Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time – November 17, 2024
We come almost full circle since we began the Year of Mark, and today’s Gospel should sound familiar. The verses that follow this pericope were proclaimed on the First Sunday of Advent a year ago and continue Jesus’s exhortation to be watchful for signs of the Son of Man’s coming.
However, this cyclical pattern doesn’t bode well for humanity if, toward the end of the liturgical year, we’re where we first started. Celebrating the Eucharist Sunday after Sunday, shouldn’t things have changed by now?
The elect gathered from the four winds, the ones found written in the book, the tender branches with new leaves. These are baptismal images describing those raised from the dead in Christ. They will shine brightly to lead the many to justice.
The last time we proclaimed this passage, the world was still suffering the aftermath of a global pandemic, and the tribulations of war, climate collapse, insurrections, and distrust just seemed to have escalated from there. As a disenchanted Gen Xer, I’d say the Violent Femmes got it right: “Third verse same as the first.”
If the Son of Man isn’t coming back soon, what can break this hopeless cycle? It’s right there in today’s readings: the elect gathered from the four winds, the ones found written in the book, the tender branches with new leaves. These are baptismal images describing those raised from the dead in Christ. They will shine brightly to lead the many to justice. For wherever hope is dimmed, God’s people are there like stars in the night to show the world that Christ is here.
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