First Reading Daniel 12:1-3
Daniel prophesies about the judgment of the last days.
Responsorial Psalm Psalm 16:5,8,9-10,11
God protects us and shows us the path of life.
Second Reading Hebrews 10:11-14,18
Jesus' offering for sin has made all to be consecrated perfect forever.
Gospel Reading
Mark 13:24-32
In this, the second-to-the-last week of the Church year, Jesus has finally made it to Jerusalem. Near to His passion and death, He gives us a teaching of hope—telling us how it will be when He returns again in glory. The Gospel text is an eschatological (i.e., an End of Time) image. Jesus is being typically provocative, trying to cajole his audience into thinking large and imagining what is really important among all the complexities and clutter of normal human life. Today’s Gospel narrative is from the 13th Chapter of Mark’s Gospel account, sometimes labeled “The Little Apocalypse.” It uses what 20th Century people called technicolor and surround-sound by way of dramatizing the imaginary end of the created universe. Jesus was very serious about getting people to think somewhat more critically than they were culturally accustomed to doing. He tried to move them away from the idea of merely earning God’s approval, and toward the idea of engaging life ever-more fully, thoughtfully, justly, and wisely. The just and the wise would recognize “the Son of Man coming in the clouds” as a sign of God’s presence and justice.
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