Cycle C | Ordinary Time | Week 33
REFLECTION
– By Fr Ugo Ikwuka
Archway, London
Three friends die in a crash and find themselves at the Gates of Heaven where St Peter questions them: “When you are in your casket and friends and family are mourning you, what would you like to hear them say about you?” The first guy says, “I would like to hear them say that I was a great doctor and a great family man.” The second guy says, “I would like to hear that I was a wonderful husband and school teacher.” And the third guy says “I would like to hear them say… LOOK!!! HE’S MOVING!!!”
As we approach the end of the church’s liturgical year, we have readings with “apocalyptic” tone; they evoke fear and are usually associated with end time – end of the world, end of our lives, the second coming of Christ. In this Sunday’s Gospel for instance, Jesus notes that “there will be great earthquakes and plagues and famines here and there: there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven.” In a related passage, he had remarked that “the sun will be darkened, the moon will lose its brightness, the stars will come falling from heaven…” (Mark 13: 24).
However, unlike the liturgical calendar that have clearly defined dates and times, the exact day and time for the end of the world or our individual ends are unknown to us. The irony though is that for many, the problem is not anxiety about when our end will come but indifference to it – not being bothered at all. The rich fool in the parable by Jesus comes to mind. Having achieved material prosperity, he said to himself, “Relax now man, and have a really good time.” That night he met his end, unprepared.
To be prepared is simply to live each day in the light of the Gospel. Accordingly, we can live the present life to its fullest as the gift of God it is, assured in the resurrection of Christ that the end of one world is not such a tragic event since it also announces the beginning of a new one.
Indeed, the cosmic catastrophes associated with the end of the world are curiously similar to the experiences that often come with our own last days. The earthquakes reflect in the tremors (body shaking) that come with age. The failure of the sun and moon, and the erratic behaviour of the stars are also reflected when we lose the balance represented by these usually reliable heavenly bodies with the loss of memory of what time of the day it is that could come with age.
But this is only the end of a world that was never meant to last. We hate to see it go but it must give way for a new world to come. It could be likened to the experience of human birth which must be traumatic for the baby which would rather prefer to remain in the warm, safe womb of its mother. The chilling cry at birth says it all. The baby is yet unaware of the potentials that life in the world offers. We too live in this world in a kind of womb that is meant to prepare us for birth into a new and better existence. We can resist that birth and may even see it as a kind of personal tragedy.
Yet, in the course of our lives, little worlds end all the time; the worlds of childhood, youth, education, employment, roles etc. The courage, generosity and trust with which we deal with these endings should prepare us for the final ending. Moreover, every time we love unselfishly we also die a little bit to our own narrow plans and preferences. If we die daily in these small ways, we will have little difficulty with the final dying as our plans are once again revised and we hand over our lives, once and for all, to a merciful and loving God.
Yet, the primary meaning of “apocalypse” is not the end of the world but “revelation”. And what is primarily revealed is the full significance of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead; an event that forever altered religious and political thinking, and indeed thinking on nature itself. Regarding religion, the Jerusalem Temple was the “soul” of the Jewish faith. As people gazed in awe at its splendour, Jesus delivers a brutal comment: “All these things you are staring at now, the time will come when not a single stone will be left on another: everything will be destroyed.”
To destroy the Temple was like the destruction of the world itself. Yet, in four decades – 70 AD to be precise, that prophecy came to pass. After his resurrection, the bemused disciples will know that his own risen body is the true Temple; the right place to worship. His mystical body, the church, is now the point of reconciliation between God and man. Paul, who as Saul (before his conversion), was passionate about the faith of his fathers made a U-turn on encountering the risen Christ. Something has been “revealed” to him, namely, that Christ risen from the dead is the new and true Temple.
The power equation also shifted. Politics and power has always taken the centre stage of human affairs. The lordship of Caesar was absolute in the time of Jesus. But with the resurrection, Jesus is the Lord. He became the reference point of all that happened before him (BC) and all that will happen after (Anno Domini – in the year of the Lord ‘AD’). Finally, the natural order itself was altered. The cliché has been “as certain as death”. But the rising of Jesus from the dead turned all of this upside down. Death is no more the final point of reference. There is life after death.
