Friar’s Corner: Blessed hope
Malachi 3:19-20a; Psalm 98:5-9; 2 Thessalonians 3:7-12; Luke 21:5-19
This is the next to last Sunday of Ordinary Time. Next Sunday we shall end our Church year with the wonderful Feast of Christ the King. Then we begin to look at the life of God’s Son come to earth all over again. Jesus Christ was physically here for 33 years and accomplished the salvation of the entire human race by his death and resurrection. Jesus healed thousands, collected special followers, formed a new Kingdom of God, his Church, from the Jewish community and returned to heaven. He empowered his followers, though not perfect, to continue to serve and care for God’s people. In the various sacraments of his Church, Jesus continues his life among us especially in the Mass or Eucharistic Liturgy. At every moment around the world every day, Jesus offers himself in the Eucharist. In the Lord’s Prayer, that Jesus taught us, we pray “Give us this day our Daily Bread. Thank you, Jesus.
As we activate our own baptism, which made us members of God’s new Kingdom, we learn more about Jesus and his work through the four Gospels in the New Testament. We learn to “keep our eyes fixed on Jesus,” Hebrews 12:2. With the angels and saints, we can sing to God from our hearts. St. Paul told Timothy 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice.” Psalm 98:1 says, “Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done wondrous deeds; his right hand has won victory for him, his holy arm.” Verse 9b, tells us that “the Lord comes to rule the earth; he will rule the world with justice and the peoples with equity.” As we fix our eyes and thoughts on Jesus we will indeed rejoice and sing new songs to him.
Jerusalem destroyed
Last week I talked about heaven and some things to expect there. I recommend a simple little book, which briefly explains our four last things, our death, judgment, heaven and hell. It is published by Queenship Publishing Company out in California. You can order it online, After Life: What it’s like in Heaven, Hell and Purgatory, by Michael H. Brown for $9.95. It is very insightful on these things. Try it, you’ll like it.
St. Luke’s gospel today has people asking Jesus about the adornments of the Jerusalem temple. Jesus told them that it would be totally destroyed. In 70 A.D., the Roman army destroyed the temple and the entire city of Jerusalem except for the Upper Room. Jesus went on to tell them that the end of the world would not take place then. However, he did tell them some things that would happen. There would be many attacks and persecutions of his followers.
In the 20th century alone, over 100 million people were killed by atheistic, Satanic despots such as Stalin, Hitler, Mao and PotPol. Even today, since 1973, over 50 million of our own citizens have been destroyed in their mother’s womb by abortions since Roe v Wade.
Jesus has the answer
The only power that can really stop these dark side forces is begging God to pour out more of his merciful power to bring his opposing forces to the merciful love of Jesus, who died to save all of humanity. We also see what some think are punishments of God for those who refuse to accept him. Various things in the news today can frighten many people. Can we learn from our mistakes and wrong thinking and turn to Jesus and God’s plan of salvation for us?
Jesus has the answer. He is the true Light of the world. He is our shepherd. Jesus is the way, truth and new life for humanity to get to heavenly glory with God. Jesus is our bread of life and the fountain of living water. The Holy Spirit gives us clear insight through the various confusions we see and hear in our daily news. May the guidance of the Holy Spirit lead us through our life difficulties to get to heavenly glory. With the angels, can we sing, “O come let us adore Him, Christ our Lord.”
Have a blessed week,
(© 2019 Fr. Bob Hilz, TOR)
