As you know, we are in the last two weeks of the liturgical year. Today’s readings for Mass are all about the end times, and the homilies of today are centered on that.
Our Holy Father similarly took up this theme today in his Angelus address to the pilgrims in Rome. Here is an excerpt, my translation of the Italian original:
“..Saint Mark .. presents today part of Jesus’ discourse on the end times. In this discourse, there is a phrase that strikes us because of its clarity: ‘The heavens and the earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.’ (Mk 13,31) Let us stop a while and reflect on this prophecy of Christ.
“The expression ‘the heavens and the earth’ is frequently found in the Bible to indicate the whole universe, the entire cosmos. Jesus declares that everything is destined to ‘pass away’. Not only the earth, but also the heavens that here he is using in a cosmic sense, not a synonym for God. The Sacred Scriptures do not know ambiguity: all of creation is marked by a limit … there is no confusion between the creator and the created, but rather a clear difference. With such a clear distinction, Jesus affirms that his words ‘will not pass away’, that is, they exist as a part of God and thus they are eternal. Even though they are pronounced in the concreteness of earthly existence, they are prophetic words par excellence, as Jesus affirmed in another place, turning to the heavenly Father: ‘The words that you have given me I have given to them. They have accepted them and they truly know that I have come from you, and they have believed that you have sent me.'(John 17,8) In a famous parable, Christ compares himself to a sower of seeds and explains that the seed is the Word: those that hear it, accept it and bear fruit are part of the Reign of God, that is they live under its rule; the remain in the world, but are no longer of the world; they carry in themselves the seed of eternity, a principle of transformation that manifests itself already now in a good life, animated by charity, and in the end produces the resurrection of the body. Behold the power of the Word of Christ.”
I guess the point the pope is making (perhaps?) is that when we start reflecting on the end times, our own limited earthly life, we need remember that there is planted within us the seeds of eternity, the Word of God sent by the Father that never will be destroyed if we listen, accept and bear fruit as called to do.
How great is our dignity to be called sons and daughters of God!
