33rd sunday in ordinary time B

End of the world

A young lector was reading in church to a large congregation for the first time. Visibly nervous, she struggled to finish the reading and at the end she blurted out: “This is the end of the world.” (Wanted to say “end of the word”). And the congregation chorused: “Thanks be to God!” In the Gospel for this 33rd Sunday, Jesus talks about the terrifying end of the world. “The sun will be darkened; the stars will fall down and the powers in heaven will be shaken” (Mk 13:25).

In the 70’s, a religious sect which called itself claimed that doomsday would take place then and Christ would judge the world in the rolling hills of Tagaytay City in the Philippines. The members of this religious sect camped out in Tagaytay, formed fraternal communities, and prepared for the end. They even insulated their huts with rubber tires for protection against the impact of the collision of planets. Incidentally, what good are those rubber tires if a catastrophe of such magnitude occurred! Anyway, it’s 39 years since the prediction and many of the members have died but the world has not yet ended!

In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus douses cold water on all predictions about the end of the world when He says: “As for that day or hour, nobody knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son; no one but the Father” (Mk 13:32). Instead of wasting precious time speculating on the end of the world, Christ exhorts us to live as faithful Christians in the present. What matters is now. The questions are: Are you holding on to your faith and living as a Christian should?

Are you faithful in your vocation as parents, religious man or woman, as honest worker whether in government or private sector? Are you doing something to make this world a better place to live in? How much good works have you done?

This recalls the story of a young man suffering in hell. Day and night, he cried aloud to God pleading to be delivered from the fiery torment. God heard his cries. He asked what good works he had done while still on earth. An angel scanned his biodata in the huge heavenly computer (yes, all our records are computerized!), but he couldn’t find any good deed except one: the man shared some vegetables with a needy neighbor.

“All right,” God said, “make a cord out of the long onion leaves (scallions)and lower it to him. “So the angel did as commanded. As the angel lowered the cord, the young man desperately grabbed it. Then the angel started to lift him up. When his companions saw what was happening, they rushed and held onto his legs, like leeches. The load became so heavy that, midway between heaven and hell, the cord snapped, plunging him back to hell! The poor man could not save himself and his friends because he had done only one good work while on earth.

Jesus’ parable of the Last Judgment (Mt 25, 31ff.) tells us that our judgment will depend on our good works. The Judge will say, “When I was hungry, you fed me; thirsty, you gave me drink... enter into the Kingdom of heaven.” Hence, it is very clear that our good works are our “passport” to God’s kingdom.

Let’s do more good deeds. For what we sow now, we will reap later.