The Lord be with you, a reading from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark.
Jesus said to his disciples, and 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 gathers elect from the four winds.
From the ends 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 never pass away. But if that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. The Gospel of the Lord.
Youth, in particularly university years, is a time in which we're constantly shifting focus from the present to the future, from the short to the long term, from the things of today to those of tomorrow. We pass quickly from concentrating on exams, papers, meetings, competitions, and plans for tonight, to thinking about next summer's internships.
and then later jobs, careers, vocations, possible marriages, children, and beyond. November is the month in which the church wants us to go from the ephemeral and evanescent to the everlasting in eternal. None in the sense of daydreaming about or dreading the future, but in the sense of deriving direction from the future to help us chart our path in the here and now.
In the 11th month of the year, the church always ponders what we call the four last things, death, judgment, heaven and hell, so that we, aware of what's coming, can start wisely orienting our whole life right now to these inevitabilities. In a similar way to how, if we know what the essay questions will be on a final exam, we can start preparing to ace it.
Tonight's Gospel, Jesus speaks to us in apocalyptic language about the end of the world. When he says the sun will be dark and the moon won't give light, the stars will fall from the sky and the heavens will be shaken. Those will be for many, he says, days of tribulation. The fulfillment of what the prophet Daniel in tonight's first reading says will be a time unsurpassed and distressed since nations began. But in the midst of all these frightening images,
There's a way to choose to remain in peace. Jesus says that then we will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory, that the angels will gather the elect, and that even though heaven and earth will pass away, His words will not pass away, inviting us to build our life on Him, and in the words of eternal life He gives us. The ones who do, Daniel says,
will live forever, and will shine brightly like the splinter, the firmament, and like the stars forever. These are the ones who, as Psalm 16 teaches us today, make the Lord their allotted portion in their cup, conscious that He will hold fast their lot.
These are the ones who will keep the Lord ever before them, knowing that with Him at their right hand they will not be disturbed. Their heart will be glad. Their soul rejoice. Their body abide in confidence because they know He will not abandon them. But instead show them the path to life, to fullness of joy, to the lights forever in His presence.
In the midst of all that will pass away in the future, at an hour that no one knows except God the Father, Jesus and His Church are urging us wisely to choose right what will not pass away. And to follow Jesus confidently along the path of life, He desires to show us an on which He came into the world to lead us.
In graphic language, Jesus urging us to make practical the truth we proclaim every Sunday in the profession of faith. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. Does that rock solid reality fill us with joy or fright?
Are we ready to use the words of tonight's hallelujah verse through vigilance and prayer to stand before the Son of Man? Or rather, would we seek to run away? If angels were to come right now and vast numbers to announce that the end of the world were coming within an hour, would most people, would you and I, jump up and down in jubilation
or scream and fear. And the first Christians reflected on this reality of Jesus' second coming. They used to cry out, Moronata, come Lord Jesus. They look forward to the event with great expectation because it would lead to their full union in love with the Lord forever. Our attitude is supposed to be similar. We pray in every Mass after the Our Father.
By the help of your mercy, may we always be free from sin as we await the blessed hope in the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ. The attitude we're called to have versus Jesus' second coming every day is a holy hope. Several years ago, I preached to retreat in Los Angeles, and elderly women came to me with a question that was obviously troubling her.
Father, she asked, is it sinful for me to look forward to my death so that I can't God willing be with Jesus forever in heaven or apply tenderly but emphatically? No, ma'am, it's not a sin. Then she commented, then why doesn't everybody else seem to have this longing? It was a very sound observation.
Few live with this type of longing for heaven, for what will never pass away. One reason I think is because so many of us are disproportionately, even obsessively and compulsively, focused on the things of this world, like the imminent political changes taking place in Washington, various dramas in our friend groups, families, and workplaces, where the latest happenings in sports or entertainment,
Our mind, heart, soul, and strength are not focused on God and the things of God, but rather what Jesus elsewhere in a parable calls worldly cares and anxieties, the lure of riches, and the craving for other things. But that's not the path of wisdom. It's not the way of happiness. Because our hearts will be restless until they rest in God, as St. Augustine reminds us,
If our hearts are not seeking the things of God, seeking the things that will not pass away, if they're not treasuring God and seeking to build their life on the rock of his words, if they're not making him their portion and cup and following him on the path of life, then they will be signing up for a heap of anxiety and distress.
even well before the fulfillment of the apocalyptic imagery Jesus and Daniel give us today. Another reason I think that many do not have a longing for Jesus to come to judge the living and the dead may have to do with that first part of the prayer I just cited from the Mass and the link between our being free from sin and our ability to wait and blessed hope for the Lord's coming.
I'd like to illustrate this point with a story from my childhood. For those who come to Daily Mash, you may have heard it once before. But when I was a kid, most days I would wait with eager expectation for the return of my dad from work. He'd leave at 3.45 in the morning. He'd come back at 4.15 in the afternoon. At about 4, our black Labrador Retriever would start pacing around the house with its tail wagging.
Each of us four kids would take regular glances at the clock. Eventually would hear the shudding of the heavy steel door of my father's van. It would all hustle toward the back door through which he would come, all wanting to be the first one to jump up into a strong arm and give him a joyful welcome home, a hug and a kiss. We loved our dad and couldn't wait for him to return so that we could be with him. This is what happened, as I said earlier.
on most days. Sometimes I would actually dread his return. Precisely on those occasions when I had done something that I knew he wouldn't appreciate, and about which my mom had promised he was going to hear as soon as he returned. On those afternoons, when 4 p.m. came around and her dog began his excited daily ritual,
I was looking for a place to hide behind the clothes and the closet in my bedroom. I think this is like a parable for our disposition in front of the Lord. If we really love the Lord, if we really love the Lord, we are impatient for His return so that we can be with Him. We're like family members in airports awaiting the first sight of loved ones returning from deployments or trips overseas, ready to scamper across arrival terminals to embrace them.
Similarly, if we're ready to greet Jesus, it's a time of blessed hope and expectation. For those of us who have done something wrong, however, who have not lived free from sin, who haven't been genuinely following them along the path of life, then it's something to which we do not look forward, and it could become even something we dread.
How do those of us who live with fear of the coming of the Lord? Either at the end of time or at the end of our life, whichever comes first, and either may come in just a matter of minutes, how do we become those who can await his advent full of blessed hope? How can we live in the present in such a way that we will be vigilant, prayerful and ready at all times for the Lord's coming and the eternal future of life and love?
The great saints have told us that the secret to this transition is by living each day as if it were our last, keeping both of our eyes now open to the future, getting everything in order so that not only we will never be caught off guard when he comes, but rather ready at all times to meet the Lord on fire for a loving reunion.
Do you know what the most influential book in the history of Christianity is after the Bible? It's the 600-year-old spiritual classic by Thomas A. Kempis called Imitation of Christ, written between 1418 and 1427. It's been on the bedside and on the kneelers of many saints throughout the last six centuries. I read it for the first time when I was an undergraduate.
and it really helped me mature. If you haven't read it yet, I'd urge you just to download a free copy and begin even tonight. Thomas O'Campus is super-direct. Early in the classic, he gave great advice as to how to live in the present, conscious of the last things. They changed the whole way I have lived ever since, he wrote.
very quickly there will be an end of you here. Take heed therefore how it will be for you in another world. All the dullness and hardness of the human heart which thinks only of the present and looks not forward to the future. You ought in every deed and thought so to order yourself as if you were to die this day.
Happy is the one who is the hour of his death always before his eyes, and daily prepares himself to die. When it's morning, reflect that you may not see the evening, and at evening, dear not boast to yourself of tomorrow. Always be prepared and so live. The death may never find you unprepared. Many die suddenly and unexpectedly. Jesus himself tells us for an hour, you think not, the Son of Man will come.
Therefore, strive now to live in such a way that at that hour of death you may rejoice rather than fear. Learn now how to die to the world so that you shall begin to live with Christ. Learn now to spurn earthly things, that you may go freely to Christ. Think of nothing but your salvation.
care only for the things of God. Make friends for yourself by venerating the saints of God and walking in their footsteps so that when you die you may be received into eternal dwellings. Keep yourself a stranger and pilgrim upon the earth to whom the things of the world do not belong. Keep your heart free and lift it up to God. For here we have no lasting city. To him direct your daily prayers with cries and tears.
that your spirit may be found worthy to pass happily after death to its Lord. Campus of spiritual wisdom, which has converted many sinners and formed many saints over the last 600 years, is based on the insight that it's only when we realize that today may be our last day, that we may not have the opportunity to put off truly important things until tomorrow,
that we begin to think clearly and get our priority straight. We act differently toward people when we realize that that interaction with them might be our last. We begin to look at time differently and no longer wish to waste it on diversions. We're not tempted in the same way toward the harsh word or the impure thought or the vengeful action. No one that that might be the last thing we ever do
We begin to have a far deeper appreciation for prayer and the sacraments in the church. We begin far more easily to make decisions because we have a much clearer sense of what matters and what doesn't. In short, when we begin to live every day as if it's our last, we cease to sleepwalk spiritually and become fully alert to the meaning of every moment thought.
word in action. Back in 2011, I read something that helped me live even more practically, the wisdom, campus, and parts. It was a letter to the priests of the archdiocese of Philadelphia by Cardinal Justin Ragali, two days before he would retire as their archbishop. It was an extraordinarily beautiful meditation on Christian preparation for death and how to follow Christ on the path to life.
Cardinal Regali wrote provocatively, preparing for death is the greatest opportunity in our life. Rather than dreading death is the inexorable occasion in which our life will be taken from us. We can all learn from Jesus, he said, how to make our death an act of supreme self-giving love. And to do that, he advised that we ponder two gospel passages
and meditate upon them briefly every day. First passage is Jesus' words from the Good Shepherd discourse. No one takes my life from me. I freely lay it down. Just as Jesus made his death a voluntary act of self-giving love, we can do the same. Seen in this perspective, the cardinal continued. Death is the moment to give everything.
to surrender all with Jesus in an union with His sacrifice. When anticipated by an act of loving acceptance, death is the opportunity to say yes to the Father, just as Jesus did, to say yes with all our heart, just like Jesus did. This is the exact opposite of being a victim, of being caught on a weir's.
Every day we're trying to give our life to God and in love for others. That leads to the second scripture passage he counseled us to pray about and act on each day. Jesus' last words from the cross, when he cried out, not in pain, but he cried out, Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit.
Cardinal Ragali urged us to imitate Jesus' total self-entrustment to his father, especially each night before we go to bed, as the church does when we pray night prayer or compliment in the liturgy to ours. Cardinal Ragali comments, when the hour of death comes, we may not be conscious. It may come very suddenly by reason of an accident or a heart attack. There are million and one possibilities left to our imagination.
But the point is, if we live this way, surrender will have been made thousands of times. The Father will understand that each of us had the power which we exercise, the power with His Son, Jesus, to lay down our life freely, lovingly and definitively. There will then be no obstacle to the consummation of our love. Life and holiness will be ours forever in the communion of the most blessed Trinity.
If every day before we go to bed, we entrust our life to God. Then when death comes, it will just be the exclamation point on our self-offering. Cardinal Rogale concludes, since preparing for death is the greatest opportunity in our life, now is the time to give all.
The more alert we are to the reality that today may be our last. Also, the more loving we become. Rather than withdrawing from the world, living conscious of the last things help us to make the world much better. Prayer about the kingdom of heaven commits us to transform our life and our environment according to the values of that kingdom, which is part of the renewal that the world needs.
Like Ebenezer Scrooge and Dickens of Christmas Carol, after he returned from his nightmare, pondering his death, and the selfish, miserable life he had led up until then, we seek to make up for lost time, and to care for each other is if we're truly running out of time. For those of you who have seen the classic Schindler's List about Oscar Schindler, who saved 1,100 Jew from the concentration camp,
At the very end of his life as he looked at their faces, he started to retrace everything. And he said, if only I hadn't lived as a womanizer, if only I hadn't bought so many expensive bottles of wine, if only I hadn't bought such expensive cars, think about how many more I could have saved. If only I'd been conscious about the most important things, he could have done so much more good
with a manifold blessing he had received. But he was just living like everybody else was living as if this world were going to last forever. And how he wept at the end of that film over how much good he could have done. But because he wasn't paying attention, just wasted. Today,
is the eighth world day of the poor, started by Pope Francis in 2017. And it's meant to help us all get very practical about the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, about loving our neighbor with the time we have, just as Jesus loved us first. It leads us to a certain urgency. Earlier today, it is Angela's message in the Vatican, the Holy Father said,
Today, we celebrate the world day of the poor, which has the theme, the prayer of the poor rises up to God. I want to ask a question. Everyone can ask this question to him or self. Do I go without something to give it to the poor? Brothers and sisters, he concluded, let us not forget.
that the poor can't wait. These last words of the Holy Father describe the type of haste we should have to carry out the works of charity so that we don't lament like Oscar Schindler at the end of his life, or so that we don't have to have the dream of various Christmases come to shock us into reality.
Often we defer acts of love because we don't think our actions matter that much or that the person who's poor who asks for alms or something to eat, if he doesn't get it from us, will eventually get it from someone after us. But we don't know how many people similarly will stiff a poor person in need. But what we do know is that Jesus identifies with everyone in need.
saying, I was hungry. I was thirsty. I was a naked. I was stranger. I was sick. I was imprisoned by addiction, etc. And he says, whatever we do to them, we do to him. Our eternal judgment, he says, will depend on how we care for the least of his brothers and sisters. There's an urgency not just for the homeless person. There's an urgency for us.
because we don't know the day of the hour, and we don't know if we'll have a chance to cure for Christ in the disguise of the poor tomorrow, or after we graduate, or after we win the lottery. If we seek to live each day as if it might be our last day, our choices become much simpler, and our charity much greater.
We can't take anything with us after we die, except our acts of charity. Those are the only things that will fit through the eye of the needle. And so if we wish to shine brightly like those stars in the firmament later, if we want to build our life on the stable foundation of the Lord's words that will never pass away, we have to see the Son of man coming for us each day, not just in our imagination on the clouds with great power and glory.
but also in real life in the humble disguise of the poor with whom he intimately identifies. If he is truly our allotted portion in cup, then we will far more easily be able to part with everything else as we seek to use the time we have to love with our mind, heart, soul, strength and resources. On this world day of the poor,
The Holy Father, the vicar of Jesus Christ on earth, reminds us of the urgency of charity. Caritas Christi Urgett knows. St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians that the love of Christ urges us on. It spurs us. It fires us up. It makes us fast.
The greatest means by which we appear to meet Jesus when He comes at the end of time or at the end of our life is to be fully alert and meet Him here at Mass. It's here that we hear His words that will never pass away and are given the grace to build our life on them.
It's here that we participate in Jesus' one sacrifice from the Upper Room in Calvary that takes away our sins, like the letter that Hebrews reminds us today, so that we may one day come to join him as he has taken his seat at the right hand of God the Father. It's in this one offering of the Mass that Jesus seeks to make us perfect, Hebrews says. Those of us who are being consecrated, those who are entering into his own consecration, reiterated each day at the altar.
If we're vigilant and prayerful here, if we're able to fall down in adoring gratitude before Jesus' self-gift, then we will be strengthened to stand before Him when He comes in glory. Therefore, following the advice of Thomas O'Campus and Cardinal Druss McGolly, let us take full advantage of the time we have today to say, here and now,
the definitive yes to God that we want to say on the last day of our life at the hour of our death and for all eternity. And with Jesus freely to lay down our life to God and entrust ourselves to Him here in union with Jesus.
Doing so is the means by which when the sun and the moon darken and the stars seem to fall. When Christ comes in glory to judge the living and the dead, rather than be afraid, we will run out to meet him free from sin as the fulfillment of the blessed hope ready to jump into his strong arms, his gloriously scarred hands to be embraced with love forever. Jesus here,
is our portion in our cup, but has set him ever before us so that he can make our heart glad, our soul rejoice, and even our body in communion with his body abide in confidence. As he comes to show us the path of life and how the fullness of joy is found here in his presence, this is the way we will live in the present wisely.
in such a way that when the angels come to gather the elect, we will be among those elect and come to delight forever at His right hand. Praise be to Jesus Christ.
