PURIFIED THROUGH TRIBULATIONS

WEDNESDAY, THIRTY-FOURTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Apoc 15:1-4; Ps 98:1-3,7-9; Lk 21:12-19

Enduring the Tribulations in the world

In the Gospel, our Lord speaks of tribulations that will come to Christians after speaking of the tribulations that will befall Jerusalem in particular and the world in general. The cause of tribulation for Jerusalem was her ignorance of the presence of God and the salvation given to her in Jesus Christ. The same rejection of the salvation God sends to the world through Christian preaching of the Gospel would bring about tribulations and cosmic upheavals. Just as the rejection of the Son of Man in Jerusalem caused his passion and death in Jerusalem, a rejection that continued in the hatred and persecution of his followers, the rejection of the Gospel proclaimed to the world by Christians would also lead to the hatred and persecution of Christians in the world. Our Lord speaks of these separate events in Jerusalem and the world as if they are the same. “Men will seize you and persecute you; they will hand you over to the synagogues and to imprisonment, and bring you before kings and governors because my name—and that will be your opportunity to bear witness.” We can consider the two events to be the same because they form a continuous whole. It is the same persecution, whether in Jerusalem or the world at large.

The cause of the persecution is the same, whether in Jerusalem or the world at large; the root cause of the persecution is hatred for Jesus Christ, the truth, and the will of God. The same rejection leads to the passion and death of Jesus Christ in his members. The Lord considers the events and speaks of them as the same and continuous. Hence, he promised us the presence of His Spirit. “Keep this carefully in mind: you are not to prepare your defence, because I myself shall give you an eloquence and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to resist or contradict.” Because our profession of faith in Jesus Christ and our desire and intention to live by the Gospel has made us members of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, he continues his mission of proclamation of the Gospel of salvation through our lives. We must never doubt our mystical union with Jesus Christ our Lord, for it is founded on the very will of the Father. The eloquence he promises to give us is not just an eloquence of speech, for we proclaim the Gospel most effectively through a life of faithfulness to the graces of God and the Gospel. So, we do not doubt our union with him through faith in the Word and the Sacraments we celebrate daily, for he will establish us on a firm foundation that the forces of evil and the world cannot destroy.

Subsequently, we see that the cause of lasting cohesion is not along the physical bloodline or any natural connection but along the spirit. Hence, family ties, tribal and ethnic bonds, national ideology and communion, etc. will all fail. “You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relations and friends; and some of you will be put to death. You will be hated by all men on account of my name, but not a hair of your head will be lost.” The division will be due to spiritual affiliation. We form our spiritual bond through our ultimate desire and love. Those who desire and love the physical and passing things of the world are ruled by the prince of the world through them. The Holy Spirit rules those who love and want the everlasting truth and life. The hatred of the prince of this world for Jesus Christ is shared by all who are in communion with him through their love and desire. Due to this desire, they are branded with his number, the name of the beast, just as those in love with eternal truth carry the names of the Lamb and God. God empties the seven plagues of his wrath on them because of their hatred, persecution, and death of Jesus Christ and his members. The Lord showed John the saints, who overcame the beast and his statue, singing of God's truth and justice in the work of redemption of the just and punishment of evil.

Let us pray: Grant us, Lord, the grace to understand the passing nature of things here on earth, that we may not desire them above your eternal and everlasting truth and life you have given us in Jesus Christ, that enduring everything here, we may eagerly look forward to our heavenly home. Through the same Jesus Christ your Son, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.