Christ the Cornerstone

Let’s place our trust in Jesus, who will come again in glory

All that you see here—the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down. (Lk 21:6)

The Gospel reading for the Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (Lk 21:5-19) can be described as apocalyptic. The Temple in Jerusalem was the center of both religious and socio-economic life for the Jewish community. For the Jews of Jesus’ time, his words predict a complete collapse of the world as they understood it—both in Jerusalem and in the diaspora.

Jesus was a devout Jew. He didn’t relish the idea that the Temple would be destroyed. But he knew that dramatic change was the inevitable result of his saving mission.

Following his passion, death and resurrection, the center of religious life would change. God would no longer be housed in a building in Jerusalem “adorned with costly stones and votive offerings,” but in the person of Jesus Christ and in his Church, the Body of Christ sent by the Holy Spirit to the ends of the Earth. (Lk 21:5)

Naturally, the people who heard this apocalyptic warning were astounded and they asked him, “Teacher, when will this happen? And what sign will there be when all these things are about to happen?” (Lk 21:7) Jesus’ response cannot be considered consoling. He says:

See that you not be deceived, for many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and ‘The time has come.’ Do not follow them! When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for such things must happen first, but it will not immediately be the end. (Lk 21:8-9)

We do not know the day or the hour. Anyone who tries to tell us that he is the Second Coming of Christ, or that she knows exactly when the end time will be, is delusional. God alone knows what the future holds for us. Terrible things may happen. “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place; and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky” (Lk 21:10-11). But our response, as missionary disciples of Jesus, must be to place our trust in him and to discern God’s will for us here and now.

The first reading for this Sunday from the prophet Malachi is a warning we must heed:

Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven, when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire, leaving them neither root nor branch, says the Lord of hosts. But for you who fear my name, there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays. (Mal 3:19-20)

Yes, terrible things will happen—indeed, they are happening now in many different places in our world. But we who fear the name of the Lord, and who have been baptized into his death and resurrection, know that Jesus, “the sun of justice” will arise and that his healing power will be extended to all the ends of the Earth.

It sounds funny to say that we should expect things to get much worse before they get better, but isn’t that exactly what our Lord is telling us in Sunday’s Gospel? “Before all this happens, however, they will seize and persecute you, they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons, and they will have you led before kings

and governors because of my name” (Lk 21:12). The cost of discipleship is real. We must follow Jesus on the Way of the Cross. We must learn how to die before we can live eternally with him.

But even in these challenging words of prophecy there is great hope:

You will even be handed over by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends, and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name, but not a hair on your head will be destroyed. By your perseverance you will secure your lives. (Lk 21:16-19)

“Not a hair on your head will be destroyed,” our Savior tells us. “By your perseverance you will secure your lives” (Lk 21:18-19).

If we surrender our egos, our fears and our need to be in control of our lives and the world around us, we will not be harmed. If we lose ourselves in the loving arms of Jesus, he will guarantee not only our survival but our experience of abundant life in and through him.

As we enter into the final weeks of the Church’s liturgical year and prepare to begin again on the First Sunday of Advent, let’s place all our trust in Jesus, the risen “sun of justice,” who has promised us that he will come again in glory. †