Scripture Reflections for the Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Year C, Lectionary 159
We can gaze at the wonders of God but that should not distract us from doing God's work. When we settle into the worldly and try to hold on to the perishable, we then can become content with our possessions and/or fearful of losing them. Jesus sets our eyes on God, on the eternal good that lasts.
Hate feeling lost on Sundays at church? Searching for a better explanation of the Bible than what you hear from your pastor's sermon? Check out the following collection of audio, video, and text commentaries from various Christian experts for a better understanding of today's scripture that deal with: Adversity • Community • Death • Destruction • Disciple • End • Endurance • Eternity • Faith • Fear • Focus • Follow • Grateful • History • Holy Spirit • Hope • Idleness • Justice • Listen • Love • Martyr • Persevere • Prepare • Prophet • Recognize • Respond • Resurrection • Revelation • Sign • Sr. Dorothy Stang • Struggle • Suffering • Temple • Wisdom • Witness • Work •
“So here Paul has another tradition. It's not a tradition about the second coming of Jesus or the Antichrist or anything like that. Here the tradition is if you're a Christian idleness is not an option for you.”
“Before the final coming of the Son of Man there is a long journey to be faced. It will be marked by suffering and persecution but it will also be marked by the loving and guiding presence of a faithful God.”
“When the end comes...When that time comes don't worry about it if you have been communing with the Lord up until then, amen? Because the time is not a point in the future, it's right now. Right now. We are a people of the Kingdom today.”
“the events predicted in today's reading happened long ago and will not happen next month. But if Christ's words still cause consternation, a quickening of your pulse, and amplification of doubt and worry...I encourage you to re-read Jesus's reassuring words and trust their truth”
“when the temple was destroyed there was a real sense in which the destruction of the temple Jerusalem symbolized and signified the destruction of the whole universe, the destruction of heaven and earth, the dissolution of the entire cosmos, right? And ultimately then the day of the final judgment.”
“When Dorothy met her assassins on that rainy Saturday morning, she reached for her Bible saying, 'this is my only weapon'”
“The question, therefore, is not about when the world will end but how we are living now. Our responsibility as Christians is not to predict the hour but to be ready at every hour, steadily, faithfully, and without fear.”
“Perseverance does not mean passive submission to difficulties. It means making something glorious out of problems.”
“this is the problem that Jesus seems to be addressing in the gospel, that things happen and we don't respond well to it...What would Jesus say he would like us to respond? Perseverance, he says.”
“by perseverance you will save your life, not by insurance but by perseverance. And what does perseverance mean? It's simply this: hold on, hold out till the end because the Lord is coming.”
“God is not indifferent or silent before our plea. God is the one who does justice and does not forget.”
“So today is the day for everybody to stop worrying about what somebody else is doing and put yourself in check. Are you ready for when Jesus comes?”
“But this second letter tempered by the passage of time and the persecution of the community reminds Jesus's followers that the apocalypse hasn't happened yet, so the way they and we behave still matters here on earth. Our actions will reveal our commitment to the Gospel.”