TO WHERE DOES A TREE FALL?

XXXIII SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME: MK 13:24-32

The end of the world

We are reaching the end of the liturgical year, and, this Sunday, we are presented with readings about the end of the world.

The message, both in the Gospel (Mk 13:24-32) and in the first reading (Dan 12:1-3), is a prophetic message, not so much as a prediction of the future, but as a call for the present. Yes, the readings are concerned with our present attitudes, and try to motivate us to look critically at ourselves and the society in which we live, so that we make a radical change. 

A prophetic call

The world will end. Even science admits that. However, the texts of the Scriptures have nothing of scientific about it. Instead, they are a prophetic warning: do no take God for granted! There will be a time of judgement, in which we will be called to answer for our deeds. That must be taken seriously. Indeed, our relationship with God and the implications of it for our daily lives, must be taken seriously. Or we may loose it all. There is a Bemba proverb that says: the trees fall the side where they are inclined to. That’s is obvious about trees. However, the proverb is about people, not about trees, meaning that our end will depend on how we deal with our daily attitudes. So we must ask ourselves: Where are we inclined to? To which side are we going to fall?

Our future is decided now

Jesus advises us no to spend our time and our energies trying to guess when the end of the world will be, because that is God’s secret. We must concentrate on making our daily life meaningful. Then, we will recognise the signs of the coming of the Son of Man, and we will welcome him with joy, not with fear. We will fear, if we have been moving in the wrong direction; then, we will fall to the wrong side, and we will not find life, rejoicing in God’s love, but we will find the pain and agony of loneliness, and the burning fire of hatred.

The end of the world will be the end of this world and the beginning of a new world, in which God will be “all in all” (Eph 1:23). We must think about the end of the world, and mainly our own end, with hope, not with despair. However, we must always remember that the choices are made now, and we will reap what we are sowing now.