Dear Parish Family,
 
The temple which Solomon erected to the Lord about 966 B.C. was destroyed by Nabuchodonozor in 586 B.C. After the return from captivity Zorobabel raised it again from its ruins in 537 B.C., but in such modest conditions that the people who had seen the former Temple wept. In the eighteenth year of his reign, which corresponds to 19 B.C., King Herod destroyed the Temple of Zorobabel to replace it by another which would equal, if not surpass in splendor, that of Solomon. Today’s gospel begins with the disciples marveling at the glory of the Temple, its gold and marble reflecting the rays of the Sun. The Temple they looked at was one of the wonders of the world.  It was brand, spanking new.  It had taken fifty years for Herod to rebuild the Temple. Then Jesus said to them, “It really doesn’t matter. It is all going to come to a ruin anyway.”  In fact within forty years the Romans would put down the Jewish Barsabbus revolt, and, to break the spirit of the zealot rebels, would completely destroy the temple leaving nothing but what we now call the Wailing Wall still standing. To show its complete destruction, they pulled a plow across the area where the majestic Temple once stood.
Jesus prophesied that the Temple would be demolished.  He then goes on to say that the whole world will be destroyed.  He says that natural disasters, earthquakes and hurricanes, and political turmoil demonstrate that the world is coming to an end.  At the same time he says that when you see these things, know that the end is still in the future.  Jesus says that there will be many claiming that the end is at hand.  In fact, every few years someone pops up with a list of why the world is going to end at a specific time.  Remember what Jesus says: "Ignore them." Jesus is adamant that we Christians are not to get flustered, distraught, or be filled with anxiety.  These are the feelings of those who refuse to commit their lives to the Kingdom of God.  What we need to do is to give witness to Christ, particularly in the face of persecution.  
And He is talking to every one of us who is mocked for hanging on to what the media presents as a dated morality.  When Jesus spoke about persecution, He pointed His words to all of us who fight for traditional family values and responsibility against those that deify self-gratification and hedonism.  All people, from the martyrs of the past to those living in your house, may be vilified, or at least be treated as social outcasts for their Christian witness, but patient endurance will save their lives. Each day is the last. Each time is the end time. Each human being faces the end of the world in the span of a life time. The world, its opportunities and losses, passes away for us each night. Every sunset announces a closing of a day that will never come again. And each generation, like each death and every day, witnesses the signs of the end times. Everything that Christ predicted has taken place and is taking place and will continue to take place. We need not wait until the millennium to unlock the mystery. Life itself is the mystery, this great groaning of creation that finds its meaning in Hope alone.

As Paul writes in his Letter to the Romans, that groaning of all creation is an act of giving birth. “We, too, groan inwardly as we wait for our bodies to be set free. For we must be content to hope that we shall be saved.” Today's gospel is challenging.  It is challenging because Jesus demands that we give witness, become martyrs, if we want to be saved.  It is challenging because the Lord demands that we stand up for him, his kingdom and the Christian way of life in a materialistic, self-centered world.  It is challenging because it demands that we accept grief from those who mock us. It is challenging because it proclaims that only by patient endurance can we be saved. This is the challenge of Christianity. We pray today for the grace to endure patiently any trials that are essential to our affirmation of Jesus Christ.
Fr. Tom Kunnel C.O.