Saturday, November 14, 2009

My Gospel Reflections for November 15; thirty-third Sunday in ordinary time: Mark 12:24-32

My Reflections:
During the end of the millennium (1999) some people predicted that the end times would come. Some even stored food already but nothing happened. We were all successfully ushered to the next millennium. So when is the end times going to happen? Nobody knows but God.

However, each and everyone of us faces our own inevitable end times and that is our deaths. When someone is sick with cancer doctors would even predict the days or months that we are going to last until the inevitable end.

Do we need to be afraid of our own death? It depends; for someone who has not developed a personal relationship with Jesus death is like a plague that needs to be avoided. But for those who have developed an intimate union with Jesus death is nothing but a gateway to something that is beautiful and heavenly.

Jesus in the gospel predicted a frightening depiction of the end times (the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.) perhaps some of the people who was within hearing distance of Jesus were afraid; maybe a few of the disciples were afraid too.

Fear not, continue moving on with your life—if we have this intimate relationship with Jesus we will not be afraid of the end times or of our own deaths. There are even some who would willingly embrace natural death with open arms because they know that death is the start of our everlasting journey with God. When death comes we will be able to see God and we will experience rapturous joy for the reason that we are already with our creator who loved us more than anyone else.

On the other hand, the horrible end times being described by Jesus is also a reality that will certainly happen. This is reserved for those people who know God but refuse to follow His teachings. After their deaths, they will be forever in the dustbin of hell.

In the first reading it says: “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; some shall live forever, others shall be on everlasting horror and disgrace (Daniel 12:2). …