ONLY THE FATHER KNOWS THE DAY AND THE HOUR

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

This Sunday’s gospel invites us to reflect on the end of times and Christ’s second coming. The first Christian communities waited with eagerness for Jesus’ second coming. They thought it would happen in their life’s time. However, they had to come to terms with the delay of that event. Throughout the ages, time and again, different apocalyptic movements appeared announcing the end of the world and calling on people to prepare themselves for the incoming judgement. It will be a time of crisis, a “time of distress” when the universe seems to collapse and people experience anguish and despair.  Peace will give way to violence and war and order will give place to chaos. All kinds of prophets have appeared putting forward dates for the end of the world. In the hope of surviving the cataclysm that will take place, people build bunkers and store food.

Nowadays, in a society that rejects God and banishes him from the public sphere, we can hear the announcement of the impending end of the world, unless we change radically our attitudes towards mother earth. For the ecological movement, we are on the way to self-destruction, since we are polluting the earth and creating an atmosphere where life will degenerate and die out. The human race is guilty of the evil practices that put in danger the life of the planet. According to them, time is short and we must be radical in our approach in order to delay the catastrophe. We must use only clean energy and ban the use of fossil fuels that bring global warming, creating the greenhouse effect. 

Many times, the ecological movement sounds like a religious cult, which is at the same time an ideological movement, that cannot be questioned and must be obeyed by all. The ecological prophets announce the end of the world and demand a radical change in the policies that rule the world.

For sure, we must care for the world and stop all practices that may destroy life or make life impossible. God entrusted the world to us and we must prove to be good stewards that deserve the trust God put in us. As for the end of the world, we should not join the false prophets who speak of what they don’t know. Jesus leaves it clear that only the Father knows the day and the hour:

“But as for that day or hour, nobody knows it, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son; no one but the Father.” (Mc 13,32)