THIRTY-THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
16 November 2025
Mal 3:19-20a; Ps 98:5-9; 2 Thes 3:7-12; Luke 21:5-19
The Collect of this Sunday is so beautiful with that prayer, we pray for constant gladness of being devoted to God, because in serving the Lord, the author of all that is good, we have full and lasting happiness. The true way of serving the Lord, is to serve Him with constancy. Even during difficult times, the Lord exhorts us to have that endurance that will gain us a place in the sight of the Lord.
This Sunday’s Gospel begins with the disciples admiring the adornment of the temple with beautiful stones, but Jesus tells them that the days were coming when no one stone would remain on top of another. The beautiful temple which was built by Herod was later destroyed by the Romans in AD 70. In John’s Gospel, Jesus talks of the destruction of the Temple which is body. Surely hard to believe that a building so magnificent can just be destroyed. Even today, we find it very hard to believe, that in a civilized world, nations rise against each other, families are divided. Nonetheless, these wars and divisions do not mean the end of the world. We need to have faith and hope in the Lord.
In the Second Reading, St Paul addressed the question about the return of the Lord or the imminent Parousia. Some people were no longer working since they said that the Lord was about to return very soon. Their other problem was that they were interfering in other people’s work. St Paul invited the Thessalonians to learn from them, who worked for food. Thus, the apostle underlined the dignity and importance of work. Today, the problem of youth unemployment is one of the causes of the increase in the uptake of drugs. Governments, especially those in Africa need to priorities the employment of their citizens. Pope Francis in Laudato si said, “We were created with a vocation to work” (LS 128). Thus, governments can help fulfil this vocation by creating employment for their citizens. In this way no family will lack food on the table. Young people will not drown in oceans trying to cross to Europe hoping to get a better life.
May our Mother Mary intercede for us.