A familiar feature on the
streets of New York are the many people camped out on the sidewalks hawking their
wares and their opinions. You can find knock-off
merchandise, original art, Hello Kitty everything, and literature and allocutions
on just about every topic you can imagine.
I remember, in particular, a man standing at the corner of Wall Street
and Broadway, literally on a soap box, holding a big sign warning passersby to “Repent:
The Apocalypse is Upon Us.” For all I
know, he may be right, though I find it hard to believe that Jesus would
announce his Second Coming on a poster. Nevertheless,
we do need to be ready for Christ’s Second Coming; we need to pay attention to
the signs of the times. Today’s readings
help us understand how.
As we come to the end of Ordinary Time,
our readings take a decidedly apocalyptic turn, as both our first reading and
our Gospel address the end of time. “We might think of apocalyptic literature
as fire-and-brimstone scenarios of the end of the world when evildoers will get
their public comeuppance. But it is not
really as much about the fate of evil as about God’s exaltation of the
innocent.” The word “apocalypse” has gotten a bad
rap. It’s generally understood to mean destruction,
catastrophe, trials and tribulation. Amid
scandal, fires, mass shootings, and rancorous political discourse, it seems
like the Apocalypse is happening right now.
But these aren’t the signs we should be paying attention to. You see, Apocalypse really means unveiling or
revealing. The Apocalypse is the time
when we’ll finally know the truth, when the hidden trajectory of the world will
be revealed; when God’s great plan for us will be unveiled. Like our psalmist, we’re called to profess our
faith in God’s providence, to abide in confidence that God will show us the
path to life. So the signs we’re looking
for are those that lead us to Jesus. To
find that path, we have to prepare ourselves, pay attention, and follow the
signs. “The truly wise never forget that they must be ready when the summons
comes. For those who live in that memory, the end will not be terror, but
eternal joy.”
So, what does it mean to be
prepared? Well, God’s Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us to prepare us for the Apocalypse by teaching us to
love God and to love our neighbor. To be
prepared, then, means to live as Jesus taught us; “it means that we must so
live that it does not matter when [Jesus] comes;” it means that we have to make
every day fit for him to see and be at any
moment ready to meet him face to face. As our readings make clear, all who follow
Jesus and serve his mission will be saved when he comes again.
To be prepared, we have to follow the
signs. Jesus didn’t abandon us to wait
for his Second Coming alone. He remains
with us, he abides with us, albeit in somewhat subtle ways. Through his real presence, he continues to show
us the way to eternal life through Word, Sacrament, and Spirit.
We all know that Jesus Christ is God’s Word, the one who in the beginning
spoke all of creation into being. Spoken
through the prophets, made express in his life, death, and resurrection, memorialized
in Scripture, and testified to in preaching, Jesus, God’s Word, continues to
speak to us today. Whenever a passage
from Scripture inspires or even disturbs you, pay attention, Jesus is giving you
a sign. Whenever a homily really
resonates with you, pay attention, Jesus is giving you a sign. To encounter Christ, to find the signs that
lead us to eternal life, we have to ground ourselves in the Word, in Scripture,
and contemplate how Jesus is speaking to us through it today.
Jesus also shows us the way to eternal life in the Sacraments. Creation and incarnation teach us that God
reveals himself, and God’s grace is known to us, through physical, material
reality, especially in the Sacraments. As
outward signs instituted by Christ to give grace, the Sacraments, “these very
communal acts . . . are the means by which the church lives in dynamic
communion with . . . Jesus” right now. They are signs that guide our feet into the
way of peace. To find these signs, we
need to receive and actively participate in the Sacraments. You know, we sit, stand, kneel, genuflect,
bow, sing, listen, pray, eat and drink together in the Sacraments for a reason.
It’s not just one big game of Simon
Says. In the Sacraments, we encounter
signs of grace with our whole being, body, mind and spirit. Whenever you’re moved to tears by a beautiful
hymn, pay attention, God is giving you a sign.
Whenever you’re awed by the grandeur of the Mass, pay attention, God is
giving you a sign. Through active,
attentive participation in the Sacraments, we follow those signs.
Last, but not least, the Holy Spirit.
God sends his Spirit among us to animate and inspire our lives. “The Christian life is lived in the grace and
power of the Holy Spirit.”
The Spirit is always at work in and
around us, pointing out the signs that lead us to Jesus. “Sometimes this work is as gentle and hopeful
as new life in springtime. Sometimes it
is disruptive, as Mark puts it, like ‘an enemy at the gates.’” Whenever you get that warm, fuzzy feeling after
doing something good, pay attention, the Spirit is giving you a sign. Whenever you have a gnawing sense of guilt or
foreboding, pay attention, the Spirit is giving you a sign. God is at work in and around us preparing us
for that great unveiling. It’s our job
as disciples to seek out the signs of the times and follow them.
With our lives consumed by work or
school, with our noses buried in smartphones and computer screens, it’s easy to
miss the signs of Christ’s presence in our lives. I don’t know when the Apocalypse is coming,
or what it’s going to be like, but I can tell you that I’m certain that Jesus won’t announce his Second Coming in a Tweet
or on Snapchat, Facebook or Instagram. But
the signs are all around us—in Word, Sacrament, and Spirit. Our readings tells us that the Apocalypse
will come, and we need to be prepared. We
need to pay attention to the real signs
of the times and follow them.
Readings:
Daniel 12:1-3; Psalm 16;
Hebrews 10:11-14, 18; Mark 13:24-32
On November
19, the world was blessed with a wonderful gift – the birth of a child who 
