Greeting (see the Entrance Antiphon)
The
Lord reassures us today: My plans for you are peace and not disaster. When you
call to me, I will listen to you and I will bring you home. May the Lord of
peace and hope be with you. R/ And also with you.
Introduction
by the Celebrant
Hope
in a New World
Some
parts of Scripture, like today’s readings, speak of calamities and disasters as
signs of an old world decaying and Jesus coming in judgment. Today’s television
and other media bring into our homes the disasters and violence and suffering
of the whole world; and people ask: where all this is leading us. These are
signs for us today that the world in which we live is decaying, but we should
not overlook the signs of hope too in a fairer and more unified world, the
crumbling of tyrannies on the right and the left. These are, like budding
branches on a tree, signs of hope in a new world that is growing, and in the
coming of God among us, his people. Let us celebrate this hope in this
Eucharist.
My Plans for You Are Peace
Today
the liturgy speaks to us of God’s judgment and the end of time. When and how
the very end will come is known to God alone. But this we know for sure: the
end time has begun with Christ, when he became one of us in his humanity, died
and rose from the dead. With him among us now we live our faith even in the
trials of life, not in fear but in the firm hope that God’s love and justice
will triumph and that Christ will complete in us in God’s good time what we try
to build up as we trust in him. For we are people of hope in a loving and
saving God. Let us express this hope in this Eucharist.
Penitential
Act
If
we are afraid, our love is still weak. Let us ask forgiveness from the Lord that
we have not kept alive our hope and vigilance. (pause)
Lord Jesus, you will come with great power and
glory. Keep us from fear. Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
Jesus
Christ, you will gather your chosen ones from the ends of the earth: Keep us
faithful and vigilant. Christ, have mercy. R/ Christ, have mercy.
Lord
Jesus, you are near, standing at the door to make us enter. Keep us in your
love. Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
Have
mercy on us, Lord, forgive us our sins, and make us see how close you are to
us. Lead us to everlasting life. R/ Amen.
Opening
Prayer
Let
us pray for trust in God and in his future. (pause)
God
our Father, through your Son you told us not to worry about the day or the hour
when the old world will be gone, for you alone know when it will happen. Open
our eyes to the sign of Jesus’ coming and make us see him already walking by
our side. Keep us faithful in hope and vigilant in our love for you and our
concern for one another. We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord. R/
Amen.
First
Reading: God Will Raise His Faithful
To
the faithful Jews, upset on account of persecutions, the prophet speaks a
message of hope: God will save you. Even if you lose your life, God will give
you eternal life.
Second
Reading: We Are Saved by Christ’s One Sacrifice
Offering
his sacrifice once and for all, Jesus has overcome sin and given us the power
to live God’s life.
Second
Reading: HEBREWS 10:11-14, 18
Gospel:
See the Signs of the Lord’s Coming
In
mysterious terms, Jesus speaks of the difficult coming of his full kingdom in
this world. Jesus will bring it to completion in us.
Gospel:
MK 13:24-32
Intercessions
Let
us pray with the fullest trust to the God of peace and hope who waits for us at
the end of life’s road, and let us say:
R/
Lord, we place all our trust in you.
–
For the Church, that the people of God may proclaim with trust and joy their
unshakable faith in eternal life and the eternal dimension of all we do, let us
pray:
R/
Lord, we place all our trust in you.
–
For Christians everywhere, that by their commitment to justice and peace they
may bring all people together in one community of hope and faith, and that by
their commitment to one another they may prepare the way for the full coming of
Christ, let us pray:
R/
Lord, we place all our trust in you.
–
For those who are afraid of death, old age, or life’s trials, for all people
without courage or hope, that they may learn to trust in God and that we may
stand by their side, let us pray:
R/
Lord, we place all our trust in you.
–
For this community here and now, that we may inspire one another by our living
faith and indestructible hope, and that by our love and service the Lord may
live among us, let us pray:
R/
Lord, we place all our trust in you.
Lord
God of life and death, we do not know the hour of your coming, but we are
certain that your love will never fail us. Keep us vigilant in hope and help us
to welcome you now in one another, that you may welcome us in your eternal home
for good and for ever. R/ Amen.
Prayer
over the Gifts
Lord
our God, in this bread and this wine we make ourselves available to you. We do
not ask for a life without risks and problems but for the courage to commit
ourselves to your project for the world. When we are downhearted because this
task surpasses our forces, remind us that your Son stays with us to bring your
kingdom to completion. For he is our Lord for ever. R/ Amen.
Introduction
to the Eucharistic Prayer
The
Eucharistic prayer speaks of our resurrection to everlasting life and our
entrance into Christ’s glory when he comes to meet us. After the consecration,
we acclaim him as the Lord whom we expect in hope.
Invitation
to the Lord’s Prayer
God
is our saving Father. To him we pray with the fullest trust in the words of
Jesus himself: R/ Our Father...
Deliver
Us
Deliver
us, Lord, from every evil and grant us full trust in your future. Do not allow
us to delay your plans. Do not let us grow bitter or skeptical when your
promise of harmony and justice take time to become a reality, but keep alive in
us the dream that weak people can carry out your project, as we wait in joyful
hope for the coming in glory of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. R/
For the kingdom...
Invitation
to Communion
This
is Jesus, the Lamb of God, who sacrificed himself once and for all to gather us
together as God’s people. Happy are we to be invited to share in the supper that
prepares us for the everlasting feast in the kingdom of God. R/ Lord, I
am not worthy...
Prayer
“Stay with Us”
This
paraphrase of a text in the night prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours could be
prayed by all if it is in the people’s leaflet, or the leader says it slowly
and meditatively. The priest concludes with the Prayer after Communion.
Stay
with us, Lord, when evening comes and the sun is setting.
Stay
with us and with all people. Stay with us in the evening of our day, in the
evening of life, in the evening of the world.
Stay
with us with your love and kindness, with your word and your sacraments, with
your consolation and blessing.
Stay
with us when to us comes the night of affliction and fear, the night of doubt
and temptation, the night of painful death.
Stay
with us and all who are yours in time and in eternity. R/ Amen.
Prayer
after Communion
Lord,
God of hope, you have saved us in the past, you give us your Son in the present
and our future lies in your hands, yet you entrusted it also to us. As the
fruit of this Eucharist, help us to seek this future as a challenge to be
creative and to build up a new world by the power of Jesus Christ, who will
complete your work in us and who lives with you and with us for ever. R/
Amen.
Blessing
We
should not wait for the full coming of Christ in fear and trembling but in
hope. God is not out to catch us in a weak moment, for he is a saving and
loving God. Neither should we expect him passively for he has given us a new
world to build, to bring it his justice, friendship and peace. It is a task
that is above our strength, but which we can carry out if we live the Gospel as
a community, with the blessing of almighty God, the Father, and the Son, and
the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen.
Let
us go as people of hope who trust in the Lord. R/ Thanks be to God.
****
Commentary
Between
fear and hope
We
are almost at the end of the liturgical year. When Mark wrote this page of his
Gospel, the Roman empire was ravaged by wars, plagues, calamities, and famines.
The Christian communities were affected by the persecution and killings. Faced
with such struggles, Some fanatics began to spread rumours of an imminent
catastrophe, the end of all creation, and the return of Christ on the clouds of
heaven.
It
is here, the evangelist feels he must intervene to put the events in the proper
perspective. Jesus is not making some new predictions in the Gospel. Of course,
he uses an apocalyptic language. But do not mistake them as invented by Jesus.
It is taken from the book of Prophet Isaiah. In chapters 13 and 34, Isaiah says
that the stars of heaven and the constellation Orion will no longer give their
light; the sun shall be darkened at its rising, and the moon shall not give its
light; all the hosts of heaven shall be dissolved.
Many
run into the mistake of interpreting the words of Jesus in the literal sense,
and thus, we have numerous blockbuster movies talking about the doom’s day or
the end of the world. But, Jesus is inviting his listeners to understand
history in a different way. He speaks of the days of the beginning of sorrows.
What sorrows is he talking about? They are the pains of birth, the birth of a
new world, not the pains of suffering and death. During the Last Supper, Jesus
used this image of the woman in childbirth. Although she is in pain, she
forgets all her pains when she has the joy of having her child. The pains that
we would undergo in this world are the pains of our birth into the new world.
With
the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem, a whole new world will begin. With
the beginning of the preaching of the Gospel, the gods that had seduced
humankind will begin to fall. Emperors and kings who justified slavery, moral
corruption, and oppression of the peoples – they considered themselves to be
the Sun, the Moon and the stars. But now, they will lose their splendour. All
the rulers, from the Pharaoh to the Mesopotamian emperor kings, thought they
were stars in the sky. Jesus says all these stars now fall; these stars must
not be in heaven; they are not divinities. Where the light of the Gospel
enters, all else will be darkened.
Jesus
is giving an announcement of joy; it is the announcement of an earthquake that
will overthrow all the kingdoms of injustice and lies.
What
are the false stars of the world that seduce and cheat people with their false
promises of success today? Do you regard money, possessions and the
accumulation of power achieved by trampling on everyone else as the stars that
you revere and honour? Then, the fall is inevitable.
================
17
November 2024
Mark
13: 24-32
Living
in Expectant Hope
In
today’s Gospel, Jesus calls us to look beyond immediate challenges and perceive
God’s presence and plan within life’s trials. The vivid imagery of cosmic
upheaval speaks to both a promise and an invitation. It’s a promise that God is
with us through every transformation and an invitation to find purpose and hope
even in the darkest moments. Like labour pains, life’s struggles may bring
discomfort, yet they lead to a new reality—a renewed closeness to God.
Jesus
invites us to rise above the distractions and difficulties that can cloud our
view. In the lesson of the fig tree, we see the wisdom of nature’s cycles. Just
as the sprouting of leaves announces the coming of summer, so too does God’s
grace and transformation unfold quietly yet unmistakably in our lives. If we
are attentive, creation becomes a teacher, helping us discern God’s loving hand
in every change, every season.
The
Gospel also reminds us of what is truly lasting. “Heaven and earth will pass
away, but my words will never pass away.” This eternal truth stands as a
foundation amid life’s fleeting pursuits. Anchoring ourselves in God’s Word
ensures that, no matter the trials, we remain secure in His promises.
The
timing of God’s ultimate return remains a mystery, urging us to let go of
speculation and instead trust in His timing. Jesus calls us to live with
expectant hope, building our lives on His eternal teachings and embracing a
faith that waits, not passively but with a deep, joyful anticipation.
As we await the fullness of God’s Kingdom, may we see beyond tribulation, trust in God’s timing, and root ourselves in His everlasting Word. This Gospel invites us to live with our gaze lifted, confident that God’s love and promises will guide us into a new, heavenly reality.
