to fight the Roman Empire and restore the throne of David that would last forever. Of course, we all know that Jesus had a totally different idea from what the Jews were thinking.

I think you know of the story when St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits was asked by a novice on what he’ll do if an angel tells him that the world will end in fifteen minutes what will he do. St. Ignatius threw the question back to the novice and he said that he’ll grab a priest and he’ll make a quick confession and go to the chapel and pray until the end comes. Then St. Ignatius answered, “See what I am doing?” the novice answered, “You’re playing football.” The founder replied, “I’m going to continue to do what I’m doing until the Lord comes.” The moral of the lesson is that one should be prepared for we don’t know when the end will come.

We will never really know when the end will come. Even the signs that Jesus presented are really like he was saying that “tongue in cheek”. We can say that the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. We know that during an eclipse the sun is darkened. We know that during the eclipse and during the new moon the moon doesn’t give its light. It is during a meteor shower that it looks like the stars are falling from the sky. However, we all know that it has happened before and it will happen again but that did not result of the coming of the end as we know it. But if we think that it will never happen, we are horribly wrong. Because our faith tells us that we know Jesus will come again. In the old missal, one of the most popular acclamations of faith was “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.” And this is our prayer especially as we are nearing the season of Advent.

As we continue our reflection on the “end times” as we approach Advent, let us look at ourselves and see if we are prepared for the end times. Even though most probably this event would not happen during our lifetime but we all know that at the end of our lives, we will see face to face our Creator. Hopefully, when that time comes, instead of fear, we should be joyful and rejoice the fact that our salvation has finally arrived.