The associated reading for this reflection can be found in your Every Sacred Sunday Mass journal or online here.
I imagine Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel filled the hearts of those hearing His message with fear and anxiety. The days will come when this magnificent temple will be reduced to a pile of stones and wars, insurrections, earthquakes, famines, and plagues will cover the earth. The days will come when you will be seized, persecuted, imprisoned, betrayed, hated, and put to death. The announcement of these horrible sufferings is enough to bring even the most stouthearted of us to our knees.
Some days the problems engulfing our world weigh on me. Nightly news and social media bombard our waking hours with horrific scenes of human tragedy. Our lives seem to move from one struggle to the next with issues of health, jobs, finances, and brokenness. With so much suffering, heart break, and division in the world, I plead, Jesus have mercy on us. It is easy to lose hope when the days that are coming get longer and darker.
But, this is not the Good News our Savior has poured into our hearts. Lo, the days are coming, perhaps for you they are already here. But, I hear my Savior sing over me: child, take heart. Even in unspeakable suffering, my Savior sings over me just as He did in today’s Gospel. I will speak for you. I will walk with you. I am with you. Not a hair on your head will be destroyed. By your perseverance you will secure everlasting life. My Savior sings over me the song of His loving presence, and I rest in His arms secure in the hope of His coming Incarnation.
It's easy to take a doomsday approach to today’s Gospel and the sufferings of this life letting the world weigh us down. But, as we end this liturgical year with messages that feel ominous, let us look forward to the coming Light remembering we are a people of hope confident the days are coming when “there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays.” On the cusp of Advent, may we be found ready to stand in His light.
Rachael Valka is a wife, mother of three boys, and theology teacher at Incarnate Word Academy in Houston, TX. When not teaching teenage girls by day and chasing her energetic sons by night and weekends, she enjoys respite in reading, writing, time outdoors, and moments of God’s grace with friends. Her first book, “Breathing Again: A Hurricane Harvey Memoir,” can be found on Amazon.com and BN.com and you can learn more about her on Facebook.