Homily

We are approaching the close of the liturgical year. This Gospel passage is part of the eschatological discourse (that is about the “ultimate reality”) of which the whole of Mark 13 consists. Jesus has just left the temple where he praised a widow who had given away all that she had to sustain her. With his disciples, Jesus goes toward the Mount of Olives from which one could admire the splendour of the temple. Looking at this incredible structure of the temple, the disciples are awe struck, and one of them says to Jesus, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!” And, in fact, the temple was an architectural structure that amazed all those who looked upon it. Also in the Talmud we read, “He who has not seen the sanctuary in all of its magnificence, does not know the sumptuousness of a building” (Sukka 51b). Seeming to interrupt the disciples’ amazement, Jesus tells them that “not one stone will be left here upon another” of this building. The disciples remain obviously stunned and incredulous at the sound of such words; three of his closest disciples, to which Andrew was added, immediately ask when such a disaster would occur. Jesus responds with a long discourse of which we heard the culminating point. After having spoken of the “great tribulation” of Jerusalem, Jesus announces that cosmic disturbances will follow: “The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, 25and the stars will be falling from heaven.” He adds: “Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory.”
The Gospel text suggests that the ‘Son of Man’ comes not in the weariness of our habits and does not insert himself in the natural course of things. When he comes, he brings a radical change to the lives of men and women and of all creation. To express this profound transformation – a sort of violent interruption of history – Jesus revives the typical language of an apocalyptic tradition widely known during those times and speaks of a cosmic collapse, of the very unhinging of the solar system. The prophet Daniel had already announced, “There shall be a time of anguish, such as has never occurred since nations first came into existence. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book.” The texts of Scripture do not confirm, however, a sort of “theory of catastrophes,” according to which there must first be a complete destruction of the world after which God can finally turn everything to good. No, God does not arrive at the end, when all is lost. He does not disown his own creation. In the book of Revelation we read, “You created all things, and by your will they existed and were created” (4:11).
Rather, in all of its pages, Scripture exhorts us to work (and to pray) so that a new creation may be established according to the image of a future city described in the final pages of the Book of Revelation: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (21:1-2). The upheaval of creation, that which is and that which will be, is the completion of the establishment of this “Jerusalem” in which all peoples of the earth will be gathered. If not one stone will be left upon another one of the temple that the apostles saw, it is because in this future Jerusalem, there will be no temple; for it was written “I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb” (Rev 21:22). Jesus speaks of the “last days, but he says also that such upheavals will occur in “this generation,” that is during the time that involves its listeners. Besides, it was Jesus’ very presence that was causing the upheaval of the normal course of the life of the world. To understand this, it is enough to just think about what was happening because of his preaching and what will occur with his resurrection. The irruption of the “Son of Man” has already come and will continue for all generations to come in history. The “Day of the Lord” foreshadowed by Daniel and the other prophets bursts into every generation, and even more so into each day. The expression Jesus uses regarding the proximity of the “last days” is evocative: he says, “You know that he* is near, at the very gates.” This image is used at other times in Scripture to urge believers to be ready to welcome the Lord who is coming. “See, the Judge is standing at the doors!” writes James in his letter (5:9). And in Revelation: “Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me” (3:20). At the doors of our every day life, it is the Lord who knocks; there is a “last day” that awaits to be received; it is the judgement of God that intends to transform the time in which we now live.
The “end of the world” must come every day. Every day, we must put an end to both the small or big pieces of the world’s evil and malevolence, built not by God but by people. Moreover, the days that pass, end inexorably. Nothing remains of them, but the good fruit or, unfortunately, the hardships that we create for others. Scripture invites us to keep the future, toward which we are led, in front of our eyes: the end of the world is not a catastrophe, but will in fact establish the holy city that comes down from heaven. It is a city, that is a concrete reality, not an abstract one, gathering all the people around their Lord. This is the goal (and, in a sense also, the end) of history. But this holy city must begin in our daily life now so that it may grow and transform the lives of men and women into God’s likeness. It does not have to do with an easy and automatic grafting, but the common toil that every believer must fulfil, remembering what the Lord says, “31Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”