The End
Nov. 29: Friday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Revelation is sometimes called Apocalypse, but it’s not the only example of “apocalyptic writing” in the Bible. The book of Daniel is an example, as is the passage from Luke we’re reading today. The end of the world isn’t something to look forward to, exactly, but it is something we’re meant to understand.
And even if the whole world doesn’t end soon, our world will end, sooner than we think. We all have to face our personal apocalypse, our individual judgement. It’s what the Church’s lectionary wants us thinking about as we approach the end of the liturgical year.
Reading 1
Rv 20:1-4, 11—21:2
I, John, saw an angel come down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the abyss and a heavy chain. He seized the dragon, the ancient serpent, which is the Devil or Satan, and tied it up for a thousand years and threw it into the abyss, which he locked over it and sealed, so that it could no longer lead the nations astray until the thousand years are completed. After this, it is to be released for a short time.
Then I saw thrones; those who sat on them were entrusted with judgment. I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, and who had not worshiped the beast or its image nor had accepted its mark on their foreheads or hands. They came to life and they reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
Next I saw a large white throne and the one who was sitting on it. The earth and the sky fled from his presence and there was no place for them. I saw the dead, the great and the lowly, standing before the throne, and scrolls were opened. Then another scroll was opened, the book of life. The dead were judged according to their deeds, by what was written in the scrolls. The sea gave up its dead; then Death and Hades gave up their dead. All the dead were judged according to their deeds. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the pool of fire. (This pool of fire is the second death.) Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the pool of fire.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
I find it interesting to note that the current USCCB translation warns the reader not to take numbers like “1,000 years” literally, but rather as just an exaggerated way of saying “a long time.” But the footnotes in the Douay-Rheims Bible say:
The power of Satan has been very much limited by the passion of Christ: for a thousand years; that is, for the whole time of the New Testament; but especially from the time of the destruction of Babylon or pagan Rome, till the new efforts of Gog and Magog against the church, towards the end of the world.
Douay-Rheims was translated in the late 16th Century—in other words, about a thousand years after the fall of Rome. The translators at that time did think they were approaching the end times.
That obviously hasn’t happened yet. But it will, someday.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 84:3, 4, 5-6a and 8a
R. (Rev. 21:3b) Here God lives among his people.
My soul yearns and pines
for the courts of the LORD.
My heart and my flesh
cry out for the living God.
R. Here God lives among his people.
Even the sparrow finds a home,
and the swallow a nest
in which she puts her young–
Your altars, O LORD of hosts,
my king and my God!
R. Here God lives among his people.
Blessed they who dwell in your house!
continually they praise you.
Blessed the men whose strength you are!
They go from strength to strength.
R. Here God lives among his people..
Just like a bird seeks a home in the trees, we look for a place in God’s Kingdom, where we belong. We should do our best to make the Kingdom a reality here on Earth, no matter how imperfect it may be. Eventually, we’ll find its perfect form in Heaven.
Alleluia
Lk 21:28
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Stand erect and raise your heads
because your redemption is at hand.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
This is Jesus’ instructions to the Apostles, telling them that, after a great tribulation, “the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” The similar phrasing to Sunday’s first reading is just one reason why we’re pretty sure Jesus and the Apostles were reading the book of Daniel in the first century.
Gospel
Lk 21:29-33
Jesus told his disciples a parable. "Consider the fig tree and all the other trees. When their buds burst open, you see for yourselves and know that summer is now near; in the same way, when you see these things happening, know that the Kingdom of God is near. Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away."
“These things” Jesus refers to are the The Great Tribulation1—the destruction of the second temple by Rome. There will also be “the times of the Gentiles”— a period of indeterminate length separating the destruction of Jerusalem from the cosmic signs accompanying the coming of the Son of Man referred to above.
Jesus seems to be saying “you’ll know it when you see it,” the way you know when the seasons are changing, even without a calendar.
But no matter what disasters are going on around us, never forget: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away." Whether it’s our Apocalypse or the final one, we will always have Jesus’ promise of salvation.