Dear friends in Jesus Christ, we are in the 33rd Sunday in ordinary time year C. in the first reading Prophet Malaki speaking to the Jews who returned from the exile in Babylon, he says that the destruction of the temple is the end of the present age, that the Lord will come and vindicate them. In the second reading St Paul speaks of a problem that people encountered immediately after the death of Jesus, many believed that at the death of Jesus the world will end and a new age will begin, in preparation for the second coming of Jesus many stopped working and depending on the community. In this context St Paul says that the best way to prepare oneself for the second coming is to be faithful to one’s duties.
In the Gospel of today taken from St Luke we read like this Jesus and His disciples looks at Jerusalem from Mount of Olives, they were looking at the temple of Jerusalem, the temple was considered as one of the wonders of the ancient world, it was Grand and beautiful, the temple was a pride for every Jew. For Jews temples have become the focus of their faith, faith must be rooted on God not on the physical and temporal structure, it is true at times religious buildings can actually become a distraction of faith. Jesus prophesies of destruction of the temple, for a Jew it was the most hurting thing to hear. The temple was considered as a sign of the abiding presence of God and people thought that it would last until the end of the time. In other words, through this prophecy Jesus was talking about the end time, he is warning them about the difficult times that they will encounter, He is warning especially his followers that they will face persecution but Jesus also assures them that God will be with them. As we are coming to the end of the liturgical year, the church is giving the eschatological theme so that we may be well prepared, the end time is imminent but we do not know when and how. If we live each day as best as we can showing love for God and love for fellow human beings we will never have to fear when God comes for us.
Jesus teaches us two important points through today’s Gospel, the first one is that we should not be deceived, he tells us that there will be those who say I am He and the time is near, when someone makes a claim that I am He then they want to become false god for us, when someone claims that the time is near then they speak against the gospel, so do not be deceived. The second teaching of Jesus in the Gospel is that we should not be afraid, there will be war, earthquakes, famine, plagues and persecution, but Jesus calls us to be confident and to have faith in God. We are invited to practice perseverance, compassion and forgiveness, and we have to ask this question to ourselves and find an answer. What are the things distracting us from Jesus? Who are the false prophets today? How do you prepare yourself for the coming of Jesus? Amen.