The book that we know as the Bible is a collection of many different types of books, written by many different people - but all under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It's not a book that you just sit down and read, like a novel; rather it's an encounter with God - revealing to us the mystery of how He has interacted with humanity throughout history and how he continues to interact with us today.
So, when we read the Bible, we should not understand it as fundamentalists - either Christian fundamentalists or atheist fundamentalists. The stories and lessons it contains are deeper than just the words on the page - because they were inspired by God - and continue to be interpreted by the family he has established on Earth, the Church.
We must come to the Bible with an attitude of openness to the Spirit and an understanding of what exactly each book is telling us, because the Scriptures are not dead words. The are alive and are speaking to us.
Our gospel today is part of a sermon by Jesus called the "Olivet discourse," because he preaches it standing on the Mount of Olives across the valley from the Temple in Jerusalem. This all takes place during Jesus' last visit to the city before he is arrested and crucified. Last week we heard how he sat outside the Temple treasury and praised the widow who gave all her livelihood.
What sparked this sermon was one of his disciples speaking in awe about the Temple, and rightfully so. He said, "Look, teacher, what stones and what buildings!" It was a massive building - the wall facing the Mount of Olives was 300 feet high. Some of it's stones weighed, individually, nearly 100 tons.
But, to his disciple's exclamation, Jesus replied that, one day, there will not be one stone that would not be thrown down. The Temple would be destroyed.
Hearing this, Peter, James, John, and Andrew ask Jesus - how will we know when this will happen, what should we look for? Jesus gives them some signs. He tells them that people will come claiming to be the Messiah, there will be wars and national conflicts, there will be earthquakes and famines. Christians will be persecuted because of their faith, they will be betrayed by loved ones. They will be forced to flee Judea.
All of this happened. There were famines and earthquakes shortly after Christ's death and resurrection. And, most importantly, the Jews revolted against the Romans, leading to the complete destruction of Jerusalem and of the Temple in 70 AD.
And then, at this point in his discourse, comes today's Gospel.
In those days after that tribulation
the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light,
and the stars will be falling from the sky,
and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.
What went from a fairly straightforward prediction of the destruction of the Temple has taken on an apparently universal significance.
This only makes sense if we realize that Jesus is using the language of the Old Testament prophets - especially Daniel who we heard in our first reading. In the Old Testament, these kind of signs were used to describe God's judgement of a pagan kingdom - an event was "world-shaking."
That is exactly what happened in the destruction of the Temple. As I've said many times before, for the Jews, the Temple was the center of the world. It was where God's presence dwelled. The decorations inside of it, and even it's structure, were understood to represent the entire universe.
The veil that was ripped when Jesus died was covered in images of the stars and constellations. The menorah represented the sun, the moon, and the five known planets. The Temple was an image of the universe, just as the universe was the eternal temple to God's glory.
When that was destroyed, it was the end of the world.
There weren't any more sacrifices offered to God for the sins of the people. There was no physical dwelling on earth where God lived. It was only after this that synagogues became the central points of Judaism, as a way to carry on without the central point of the Temple.
But, that was also when God started something new. The end of the old covenant, the Old Testament, the old world - was also the beginning of the new one. Jesus' death on the cross replaced the imperfect sacrifices of the Temple. His Body, the Church, was the new dwelling place of God on earth.
This prophecy of the destruction of the Temple shows us that God's plan of salvation is worked out in the real circumstances of history. We no longer live in the time of the Temple, of one physical place as the dwelling place of God. We live in a new world.
The point is this: we are living in the end times. What this Gospel tells us isn't about some far off future event that won't affect us. It's not about a Hollywood-style apocalypse.
It means we have to be watchful. We have to live our lives in the knowledge that God's plan is accomplished in the Church. We haven't seen it's fulfillment, when Christ comes again, but we are in the final stage.
Does that mean we live in fear? Or try to figure out when Christ will return?
No, it calls us to live the commandments: love God and love our neighbor.
To fight, zealously, to rid ourselves of sin.
To stand up against the evils tolerated or even celebrated by the world.
This is our only chance and we have to start now.
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