💖 HOMILY - NOVEMBER 22 💖

First Reading - Apocalypse 14:14-19

Gospel - Luke 21:5-11

Heraclitus has said,"You cannot step into the same river twice." What he meant to stress is that everything is on flux. Everything changes. Every bad situation can change into good and good into bad. Nothing remains the same. He was to some extent correct but not fully right. The readings of today remind us that every glorious moment has an end and therefore we need the attitude of humility to remain humble and faithful before God.

The first reading is a symbolic representation of the eschatological judgement. The whole scene demonstrates that it's the Lord who is the judge of the universe. The reference to the book of Daniel of chapter 7:13 depicts the glorious coming of the son of man in cloud to judge the nation, the same imagery is employed by John to remind us that Jesus is the ultimate judge of the world. Therefore, in order to avoid the wrath of God against the unfaithful people, it's important that we should reconsider our life and usher it to our faithfulness to God. 

Today’s Gospel begins with Jesus’ reaction to the comments the disciples had been making about the splendor of the Temple in Jerusalem. The forty-foot tall pillars supporting the beams of the front porch were made of solid marble. Most of the decorations and the large vine on the front porch with six-foot long grape clusters were made of solid gold plates, while the dome was gold-plated. But Jesus prophesied this Temple’s total destruction. In AD 70, the Roman army invaded the city, plundered everything valuable, set fire to the Temple, pulled down the City’s walls, killed one million Jews, and took 97,000 healthy Jews as captives. Jesus also gave the disciples warnings about false military messiahs and their deceptive doctrines about overthrowing the Romans. Then Jesus listed some signs of the end of the world, like wars between nations, earthquakes, famines, plagues, and unnatural movements of the heavenly bodies.

Dear friends, the readings of today display a realistic part of human history that is about the end of things. We all strive for excellence, glory and fame but everything has an end. The first reading reminds that Jesus is the ultimate judge and we need to give our faithfulness to him. The gospel predicts about the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem and the city as well. The temple was a pride of Judaism but Jesus foretells about the destruction of it which historically realises in 70 AD by the Roman army. As a whole, the destruction of glory, fame, and majesty displays to us about the transitory nature of glory, fame and majesty. Many people strive to death to gain name and glory in the society but the readings of today remind us that they all will come to an end. At the same time, the readings invite us to remain humble before God and trust in Him. Our desire for social upward mobility is not bad but the readings warn us that they should not become our priority of life. Let our priority be to live a worthy life in the sight of God which will make us ready for the end of our lives.

The readings of today implicitly remind us that human glory has an end but God's glory has no end. What endures is the glory of God. Therefore, this must be our constant efforts to give glory to God through our works and life.

May God help us to keep our focus fixed on God and work for His glory.