The Word of the Lord gives us assurance that God is with us. It gives us great hope even in the midst of hardships.
The people of the time of Prophet Daniel are given as example to us. God proclaims words of hope through the prophet to a people under the tyranny of a pagan king Antiochus Epiphanes, a personification of the ‘anti-christ’. The prophet announces the coming of God through devastating words. But the people understand it not as a threat to them but as the intervention of God stopping the Antiochean rot and criminalisation of good. We live in world where we have so many copies of Antiochus today. We easily see Antiochus in others especially evil rulers or leaders, yet we may be an Antiochus to our own baptismal identity and power. The Antiochus in us fights the good , holy and joyful life of being a child of God and evening kills it with Antiochean habits, erecting idols in our hearts which are the temples of the Holy Spirit. We become gods unto ourselves as we pray and live that our will be done instead of God’s.
You and I are the prophets, priests and kings of the day by the gift and sacrament of baptism. What is our message? Does our message give hope? Our duty is to bring Christ through our message. Christ is our Hope that does not disappoint. Be the message of hope to your community.
In the second reading we are given reason and example of how we can become people who live in hope and give others hope. We are called to be priestly like Christ, offering ourselves in the eternal covenant.
In the gospel according to Mark we are encouraged in hope and taught that salvation is not an instance but a life time encounter or journey. We should not be searching for when Jesus is coming back but seeking Jesus now to enjoy heaven while we are still here on earth. As we come to the close of the liturgical calendar year we are called to reflect on the four last things. We are not to be afraid because of our Hope who is Christ, who does not disappoint. Let us seek to intimately and personally encounter Jesus today and we will not be waiting and worried about the last day.
For us we can encounter Jesus Christ if we reflect daily on His coming in history as he became flesh over 2000 years ago and his second coming in the end of time or our deaths. But most importantly we need to reflect on our daily opportunities of encountering Christ as he comes to us in the poor, weak, vulnerable, those on the peripheries of society and of our hearts. Our readiness for being with Christ eternally is seen in our daily response to His daily coming. Let us welcome him daily and reverently in the above as we receive Him in the Eucharist.