Second coming

We are now to the end of the liturgical year where we get these apocalyptic Gospels, which talk about the end of times. Apocalypse means unveiling, to lift the veil and to reveal what is going to happen, what is behind the curtain that separates us from eternity. We know that Jesus is going to come back one day, every day a bit closer, to end our time and to begin his everlasting Kingdom. Next Sunday we close the liturgical year with the feast of Christ the King. In the creed we say every Sunday: “He will come again in his glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.” We use the word Epiphany, appearing, or Parusia, coming, the second Advent. It is a Christian and Muslim belief.

The early Christians thought it was going to happen during their life time. So much so that Saint Paul had to tell them to keep working and not become lazy, just waiting for everything to disappear. For us it is not as important as for them, because after two thousand years, we are still waiting. Personally I think that first we need to colonise the whole universe. A lot of people have predicted this event and have failed. In every generation we have prophets of doom. We have a desire to know the future, what is going to happen, but we Christians know that our future is in God’s hands, and he tells us what we need to know. Prior to his coming there will be amazing signs, the Antichrist and natural disasters. Everything will be destroyed; there will be a new heaven and a new earth. We shouldn’t be too concerned about our planet because one day it will disappear.

We talk about the three comings of Our Lord: the Incarnation, when the Word became flesh; our personal meeting with God, when we die; and the second coming of Jesus. The first one was hidden to the public eyes, our personal one is unexpected, and the third one will be amazing. November is a month when we bring to our consideration our departure, events that we don’t normally think about, the last things, eternal truths, the other life.

Jesus said that he had to go and prepare a place for us. He is coming back to pick us up, to take us to his place, to be with him and with the people we love for ever. We don’t normally think about the hour of our departure. It is the only thing that is going to happen to us for sure, every day a bit closer, and it is what gives meaning to our lives. We think that it is very far away from us. The thought of death brings to the fore what is really important in life, and makes all the artificial things disappear.

Jesus in the Gospel is constantly reminding us to be ready, to watch out, to be on guard. He says that he will come like a thief in the middle of the night, unexpectedly, for us to render an account of the talents he gave us. We are not ready because we are still here. This November we have another opportunity to prepare ourselves to face our personal encounter with Jesus Christ. For others it is the end; for us it is the beginning. Jesus dying for us has taken away the sting of death, and opened the gates of heaven. We can say with joy like the early Christians: Maranatha, come Lord Jesus.

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The widow’s mite

Today the readings of the Mass present to us two widows. In the first reading a widow from Elijah’s time and in the Gospel a widow going to the temple. Widows had a hard life, with no husband to look after them, and it was especially tough if they didn’t have grown up children. Both were generous, giving out of their poverty the last resources they had. And both got much more than what they expected. Elijah’s widow was going to die with her son and received food for the whole year. The widow in the temple was praised by Jesus for just two copper coins. Maybe she found a fortune when she went back home.

Jesus sat with his disciples in the temple opposite the treasury, looking at the people bringing their donations, some of them putting in a lot of money. It was a big show, watching the rich Jews carrying big bags of gold and silver coins, dropping them into the treasure, hearing the metal sound of the coins going down the hole. The temple treasury was situated in a highly visible location, to encourage people to be generous. We love showing off, drawing attention to our good deeds. But nobody noticed a poor widow dressed in black, who dropped in only two little copper coins, without making any sound. Only Jesus knew of her generosity, because he can look into the depths of our hearts. When she was leaving without drawing attention to herself, Jesus called his disciples and gave them a graphic lesson, pointing out to them her heroic deed.

The rich gave to God their left overs; the poor widow gave everything she had. Jesus was moved by her generosity, and told his disciples that she had put in more than all of them together. The rich had their reward on earth; the poor widow had her’s waiting in heaven. Saint Josemaria says: “Didn’t you see the light in Jesus’ eyes as the poor widow left her little alms in the temple? Give him what you can: the merit is not in whether it is big or small, but in the intention with which you give it.”

We win Jesus’ heart through our generosity. There is an old saying that God is won over by the last coin. The Kingdom of God is priceless but at the same time it costs whatever you have down to the last penny. If the bottle of wine is not full, the air turns the wine into vinegar. We came to this world naked, without anything, and we are going to leave in the same way. You cannot take anything with you unless you give it to God. What you give to God you’ll find it in the other life; if you keep it you lose it.

God always asks first. It puzzles us, thinking that he has everything and he should be the one offering his graces to us, instead of being the one always asking things from us. He wants to give himself to us, but first we need to make room for him. The more we give, the more we get. Mother Teresa used to say: “You have to give till it hurts. Then you’ll be happy.” We cannot outdo God in generosity. Once a beggar asked Alexander the Great for alms. He commanded to make him Lord of five cities. The beggar was dumbstruck: “I didn’t ask for so much.” Alexander answered: “You ask as you are; I give as I am.” He was great, great was his generosity. We are like little children who carry in their pockets their treasures: a piece of glass, a stone, a broken figurine. Even though we don’t have much in comparison with what God has to offer, we are attached to our little coins. Give them to Jesus as the poor widow did.

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Love of neighbour

We are travellers, pilgrims on this earth. We come from God and we are going back to him. Today Jesus in the Gospel tells us what are the two most important commandments for us to follow, to reach the kingdom of heaven: to love God above everything and others as we love ourselves. They are the summary of our Christian faith. Today we can check if we are following them. They are not easy to fulfill. We normally love ourselves first, then others, for what they can do for us, and then God, just in case he exists. We should try to turn things around. Once we have our priorities right, we know we are on the right path, going back to our Father’s house.

Can we love our neighbor as we love ourselves? Is this possible? Of course it is possible. God doesn’t ask us to do anything that is impossible. It is a selfless love, the love everybody would like to experience. It is the love of a mother who loves her children more than herself. Because they were very close to her, part of her life. She carried them for nine months. There are other similar kinds of selfless love. A soldier who gives his life for his country, or a martyr who dies for Christ. We have the example of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, who changed places with another man in a concentration camp to die instead of him. A little girl told her uncle, a priest just ordained, her hidden secret: I love you more than I love myself. People sometimes risk their lives to save their property, their pets, the things they love.

Both commandments are related. The more you love God, the more you love others. God pushes us towards our neighbour. We can even say that we love others with the love God gives us. Our love of God helps us to see others as parts of ourselves, as our brothers and sisters. It works both ways. The more you love your neighbour, the more you love God, and the other way round. They are two sides of the same coin. We have the example of the saints, who give us lessons in how to love others.

Nosce te ipsum, know thyself; it was a maxim inscribed on the temple of Apollo at Delphi. There should have been another one: Ame te ipsum, love thyself. We see in our society nowadays many people who hate themselves. They don’t like what people see in them and would like to be different. Social media often fosters jealousy, when people show only an ideal image of themselves. If you hate yourself, you normally hate others. How can you love your neighbour as yourself, if you don’t like yourself? But what do we have to do to learn how to love ourselves? Look at God who is Love and loves us more than anybody else. God has created us the way we are and loves us from the beginning: he wants us to exist. Our self love comes from the love he has for us. A baby becomes conscious of himself when he is aware of the love his mother has for him and becomes his own person.

We need to discover the love God has for us. Once we are aware of God’s love, we can easily give ourselves to others. Bishop Barron often repeats the idea that love is to seek the best of the other. We forget that we have been created to love more than being loved. We are happy when we love others in the way they want to be loved. But how do we experience God’s love, if he is not doing what we ask of him, and makes us suffer? This week we read during Mass a famous saying from the letter of Saint Paul to the Romans: everything works for the best for those who love God. We use a Latin expression: Omnia in bonum. When we love God above everything, we know that what happens to us is the best for us, that he is in control.

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All Saints

Once a year in November the Church on earth as a good mother helps us to remember our brothers and sisters who have made it into eternity. On the first of this month, the saints in heaven; on the second, the souls in purgatory. They say there are around 10.000 saints recognised by the Church. It is impossible to count all the saints in heaven. We don’t have time to canonise every person who enters into glory. There are millions of them. We call them anonymous saints, which means saints with no names; not for God, because for Him all of us have a hidden name. At least once a year we remember them and hopefully one day it will be our feast day. Today it is the biggest celebration in heaven regarding the number of celebrants who are celebrating their dies natalis, their birth into heaven.

The remembrance of the saints helps us to lift up our eyes to heaven. It doesn’t make any difference to them, because they are already immersed in God; they don’t need our prayers. But we need their example, their model of life, their inspiration, their intercession. Not to copy them, because every person is unique, but to reassure ourselves that we all have the necessary graces to make it to heaven, that the ball is in our court, that God is willing, and it is up to us to make it there.

What’s holiness? It doesn’t mean to be perfect. It means that when we die, we go straight to heaven. It is impossible to be perfect, but we could make it to heaven thanks to God’s grace. We all feel that if we die now we can hardly make it to purgatory. How can we reach heaven? Through the mercy of God. It is so powerful that it can make us holy. And it is there, up for grabs. The Church wants today to remind us that we are made for heaven, that we come from God and we are going back to him. It is possible for us to become holy. It is good for us to remember the famous question saint Ignatius asked himself, when he was reading lives of saints, and experienced a peaceful feeling in his soul, in front of those beautiful examples: “If they could do it, why not I?” The devil is trying to discourage us; he wants us to be convinced that it is very difficult to reach heaven.

Once saint Thomas Aquinas’ sister asked him a very difficult question, maybe the most important question of our lives, the same question the rich young man put to Jesus: What do we have to do to go to heaven? Thomas, who was a man of few words, and he was very precise with his explanations, answered with two words: “velle illud”. It is a Latin expression that means: to want it. It is not a matter of conviction but of desire. God will open the gates of heaven if we want it, if we push them open with our struggle, with our desires to be with Him.

We need to remind ourselves of the power of God. Saint Josephine Bakhita, at the end of her life, expressed in these simple words, hidden behind a smile, the journey of her life: “I travel slowly, one step at a time, because I am carrying two big suitcases. One of them contains my sins, and in the other, which is much heavier, are the infinite merits of Jesus Christ. When I reach heaven I will open both suitcases and say to God: Eternal Father, now you can judge. And to Saint Peter: Close the door, because I’m staying here.”

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Bartimeus

Today we come across Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, a blind man, outside the city of Jericho. They say that Jericho is the oldest city in the world still functioning. Timaeus must have been a well known person. His son was begging for money at the road side. We are like Bartimaeus, blinded to the spiritual things, sitting on the road side of life, waiting for Jesus to pass by, begging for help. He heard a multitude coming out of the city and asked what was happening. Blind people rely completely on their hearing. We too also need to hear Jesus passing by, distinguishing his footsteps among the cacophony of sound that is surrounding us. When they told him that it was Jesus the prophet, he began to cry out at the top of his voice: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.”

It is similar to the famous Jesus’ prayer, used mainly in Eastern Christianity, which through a constant repetition, becomes like breathing, a ceaseless prayer. It contains in a nutshell all that we need to ask: Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner. During Mass we use a similar expression: Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy. Bartimeaus was shouting aloud, so much so that many rebuked him, telling him to be quiet. They couldn’t hear what Jesus was saying. But he cried out all the more, knowing that this was the opportunity of his life. We too need to repeat this prayer with persistance, against the secular environment which is surrounding us, and the people trying to shut us down. Our perseverance is a sign that Jesus is hearing us.

Eventually the Lord called Bartimaeus. He jumped up full of hope, leaving his cloak behind, the piece of cloth that kept him warm him up during the winter nights. We should be ready to jump too, when we hear our name: “Take courage, Jesus is calling you.” But also we should let go of our cloak, our attachments, getting out of our comfort zone, leaving our sinful life behind us. It sounds a bit like a gamble, but we need to trust Jesus, burning our boats, leaving our old self behind.

Jesus asked Bartimaeus a strange question: What do you want me to do for you? Jesus knew that he was blind and he wanted to recover his sight. God knows what we need, but he wants us to ask for it. It happens the same with parents; they know what their children need but they want them to say it. Do we really know what we need? Most of the time we ask for things we don’t need. We long for promising careers, more wealth, better health, to become famous, to be honoured. Deep down we all want to be happy. God always knows what we need. We should let him decide: Lord, give me what I need!

Bartimaeus, opening wide his eyes, looking at the horizon, asked what all of us should ask: Lord, let me see. Domine ut videam. This is a cry Saint Josemaria said for many years, when he sensed that God was asking him for something he didn’t know. It made him very docile to God’s will. We also want to see with the eyes of the faith. We want to discover the world of spiritual riches hidden to our earthly eyes. The first thing Bartimaeus saw, when he recovered his sight, was Jesus’ face: the amazing countenance of the Son of Man, the most perfect image of God. The Gospel says that he followed him on the way. Once you discover the face of Jesus, you don’t want to leave him. Lord, let us see your face!

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The sons of Zebedee

The readings in the past few Sundays come from chapter 10 of Mark’s Gospel. We see Jesus going towards Jerusalem, walking with his disciples, talking to them, taking advantage of this walk by forming them. Jesus is also walking with us and we need to be aware of his presence. We are accompanying him towards the heavenly Jerusalem. They sat down to rest and the sons of Zebedee took advantage of this moment to ask something they wanted to ask. In Matthew’s Gospel it is their mother, Salome, who asks. James and John, who Jesus nicknamed Boanerges, sons of thunder, were with Peter the three beloved apostles. They had a special place in Jesus’ heart. We too could be part of this group of Jesus’ close friends.

They asked for the best two positions of power in his kingdom. This is what it means to sit at the right and the left hand side of the king. Suddenly everybody stopped talking, listening with big ears to what Jesus had to say. Thanks to their special friendship with Jesus, they could snatch the two top spots. Not too long ago they were discussing among themselves who would be the greatest in Jesus’ kingdom. We all would like to be famous. We think that we are better than we are, and we feel underestimated. It is amazing what people do to get noticed by others, to get more clicks, to appear on the news: go on a diet to lose weight, exercise in the gym to get fit, undergo beauty operations, inject ink under the skin for tattoos, pierce their body parts, dyeing their hair, editing their photos for Instagram.

Jesus answered them with a question: Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink? Can you follow me through the same things I am going to go through? They didn’t know what was going to happen to Jesus. They thought he was going to be a new leader for Israel, who was going to bring honour and glory to the Jews. We know what happened and we know also that he wants us to follow him carrying our own cross. At the end, at Calvary on his right and left hand side were two thieves. For our sins we too have the right to be there. We hope we can follow the path of the good thief.

They answered both at the same time, lifting their heads up, their eyes full of pride: we can! Jesus liked their disposition, their big heart, their ambition. But he wanted to bring them down to reality: it is up to my Father to give away these places. The same happens to us. We think that we can, that if we want, we can follow Jesus. But we have the experience that on our own we can’t; we are falling down over and over again all the time. But with him, everything is possible.

Once Jesus denied the two top spots to the sons of Zebedee, the others got upset with them for trying to jump the queue. Jesus took advantage of this opportunity to give them a lesson: whoever wants to be first, must be last. This is the Christian path. It is not a matter of power and control, but of serving and giving our lives for others. To follow our Master who came not to be served but to serve.

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The rich young man

Today in the Gospel we meet a fellow who we call the rich young man. We don’t know his name. All we know is that he is rich and he must be young, because he runs towards Jesus. He was in a hurry as young people always are. He must have been a good looking guy. All of us would like to be young, rich and beautiful. If we are young in our spiritual life, we can run towards God. Once we grow older, we begin to drag our feet. Some scholars think that he could be Saint Mark, who ran away three times from the Lord, here, when he was following Jesus at the garden of olives and during the first apostolic trip of Saint Paul. It gives us hope, we that have run away so many times from Jesus.

The fellow asked the most important question in life: What do I have to do to make it to heaven? It is a question we need to ask Jesus from time to time in our prayer: Am I on the right path? Imagine one morning, when you look at your sleepy face in the mirror, you see Jesus’ face. What would his expression be? Smiling, pensive, sad, worried, upset, happy? A spiritual author says that we need to face Jesus at least once a day, just to look at him in the eyes. People nowadays don’t want to ask this question. All they ask is: What do I have to do to become successful, famous, fulfilled, cool, sexy, rich? We should ask about the meaning of our lives now, not when we are almost dead. It is an important question because the answer conditions our present and future happiness.

Jesus answered him: fulfill the commandments. He responded: I do. He was a good guy. The Gospel says that then Jesus looked at him and loved him. When you look at Jesus, you see yourself as you are, and you experience God’s love. Jesus saw he was ready, had a good heart, and asked him for everything: sell all that you have and follow me. That’s the way Jesus loves us, asking something of us. The more he loves, the more he asks for. It is a dangerous question to ask Jesus: What do you want from me? It is very dangerous if we give him a blank cheque, a free credit card. We are afraid he is going to take it. Deep down it is a silly fear, a lack of generosity. We need to be convinced that whatever God is asking of us now is the best for us.

He went away sad because he had many possessions. The sadness of not being generous with God. The contrary of the joy of giving. Jesus hits the nail on the head. When we ask Jesus, he tells us straight away. That’s why we are often afraid to pray; we don’t want to face Jesus. There is always something we are attached to, an obstacle to our happiness, something that separates us from God. Why are we waiting to give it to him? Young people nowadays don’t want to talk about commitment; they are afraid of giving themselves. Why this fear? Too many options, fear of changing their minds, looking for a tangible sign, too much pressure to succeed. It is not easy to compete with the role models we see in social media, where everyone looks perfect.

I imagine the rich man years later, not so young, sitting on the veranda of his farm, looking at his possessions, while Christianity was all over the known world and thinking: I could have been one of the first ones. The real Jesus asked me for everything and I swapped it for few acres of land.

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Matrimony

In the first reading we see that at the beginning God created Adam, the only human being. Adam didn’t need anybody else because he was with God. But God thought he needed a companion to begin to generate other human beings. And then, transforming Adam, he created Eve, and marriage began. In the book of Genesis God reminds us that in marriage men and women become one flesh. From the beginning we were created to become one with our spouse and bring children to the world. Human love is beautiful and great, but we cannot forget that it is a reflection of divine love, the real love we are created to experience here on earth, and for ever in heaven. To go through this life we need the support of friends and relatives, and specially in marriage, the help of a spouse.

Marriage is designed to become one, body and soul. It is easy to become one, physically, but it is not easy to become one spiritually. Sometimes it takes the whole life to achieve this goal. In marriage spouses give themselves to each other. It means that you don’t belong to yourself, but you belong to the other person. From then on you need to think in plural, asking this question: What my spouse wants me to do? When both spouses think in this way, marriage is great. The problem appears when one or both are still thinking in the singular, when they think what the other can do for me. This should be the goal for everybody who loves another person and wants to get married.

In the Gospel Jesus reminds us that marriage is till death do us part. What God has united, men cannot break it. Society doesn’t think in this way. When you know that marriage is for life, you work to protect your marriage, to defend it against all its enemies. Modern life has many enemies against the unity of matrimony. Why is marriage for life? When people want to get married they think it is for life, but many times they change their minds afterwards. We should have two marriages, A for life, and B temporarily. But people don’t want to have option B when they get married. Marriage is for life because of two reasons: for the children and for the good of the spouses. Children need a stable environment to grow up happily. It is good for the spouses because they help each other, specially during old age.

Nowadays we have forgotten that sex is creating children. We emphasise a lot what is good for spouses, but we have left the children behind, and this makes marriages break up. Both are the two ends of marriage, and both are interrelated. They are the two sides of the coin. Children will enrich their marital relationship, and the love of the spouses will benefit their children.

The other quality that is very much threatened in marriage today is fidelity. It is one of the most difficult things to live nowadays. It is too easy to be unfaithful. Lack of fidelity breaks marriages. We think we can play with fire, but sooner or later we get burned. Let us pray for our marriages, the foundation stone of our families.

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