Scott Hahn with David Scott
It is the age between our Lord’s first coming and His last. We live in the new world begun by His life, death, Resurrection and Ascension, by the sending of His Spirit upon the Church. But we await the day when He will come again in glory.
“Lo, the day is coming,” Malachi warns in today’s First Reading. The prophets taught Israel to look for the Day of the Lord, when He would gather the nations for judgment (see Zephaniah 3:8; Isaiah 3:9; 2 Peter 3:7).
Jesus anticipates this day in today’s Gospel. He cautions us not to be deceived by those claiming “the time has come.” Such deception is the background also for today’s Epistle (see 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3).
The signs Jesus gives His Apostles seem to already have come to pass in the New Testament. In Acts, the Epistles and Revelation, we read of famines and earthquakes, the Temple’s desolation. We read of persecutions—believers imprisoned and put to death, testifying to their faith with wisdom in the Spirit.
These “signs” then, show us the pattern for the Church’s life—both in the New Testament and today.
We too live in a world of nations and kingdoms at war. And we should take the Apostles as our “models,” as today’s Epistle counsels. Like them we must persevere in the face of unbelieving relatives and friends, and forces and authorities hostile to God.
As we do in today’s Psalm, we should sing His praises, joyfully proclaim His coming as Lord and King. The Day of the Lord is always a day that has already come and a day still yet to come. It is the “today” of our Liturgy.
The Apostles prayed marana tha—“O Lord come!” (see 1 Corinthians 16:22; Revelation 22:20). In the Eucharist He answers, coming again as the Lord of hosts and the Sun of Justice with its healing rays. It is a mighty sign—and a pledge of that Day to come.
St. Ambrose
Commentary on St. Luke’s Gospel
“Not one stone will remain upon another: all shall be destroyed.” These words were true of the Temple built by Solomon… for everything built by human hands either wears away or disintegrates or is overthrown by violence or destroyed by fire… But there is also a temple within every one of us that crumbles whenever faith is lacking and most especially if, in Christ’s name, one falsely tries to gain possession of interior convictions. Perhaps this is the most helpful interpretation where we are concerned. Indeed, what is the point of my knowing the day of judgement? Being aware of so many sins, what is the point of knowing the Savior will one day come if he has not come into my soul, is not recalled to my mind, if Christ does not live in me, if Christ does not speak in me? So it is to me Christ must come and it is for my sake his coming must take place.
The Lord’s second coming takes place as the world draws to a close, when we are able to say: «The world is crucified to me and I to the world» (Gal 6,14)… To the one to whom the world is dead, Christ is everlasting; to such a one the temple is spiritual, the Law spiritual, even the Passover is spiritual… And so, for that person wisdom’s presence has come to pass, along with virtue and justice and the presence of the resurrection, for Christ indeed died once for the sins of the people in order daily to redeem the sins of the people.
Pope Benedict XVI
Angelus Address, November 18, 2007
In today’s Gospel passage, St Luke reproposes the Biblical view of history for our reflection and refers to Jesus’ words that invite the disciples not to fear, but to face difficulties, misunderstandings and even persecutions with trust, persevering through faith in him.
The Lord says: “When you hear of wars and tumults, do not be terrified; for this must first take place, but the end will not be at once” (Lk 21: 9).
Keeping this admonition in mind, from the beginning the Church lives in prayerful waiting for her Lord, scrutinizing the signs of the times and putting the faithful on guard against recurring messiahs, who from time to time announce the world’s end as imminent.
In reality, history must run its course, which brings with it also human dramas and natural calamities. In it a design of salvation is developed that Christ has already brought to fulfilment in his Incarnation, death and Resurrection. The Church continues to proclaim this mystery and to announce and accomplish it with her preaching, celebration of the sacraments and witness of charity.
Dear brothers and sisters, let us welcome Christ’s invitation to face daily events by trusting in his providential love. Let us not fear the future, even when it can appear with bleak colours, because the God of Jesus Christ, who entered history to open it to its transcendent fulfilment, is the alpha and the omega, the first and the last (cf. Rv 1: 8).
He guarantees that in every little but genuine act of love there is the entire sense of the universe, and that the one who does not hesitate to lose his own life for him finds it again in fullness (cf. Mt 16: 25).
St. Maximus the Confessor
Fourth Century on Love, nos. 16-18, 23-24
“By your perseverance you will secure your lives” (Lk 21:19)
That person has not yet attained perfect love and profound knowledge of Divine Providence who, in time of trial, when affliction befalls, does not have magnanimity, but cuts himself off from love for the spiritual brethren.
The aim of Divine Providence is to reunite by means of right faith and spiritual love those who were cut asunder and scattered by evil. It was in order to “gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad” (Jn 11:52) that the Savior suffered. So someone who refuses to bear the burden of arduous circumstances and endure sorrows or suffer pain, walks outside the love of God and the aim of Providence. If “charity is patient and kind” (1Cor 13:4), does not the person who is fainthearted in sorrows, who bears malice against those giving offense, or who severs the love due to them, fall short of the aim of Divine Providence?… They are long-suffering who await the end of the trial and receive praise for what they have endured.
“Whoever is slow to wrath abounds in wisdom” (Prv 14:29 LXX); for such a one relates all that happens to the ultimate end and, in its expectation, bears all afflictions. And the end, says the Apostle, is everlasting life (cf. Rm 6:22). “And this is eternal life, that they might know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (Jn 17:3).
