CatholicBoard

The Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)

This Sunday, we read from Malachi 4:1-2 (If you have the New American Bible, it is 3:19-20). Malachi is a Hebrew name that literally means: my messenger. A prophet was just that: a messenger or a spokesman of God for his people. The Book of Malachi is the final book in the Old Testament canon (i.e., list of books). Earlier, in Mal 3:1, he prophesies: “Behold, I send my messenger to prepare the way before me,” and this is attributed to St. John the Baptist by Jesus in Matthew 11:10. What we read today refers to Jesus himself: “for you who fear my name, there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays.”

For the non-Israelite pagan religions, the sun served as one of many gods. In fact, this god provided life by means of light, for without light, life cannot exist. Malachi points to Yahweh, the one true God, as the one who provides sustenance, who gives life and heals the wounds of our sinful state. Ultimately, it is through God come in the flesh, Jesus Christ, that our sins are healed. His death and resurrection provide the balm by which our wounds are healed and we come to life.

“Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full.” As we sing this response & listen to Psalm 17, God directs our attention towards our ultimate goal: union with him. If we pass from this life in the divine friendship, we will behold the Lord’s glory, and our joy will be complete.

That’s the good news. However, the first half of our reading from Malachi provides the bad news: “Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven, when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble and the day that is coming will set them on fire, leaving them neither root nor branch, says the LORD of hosts!”

This sets the stage for today’s Gospel, which recounts Jesus’ promise: “While some people were speaking about how the Temple was adorned with costly stones and votive offerings, Jesus said, ‘All that you see here – the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be throne down.’” (Lk 21:5-6) Then, Jesus tells what signs will precede this destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem: (1) false prophets, (2) earthquakes, (3) famines, (4) plagues, (5) wars, (6) persecutions, (7) and signs in the sky.

By reading historical accounts of the first century (for example, the Jewish historian: Josephus) we know that these signs did occur, and following them, the Roman legions demolished both Jerusalem and the Temple. To top it all off, not one Christian perished in this event – so says the early Church historian Eusebius – for the Christians fled beforehand. They obeyed the warning of Jesus to flee Jerusalem when the signs occurred. Do we have this same faithful trust in Jesus and take seriously his warnings regarding the reality of hell?