The Word Of Peace
Homiletic Reflections On Peacemaking

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti

33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Daniel 12: 1-3

Hebrews 10:11-14,18

Mark 13: 24-42

" This Government, as promised, has maintained the closest surveillance of the Soviet military buildup on the island of Cuba. Within the past week, unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a series of offensive missile sites is now in preparation on that imprisoned island. The purpose of these bases can be none other than to provide a nuclear strike capability against the Western Hemisphere."

These words of the late President John F. Kennedy on October 22, 1962 gave tangible expression to the apocalyptic fears of the times. Those 13 nerve-shattering days of the Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world to the brink of annihilation. For those of us who were alive at the time , we remember just how precarious our plans and lives seem to be in that time. The images of the end of the world that we see imaged in all the world's great religious traditions seemed to be all too real. It appeared to many people that we were living in the last age of humanity. In his recent book, The Coming of God, Jurgen Moltmann writes:

" If the nuclear age is the last age of humanity, then today the fight for humanity's survival means the fight for time. The struggle for life is the struggle against the nuclear end.... Up to now nature has shielded the human race from annihilation by individual human beings From now on the human race as a whole has "become mortal," as Mikhail Gorbachev rightly observed....That means that all decisions today have to be thought through with an eye to the life of coming generations. That is a new, hitherto unknown responsibility for all human beings." p.205

Jesus is asked about the end-time. His answer is cast in apocalyptic imagery that calls to mind the images in the book of Daniel when the Son of Man would come in power to Judge. It is noteworthy that he does not tell when the end time will come--that is known only by the Father. Jesus does not speak of the annihilation of creation, but points to its transformation ! Certainly the old order will pass away--in fact, it is already doing so in his ministry ! But time will not be obliterated , it will be changed ! This is important for our time to remember. Many in this nation have seen weapons of mass destruction as part of the divine plan to bring the end time. But that rests on a failure to understand the meaning of God's action in Jesus--not destruction and waste of the creation, but transformation into glory !

It is God's saving power that can give is a new creation, a new life, a future beyond the terrors of nature or those constructed by human beings. That is the hope that apocalyptic imagery is mean to convey. Such imagery focuses us on the evil and destructive forces that are attacking God's creature and world--it is a time of darkness. Yet, it is a time when God will act decisively to save the faithful--so it is a time lives in hope despite the terrors. It is a time when we acknowledge that God in Jesus Christ is the Lord of time !

In Hebrews the Way of Jesus, his life pattern of love, mercy and sacrifice for us, becomes that key that unlocks the door to God's future with us. In his sacrificial love for others he embraced all to heal and save all. In Jesus we see that God wants to bring all to completion. Yet it demands a response from us. That is the underlying theme of Daniel. Daniel knows our actions can have magnificent or horrifying affects on ourselves, others and our world, and yet there is the great "nevertheless" of God's gracious loving presence. That is the bedrock of our hope ! That despite the worst, God still has the last Word--and in Jesus it is Life !

For the last 50 years we have lived in two worlds. There was the world of planning for college, paying the bills--living. And there was the world that could come crashing down all around us in 7 minutes time.

We lived in normalcy and fear so great and massive in scope that we try to avert our eyes from it and hope that it would go away, but of course, it did not. Such will only go away by our following the Lord's own way of sacrificial love. The great historian, Will Durant was asked to decide who was the central historical figure of history. He stated, " Jesus Christ. When you boil it all down the salvation of the human race and this planet can be accomplished only by the unconditional, sacrificial love found in Jesus. "

It will take time, hard work, a patient impatience and commitment to bring God's conquering love to move humanity away from its own folly. But, buoyed by the hope in the Lord that is the Master and final arbiter of time--we bring the Lord's militant love to help build a world that anticipates the coming God who will bring the fullness of time--a time of transformation in absolute love.

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti, D. Min.
Uploaded January 14, 2000