🕯️This solemn Sunday concludes the cycle of the Liturgical Year, confronting the faithful soul with the ultimate realities of eschatology: the end of times, the Final Judgment, and the terrible majesty of Christ coming as Judge of the living and the dead. The liturgy today does not celebrate a specific saint, but the consummation of human history and the definitive triumph of the Kingdom of God over the power of darkness, according to the prophecy of the Savior Himself. The Church, in her maternal pedagogy, uses the apocalyptic descriptions of the ruin of Jerusalem as a prefiguration of the final catastrophe of the world, urging Catholics to shake off spiritual lethargy and to live in a state of grace. It is a day of reverent fear and, simultaneously, of immense hope for the elect, reminding us that although heaven and earth may pass away, Christ's words will never pass away, and that we were made for the inheritance of the Saints in light.
✉️Epistle (Col 1, 9-14)
Brethren: We cease not to pray for you, and to beg that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding: that you may walk worthy of God, in all things pleasing; being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God: strengthened with all might, according to the power of His glory, in all patience and long-suffering with joy, giving thanks to God the Father, who hath made us worthy to be partakers of the lot of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood.
✠Gospel (Mt 24, 15-35)
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples: When therefore you shall see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place: he that readeth let him understand. Then they that are in Judea, let them flee to the mountains: and he that is on the housetop, let him not come down to take anything out of his house: and he that is in the field, let him not go back to take his coat. And woe to them that are with child, and that give suck in those days. But pray that your flight be not in the winter, or on the sabbath. For there shall be then great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world until now, neither shall be. And unless those days had been shortened, no flesh should be saved: but for the sake of the elect those days shall be shortened. Then if any man shall say to you: Lo here is Christ, or there, do not believe him. For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch as to deceive (if possible) even the elect. Behold I have told it to you, beforehand. If therefore they shall say to you: Behold he is in the desert, go ye not out: Behold he is in the closets, believe it not. For as lightning cometh out of the east, and appeareth even into the west: so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Wheresoever the body shall be, there shall the eagles also be gathered together. And immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven shall be moved: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all tribes of the earth mourn: and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with much power and majesty. And he shall send his angels with a trumpet, and a great voice: and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the farthest parts of the heavens to the utmost bounds of them. And from the fig tree learn a parable: When the branch thereof is now tender, and the leaves come forth, you know that summer is nigh. So you also, when you shall see all these things, know ye that it is nigh, even at the doors. Amen I say to you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done. Heaven and earth shall pass, but my words shall not pass.
💭Reflections
⚡The Gospel prophecy regarding the end of times and the Second Coming of Christ is intended to instill a salutary fear that purifies the soul from excessive attachment to transitory things. Saint Augustine, meditating on the Judgment, reminds us that the terror of that day should not lead us to despair, but to the correction of life while there is time, for He who will come as Judge is the same who now offers Himself as Advocate. The "abomination of desolation" in the holy place, prefigured historically by the profanation of the Temple, points eschatologically to the great apostasy and the loss of sacredness in hearts and in the world. Christ exhorts us to flee to the "mountains," which the Fathers of the Church interpret mystically as refuge in the Scriptures and the heights of divine contemplation, far from the baseness of carnal life that will be judged (Saint Augustine, Epistle 199).
🌟In contrast to the severity of the Gospel, the Epistle to the Colossians offers the remedy and the path to face the day of wrath: to live worthily of God, bearing fruit in good works. Saint Thomas Aquinas explains that being "worthy to be partakers of the lot of the saints in light" is not a purely human merit, but infused grace that empowers us for the beatific vision. The Angelic Doctor teaches that we were "delivered from the power of darkness," which demands an ontological change in our behavior; the light of glory requires the light of grace. The patience and long-suffering mentioned by Saint Paul are the weapons of the elect to endure the final tribulation, keeping the faith intact in the face of false prophets and deceptive signs that the Gospel predicts (Saint Thomas Aquinas, Super Colossenses).
⏳The image of the fig tree, whose tender branches announce the summer, is a parable of hope amidst cosmic cataclysm. Saint Teresa of Avila, reflecting on the transience of this life, warns that true wisdom consists in understanding that "everything passes," but "God does not change." The Christian must read the "signs of the times" not with morbid curiosity, but with the vigilance of the bride awaiting the bridegroom. The end of the liturgical year symbolizes the end of our earthly pilgrimage; just as the leaves sprout indicating the proximity of summer, the tribulations of this life indicate the proximity of the eternal encounter with Christ. The certainty that "my words shall not pass" is the rock on which the soul builds its interior dwelling, secure that after the storm of judgment, the calm of eternity will come (Saint Teresa of Avila, Way of Perfection).
🇺🇸See English version of the critical articles here.
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