💖 HOMILY - NOVEMBRE 28 💖

First Reading - Daniel 2:31-45

Gospel - Luke 21:5-11

Heraclitus 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 cannot remain only with our glorious moments but we have to accept the end of them.

In the first reading, we hear about the interpretation given by Daniel of the dream of the king Nebuchadnezzar. The dream progressively heads towards the destruction of the kingdom of the king Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel unfolds the revelation made by God to the king Nebuchadnezzar through a dream. He mentions that the statue in the dream made partially of gold, silver, bronze and mixture of clay and iron reveal slow deterioration of the kingdom. The destruction of the majestic kingdom of the king Nebuchadnezzar becomes a sign that human splendor and grandeur cannot last long but it has its end.

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 predicts about the end of the majestic kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar who was then at the prime of his glory and fame but the divine intervention through a dream reveals to him about the end of his kingdom in the coming days. The gospel also 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.