Homily for the Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Last week we celebrated the dedication of the Lateran Basilica, the cathedral

church of Rome, and I made the comparison with the Temple in Jerusalem at

the time of Christ. Today we hear how some are marvelling at the Temple,

“how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings”.

Back in 20 BC, Herod the Great decided to greatly enhance the size and dignity

of the Temple. He covered the exterior in white marble and gold plating, and

according to the first century historian Josephus, the columns in the colonnades

surrounding the Temple complex were thirty-seven feet (11.3m) high, each cut

from a single block of white marble, which would have been very expensive

indeed. Wealthy people had also made their costly offerings too – Josephus

mentions someone called Alexander who had donated gold and silver plating

for the tall door that formed the entrance to the Court of the Women. Herod’s

plan was to make the Temple the most magnificent temple in the whole of the

Roman Empire. Not only was it the most important building for the people of

Israel, it was also designed to be the most impressive building they would ever

see. And yet, it was all to come tumbling down in forty years’ time by act of

the Roman armies in AD 70.

You can imagine how this must have shaken the people of the time. They

might even have thought it was the end of the world, and thea God was going

to execute swift justice on those responsible. In fact for Christians from a

Jewish background, it must have been at least a bit disorientating, which is why

in the Letter to the Hebrews someone has done a bit of thinking about it and

reassures them that we don’t need the Temple anymore, because Christ is the

sacrifice that takes our sins away, so we don’t need the Temple sacrifices. And

Christ had predicted it all, anyway, as we see today.

So Our Lord prepares them for what is to happen, and uses it to make a few

more important points: firstly, not to be led astray. After He has ascended into

heaven, there will be others who will come along and claim to be Christ

returned in the flesh. Don’t follow them, no matter how convincing they might

appear. Secondly, there will be great upheavals in the world, but it doesn’t

mean the end of the world yet. For us, perhaps the biggest upheaval in recent

years was when we heard on our screens about something called Coronavirus

spreading across the world, and hospitals in Spain becoming overwhelmed by

the numbers of people arriving at their doors. Surely plagues and pandemics

don’t happen anymore, at least not in this part of the world! We might hear

about Ebola in Africa, and there were SARS and MERS in more tropical parts

of the world, but that kind of thing just doesn’t happen here. Modern medicine

has put an end to it! And maybe there were some people whose faith was

shaken by it.

Our Lord makes a few other points. Next, persecution. It will happen. And we

need to remain steadfast to the end. He describes something that sounds a bit

like what happened in Communist countries, where relations and friends

reported Christians to the authorities or the secret police, who then had them

arrested, put on show trials and sent to prison or to labour camps. “By your

endurance you will gain your lives.” That doesn’t mean necessarily that by

being faithful to Christ you will save your skin. It might mean that you are

martyred, but that you gain eternal life by your faithful witness. There has not

been a single century when Christians haven’t been persecuted and even

martyred. It has been said that the twentieth century has had the greatest

number, but we will have to wait until this one is finished before we know how

the twenty-first compares. Certainly in Nigeria the complaint has been made

that despite so many Christians have been put to death, the media here has

never really reported it, until Donald Trump threatened to sort things out

himself if the Nigerian government doesn’t make more of an effort. Since the

year 2000, the figure is now 62,000, what some are referring to as the “Silent

Slaughter”. Maybe now the prayers of so many might have been heard and the

world might start to sit up and take notice.

So, it’s a bit of a rambling homily today, but the message is to be prepared,

don’t let anyone lead you astray and to persevere to the end.

Curious about exploring things further?  If you would like to ask further questions about the topics raised in these homilies (or maybe think it wasn’t explained too well!), please feel free to e-mail Fr Michael at stjoseph.thame@rcaob.org.uk