Friday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
(Daniel &:2-14; Luke 21:29-33)
In its July issue The
Atlantic magazine asked a number of experts when and how the world would
end. The answers varied from relatively
soon by means of a smashing asteroid or a volcanic eruption to five billion
years from now when the sun expands to take the earth and other planets into
its core. People are always curious
about these things.
In today’s gospel Jesus hints that the end will take
place before his generation ends. It
sounds then like Jesus is wrong in his prediction as everyone else who has foretold
an imminent end. However, his term “generation”
is really indefinite. A generation may
be as long as an epoch or as short as a score and ten years. The point is of lesser importance to Jesus than
the assurance that his words will be remembered forever.
We, Jesus’ followers, must concur with his promise. Whether the world ends before our life’s
candle burns down or, more likely, we die before the earth falls apart, we must
keep faithful to Jesus’ words. When we meditate
upon them and put them into practice, we are assumed into eternal life where
queries about the world’s end fade before the more real concern of how to make
the world a better place for all.
