YOLO

33^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Cycle C

What a strange thing to say.

Imagine if you and some friends were visiting St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome or even the Cathedral of the Madeline here in Salt Lake and you were oohing and ahhing about the beautiful architecture and artwork and someone in the group said, “You know, all of this is going to be destroyed soon. You’d probably think, “What a downer! Who asked for your opinion?” Awkward.

But Jesus’ disciples didn’t have that reaction. They didn’t say to Jesus, “What do you mean, it will all be destroyed?” They asked him when it would happen. Not if but when. It’s almost as if they were expecting it to happen, and Jesus just confirmed that expectation.

That’s because they were.

The Jews of Jesus’ time were apocalyptic, eschatological. They were looking for the Messiah, and they believed that he would bring about the end days. This belief was in the writings of the prophets, and during the last few centuries it had risen to fever pitch. They saw the end and the coming of the Messiah as relief from their own suffering. They weren’t afraid of the end; they saw it as a good thing. And so, if they believed that Jesus was the Messiah, it was natural that he would say such a thing and natural that they would respond as they did.

What they didn’t expect was that Jesus’ answer included not glory but even more suffering and persecution. They thought the end was going to be the glorious restoration of Israel to its rightful place atop the nations. They did not expect destruction. They thought the Messiah would destroy the Romans. They didn’t dream that the Messiah himself would have to suffer under their hands. They never dreamed that their beloved temple and city would be crushed into the dust by them.

And yet that is what they got. The temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. Not one stone was left atop the other. And in 135AD Jerusalem and the entire nation was wiped out by the Romans during the rebellion of Bar Kokhba. The Jewish people would be dispersed throughout the world, to suffer even more persecution and suffering, for the next 2000 years.

Jesus was talking about something that would happen within one generation of his death and resurrection, yet his prophesy has rung true throughout all generations. There have always been wars and the threat of war, famine and natural disasters, and the end has not yet come. And so, I think we get complacent about the end and get lulled into a false sense of security.

The difference between us and the Jews of Jesus’ time is that we would be surprised by his statement. Maybe even embarrassed and offended that he brought it up. We’d not only be surprised by his description of the end times, we’d be incredulous that there even would be an end. For us, the end of the world is something out of a Hollywood movie. Sometimes it’s an alien invasion that does us in, other times it’s a huge asteroid or some other environmental disaster. 

This year it seems to be zombies.

Most of us are not looking towards the end times. We rarely even think about it. We live for the moment. Heck, less than 30% of us are even planning for our own retirement, let alone the end of the world. We don’t look towards our own ends, our own deaths, so why should we think about the end of the world? We are indestructible and can overcome anything.

Throughout the centuries, the end times have been depicted in art and popular culture as the violent destruction of the world, but where does Jesus say that? Jesus said that in the end all things would be made new. He never said the world would be destroyed, just transformed. How do we know what form the end will take? How can we know the time? We can’t and we shouldn’t. Like the Jews of the first century, we should not see the end of the world as a frightful thing, but the time of our redemption.

The Jews looked forward to the restoration of Israel. We look forward to the restoration of all creation. Judgment for us is not punishment. Judgment for us is justice. When the Son of Man comes in his glory we will share in that glory. Isn’t that what we are always hoping for?

And when we see the suffering and persecution of the followers of Christ, we should not be afraid, even if it happens to us. Jesus’ message to the disciples today is be not afraid. Don’t worry about these things happening, they are inevitable. The nature of being a Christian is to be misunderstood and even attacked. But we are not to fret about what we are to do or what we are to say. The Spirit will guide us in what to say and what to do.

St. Padre Pio is famous for saying, “Pray, Hope and Don’t Worry”. What a wonderful mantra. I have a printout of it hanging on the wall of my prayer room. I wish I could live by it. It is so easy to worry about all the bad things that might happen to us, even though 90% of what we worry about never happens and we can’t do anything to change the other 10%.

It’s funny. We don’t look towards the future yet that’s all we worry about. We live our lives for the moment yet worry about the unknown. Isn’t that a new mantra for today’s youth, YOLO, “You Only Live Once”?  The kids are right; we do need to live like there’s no tomorrow, not because we want to cram as much pleasure into our lives as possible with no consequences, but because there will be consequences. When the end happens it happens. Nothing we can do can change it. We need to live in the moment yet be prepared in our hearts and souls.

Just because we are not to worry doesn’t mean we aren’t to reflect on our lives and our actions from time to time and make corrections. I’m not saying don’t worry because you’re ok no matter what you do. I’m saying that we are all struggling to live our lives as true disciples and we shouldn’t worry about bad things happening to us. We understand that all our actions have consequences, both good and bad, but that should not cause us to fear and worry about it.

We will be hearing similar readings at Mass the next few weeks as we prepare to celebrate the coming of the Lord at Christmas. The church gives us these readings not to scare us into submission but to give us the opportunity to ponder the true meaning of our lives and God’s loving gift of redemption. We do this as we enter into the cold days and long nights of winter because we know that in a little while it will be spring.

You see, we are also apocalyptic people. We too are looking towards the end of time. We say it at every Mass: We look forward with joyful hope to the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.