Jesus said to his disciples:
“In those days after that tribulation
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.
“And then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in the clouds’
with great power and glory,
and then he will send out the angels
and gather his elect from the four winds,
from the end of the earth to the end of the sky.
“Learn a lesson from the fig tree.
When its branch becomes tender and sprouts leaves,
you know that summer is near.
In the same way, when you see these things happening,
know that he is near, at the gates.
Amen, I say to you,
this generation will not pass away
until all these things have taken place.
Heaven and earth will pass away,
but my words will not pass away.
“But of that day or hour, no one knows,
neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”
Sunday’s Gospel, Mark 13:24-32
It is easy to get lost in chapter 13 of Mark. It is placed between the very end of Jesus’ public ministry and the beginning of his arrest, torture, and death. It is a good place to reflect on “endings” or “final things,” and that is exactly what Jesus does—3 of them.
In the first part (13:1-13) Jesus runs through the kinds of events (wars, disasters, cosmic signs, etc.) that happen in every age—they are not special signs that THE END is near.
In the second part (13:14-23) Jesus explains a special case which will happen within the lifetime of many of his current followers: the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, which will permanently end Mosaic Covenant sacrifices. He advises his followers to flee the city before it begins.
There is evidence the early Christians did this, leaving Jerusalem for Pella. They were spared the ghastly Roman siege, the Jewish slaughters of other Jews within the city, the starvation and the cannibalism, the thousands of crucifixions outside the city walls, the total destruction of the Temple and city, and the enslavement of the few survivors.
The third part (13:24-37, which extends a few verses beyond our Gospel) is all Jesus will tell them about the actual, final THE END when he will return to judge the earth. This time recapitulates, in its own fashion, the trauma and the signs surrounding his own soon-to-be death, the later destruction of the Temple, and it continues until the end of earthly history when he returns. The earlier two “final things” are not just events that happen to the first generation of Christians—they are part of the heritage of every generation of Christians. The death of Christ and the destruction of Jerusalem are “baked into” the current lives of every “this generation” of his followers, from the first generation of Peter and Mark and Paul, to our generation, and to the actual final generation of his followers.
No date for that is given. But what about “this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place”? This should be compared to what Jesus says much earlier in Mark 9:1, “there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see that the Kingdom of God has come with power.” He is speaking of the dramatic healings Peter and other Apostles will perform in Acts, showing that the Kingdom is, after Pentecost, constantly breaking into our worldly reality, bringing more and more people to faith. In other words, after Pentecost the conditions are right for God’s Kingdom to penetrate and transform human lives. From then on, THE END may happen at any time, any day—we live “on the verge” every day.
What God asks of every generation, what living the Christ life demands, is watchfulness, steady generosity of heart, repentance, faithfulness—not useless predictions based on earthly dates and times.
“But of that day or hour, no one knows,
neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”
That is to say: that knowledge is reserved to the Father—it is not Jesus’ call to broadcast it: he leaves it, like every word and every act of his life, in his Father’s hands.
As must we.
Additional thoughts:
The reign of Christ begins with his Resurrection, but it will not be complete and fully manifested until the full number of those to be saved have become united to him–it is “now and not yet” as theologians put it. THE END is both still out there ahead of us, yet, with the Resurrection, is has become very close to us. How can we grasp this?
Here is one way. I have seen this idea attributed to St. John Henry Newman, though I have not found a specific source in his writings. It goes like this: imagine us going forward in history as a great crowd moving slowly over a vast plain whose distant reaches we cannot see. This has gone on for a long time. Jesus’ coming, teaching, dying, and rising marks a definitive turning point. It is as if the crowd discovered one day there was an edge to the plain, and to step over the edge would mean the complete end of history as we have known it. So, the now the crowd must turn and walk along the edge of the plain, with no clue as to how long that edge may continue. It may go on indefinitely, but things have changed for everyone. From that point on, every step, every day, we are merely a step from the edge. THE END has remained indefinitely ahead of us, but it is also only one step away at all times.
ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS :
What a cool way of looking at it!