Word to the Wise
Sunday, November 16, 2025 - 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time - C
[Mal 3:19-20a; 2 Thess 3:7-12; Luke 21:5-19]Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven, when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire, leaving them neither root nor branch, says the Lord of hosts. But for you who fear my name, there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays. [Malachi] "See that you not be deceived, for many will come in my name, saying, 'I am he', and 'The time has come.' Do not follow them!" [Luke]
This Sunday is the next to last Sunday in the liturgical year, so the Church has arranged that the scriptures for the day speak of the end of time - the second coming of Christ. Next Sunday we will celebrate the feast of Christ the King and Advent will begin the Sunday after that. The cycle of the story of redemption ends and begins once more.
The first scripture and the gospel for today speak to the "end times." The prophet Malachi is quite colorful in his preaching. He has been imitated over and over again through the centuries. Others, using various methods, have tried to fix the date of the Second Coming and gathered followers to be ready on the day. And over and over again, their calculations have been proven mistaken. Jesus' own words in the Gospel According to Matthew: "Of that day, no one knows except the Father...." [Matt. 24:36] do not seem to have convinced them!
Many different occurrences and "prophets" have occurred, as Jesus tells us today in the Gospel According to Luke, that have led people to believe the end of time has come. The destruction of the temple in Jerusalem (which the Romans did) and other calamities sparked that kind of reaction. The early Christian community, including St. Paul early in his ministry, thought the Second Coming would occur in the lifetimes of the first believers in Jesus. Today's gospel simply describes what was going on at the time of its composition. There were, indeed, wars and earthquakes. And Christian believers were indeed being betrayed by family and friends. The gospel was composed to encourage them to persevere, no matter when the Second Coming would occur.
God created TIME when God created the universe. And only God knows when this creation will end. Our task is to live in expectation of our own salvation in faith during our lifetime. None of us knows when our life will end. As a friend of mine once told me: "Nobody is promised a 'tomorrow.'" The colorful 'apocalyptic' language of Malachi and others in the Old Testament and the gospels and Book of Revelation in the New Testament are a warning, but do not set a date. AMEN
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