He is near

Listening to the Spirit

We stand before You, Holy Spirit, as we gather together in Your name.
With You alone to guide us, make Yourself at home in our hearts;
teach us the way we must go and how we are to pursue it.
We are weak and sinful; do not let us promote disorder.
Do not let ignorance lead us down
the wrong path nor partiality influence our actions.
Let us find in You our unity so that we may journey
together to eternal life and not stray from the way of truth and what is right.
All this we ask of You, who are at work in every place and time,
in the communion of the Father and the Son, forever and ever.
Amen.

Listening to the Word

Mk 13:24-32

Jesus said to his disciples: "In those days after that tribulation the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. "And then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory, and then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of the sky. "Learn a lesson from the fig tree. When its branch becomes tender and sprouts leaves, you know that summer is near. In the same way, when you see these things happening, know that he is near, at the gates. 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. "But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."

Reflection

“He is near” (v.29)

As the liturgical calendar draws to its end, we are assured by the imminent coming of the Lord. The apocalyptic language used by the scriptures is nothing else than what the word Apocalypse means – Revelation. This kind of language has no other goal than to take away the veil and reveal what God is doing. By His grace, after this revelation, we are able to see things from now on as God sees them.

The dramatic images presented in the gospel did not refer to the future. It was the experience of the first community sufferings. The good news in such a situation was that revelation that enable them, and all those after them to start to see things in the way God does and be certain of His nearness.

We are not far from such a situation as the first communities. Listen to these words of Jesus today, as they did, make us who believe entering in the same dynamics He told us. Dynamics that manifest His closeness and revelation. An illustration of this truth is in the said image where “he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds.” The coming of the Kingdom starts with a gathering, with a community. It can be also the crowd of the many dispersions we have inside and out. “He is near” therefore, nothing, nobody, no time can be wasted.

“He is near, at the gates.” At any time in history, gates were and will be definition for boundaries. The Lord is there at the gates, just to break these boundaries that can make us far from the Kingdom prepared for all. The gates, once shot in paradise are now open again. One can enter paradise once more. This is part of the Good News on this page we thought was only catastrophic. “He is near”, no more fear from the things that in past occasions we were scared of.

The final assurance is His words that “will not pass away.” Only in this Word do heaven and earth and the whole of the world history acquire a genuine meaning. In the absence of this Word, heaven and earth are stray comets coming from nowhere and going from nowhere, lacking all sense and purpose.