Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
“In those days, after that tribulation – the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.” Mk. 13:24
In 64 A.D. – just about 30 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus – a spectacular fire destroyed 1/5 of the magnificent city of Rome.
Called the Great Fire of Rome, it burned relentlessly for 6 days before being finally brought under control.
Nero, the Emperor at the time, was the initial target of blame for the horrifying devastation resulting from this monumental tragedy. So, to quell the Roman citizens’ widespread rage against him and out of fear of being tortured and killed by the populace, Nero desperately looked for someone else, a scapegoat, to blame for all the destruction.
And, from Nero’s perspective, he found just the right group – a group generally seen as notable, according to one historian of the time, for their “abominations, and for following evil superstitions.”
The people chosen as Nero’s scapegoat were called “Christians.”
And Nero then proceeded to inflict upon these followers of Jesus of Nazareth “the most exquisite tortures.”
This is just one of many examples of the horrors that early Christians had to endure from powerful rulers of the era.
Today’s Gospel passage from Mark was written, then, during a time in which the Roman Empire, with all its power and terrifying grandeur, reigned supreme. It was also a time in which Christians lived in a world seen as dark and brutal and violent. Fear – even terror – was ever present.
Sadly, in this present 21st century, we as a nation are also faced with a multitude of serious “tribulations,” as today’s Gospel puts it. The “sun” of hope for an America free of racial hatred has been significantly dimmed. The “moon” of our planet earth’s well-being is being allowed to be darkened. The “stars that will be falling from the sky” are our convictions about the primacy of a true democracy and the Statue of Liberty’s invitation to all those who are “tired … poor … huddled masses yearning to breath free … the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.”
Today it seems the purpose of Mark’s Gospel was to demonstrate how victory can come even through the worst kind of suffering, and how demonic forces – powerful and terrifying as they are – can generate a new sense of hope even amid so much pain and sorrow and fear.
The primary goal of Mark’s Gospel, then, was to remind believers of the central message of Jesus’ life and death and resurrection:
Be transformed.
Develop a new kind of mind – the “mind of Christ,” as St. Paul puts it.
Create and live out a radically different way of being in the world.
So, even as dark and negative and foreboding as today’s Gospel reading is, it nonetheless holds great promise. That promise is this:
If we follow the “way” that Jesus calls us to walk, if we become, as the early Christians did, “people of the Way,” we will find everything we are looking for as human beings – especially:
Freedom – freedom from the demonic in our lives.
Freedom – freedom to experience the reality of being transformed by receiving an entirely new vision with which to see the world, and a whole new set of values by which we can live in this world.
If we do this, if we choose to follow the “way” that Christ invites us to embrace, then, after all the “tribulations” we are presently undergoing as a nation, we will be able to keep the sun, the moon, and the stars from “falling from the sky,” by fully embracing the promise that Mark gives us in today’s powerful Gospel message:
Become a people of “the Way,” – a people who develop, embrace, and fully live the “mind of Christ.”
Let’s do it! Together!
Ted Wolgamot, Psy.D.
