At the point of our Death and Judgement

Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

It-33 Ħadd matul is-Sena 'B'

Messalin  'B' pp 515

Reading 1                 Daniel 12:1-3

In those days, I Daniel,  heard this word of the Lord: "At that time there shall arise Michael, the great prince, guardian of your people; it shall be a time unsurpassed in distress since nations began until that time. At that time your people shall escape, everyone who is found written in the book. "Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; some shall live forever, others shall be an everlasting horror and disgrace. "But the wise shall shine brightly like the splendor of the firmament, and those who lead the many to justice shall be like the stars forever." This is the Word of the Lord.

L-Ewwel Qari   -     mill-Ktieb tal-Profeta Danjel  12, 1-2

F'dak iż-żmien  iqum Mikiel, il-prinċep il-kbir,  dak li qiegħed fuq ulied il-poplu tiegħek. Imbagħad jiġi żmien ta' għawġ,  li qatt ma jkun deher  ieħor bħalu minn mindu ġens kien ġens sa dak iż-żmien. Imma jkun żmien li fih il-poplu tiegħek jinħeles, dawk kollha li jkunu nstabu miktuba fil-ktieb. U ħafna minn dawk li huma rieqda fit-trab tal-art  jistenbħu,  min għall-ħajja ta' dejjem, u min  għall-għajb u l-istmerrija għal dejjem. Il-bnedmin bil-għaqal ikollhom fuqhom dija bħal  dik tas-sema, u dawk li jkunu waslu 'l ħafna  fis-sewwa  jkunu jiddu  bħal kwiekeb għal dejjem ta' dejjem.  Il-Kelma tal-Mulej

Responsorial Psalm                      PSALM 16:5, 8, 9-10, 11

R. (1) You are my inheritance, O Lord!

O LORD, my allotted portion and my cup,
you it is who hold fast my lot.
I set the LORD ever before me;
with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.                        R/

Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices,
my body, too, abides in confidence;
because you will not abandon my soul to the netherworld,
nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption.          R/

You will show me the path to life,
fullness of joys in your presence,
the delights at your right hand forever.                                                R/

Salm Responsorjali   -   Salm 15 (16)

                R/   Ħarisni, o Allaj, għax fik  jien  nistkenn.

Mulej, inti s-sehem tal-wirt u r-riżq tiegħi,

inti żżomm f'idejk xortija.

Inżomm il-Mulej dejjem quddiemi,

għax bih f'leminti qatt ma nitħarrek.                     R/

Hekk tifraħ qalbi u tithenna ruħi,

u ġismi wkoll jistrieħ bil-kwiet.

Għax inti ma titlaqnix fl-imwiet,

ma tħallix il-maħbub tiegħek jara l-qabar.         R/

Inti tgħallimni t-triq tal-ħajja,

hemm il-milja tal-ferħ quddiemek,

hemm għaxqa għal dejjem f'lemintek. R/

Reading 2                 Hebrews 10:11-14, 18

Brothers and sisters:  Every priest stands daily at his ministry, offering frequently those same sacrifices  that can never take away sins. But this one offered one sacrifice for sins, and took his seat forever at the right hand of God; now he waits until his enemies are made his footstool. For by one offering he has made perfect forever those who are being consecrated. Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer offering for sin.

It-Tieni Qari   -    mill-Ittra lil Lhud  10, 11- 14-18

Kull qassis ieħor imur kuljum biex jaqdi l-ministeru tiegħu,   u joffri  u jerġa' joffri l-istess sagrifiċċju,  bla ma jistgħu qatt ineħħu d-dnubiet. Imma, Kristu,  wara li offra sagrifiċċju wieħed għad-dnubiet,    qagħad għal dejjem fuq in-naħa tal-lemin ta' Alla,  fejn qiegħed jistenna sa ma l-għedewwa tiegħu jitqiegħdu   mirfes taħt riġejh.   Għax hu, b'offerta waħda għamel  perfetti għal dejjem lil dawk, li hu jqaddes. Issa, fejn hemm il-maħfra tad-dnubiet,  ma hemmx  għalfejn  issir aktar l-offerta għad-dnubiet.  Il-Kelma tal-Mulej

Gospel                       Mark 13:24-32

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."

L-Evanġelju   -    skond San Mark 13, 24-32

F'dak iż-żmien,   Ġesu' qal lid-dixxipli tiegħu:"Wara jiem ta' dwejjaq kbar, ix-xemx  tiddallam, il-qamar jitlef id-dija tiegħu,  il-kwiekeb  jibdew jaqgħu mis-sema, u   l-qawmiet tas-smewwiet jitqallbu. Imbagħad jaraw lil Bin il-bniedem ġej fis-sħab  b'qawwa  kbira u bi glorja.    U mbagħad  jibgħat l-anġli biex jiġbor flimkien  il-maħturin tiegħu mill-erbat irjieħ, minn  tarf l-artb sa tarf is-sema. Mis-siġra tat-tin tgħallmu din il-parabbola.  Meta l-fergħa tagħha tirtab u tarmi l-weraq, intom tintebħu li s-sajf  fil-qrib.  Hekk ukoll meta taraw dan jiġri,   kunu afu li hu fil-qrib, fil-bieb. Tassew ngħidilkom,  li ma jgħaddix dan in-nisel qabel ma jiġri dan kollu.   Is-sema  u l-art jgħaddu,  imma kliemi ma jgħaddix. Dwar dak il-jum u s-siegħa ħadd ma jaf meta se jaslu, anqas l-anġli fis-sema,  u anqas l-Iben; ħadd ħlief il-Missier. Il-Kelma tal-Mulej 

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Commentary by Fr Raniero Cantalamessa ofm cap

On the End of the World

The Gospel of the second to last Sunday of the liturgical year is the classic text on the end of the world. There has always been someone who has taken it upon themselves to wave this page of the Gospel in the face of their contemporaries and provoke psychosis and fear. My advice is to be calm and to not let yourself be in the least bit troubled by these visions of catastrophe.

Just read the last line of the same Gospel passage: "But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." If neither the angels nor the Son (insofar as he is man and not insofar as he is God) know the day or hour of the end, is it possible that a member of some sect or some religious fanatic would know and be authorized to announce it? In the Gospel Jesus assures us of the fact of his return and the gathering his chosen ones from the "four winds"; the when and the how of his return (on the clouds between the darkening of the sun and the falling of the stars) is part of the figurative language of the literary genre of these discourses.

Another observation might help explain certain pages of the Gospel. When we talk about the end of the world on the basis of the understanding of time that we have today, we immediately think of the absolute end of the world, after which there can be nothing but eternity. But the Bible goes about its reasoning with relative and historical categories more than with absolute and metaphysical ones. Thus, when the Bible speaks of the end of the world, it intends quite often the concrete world, that which in fact exists for and is known by a certain group of people, their world. It is, in sum, the end of a world that is being treated not the end of the world, even if the two perspectives at times intertwine.

Jesus says: "This generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place." Is he mistaken? No, it was the world that was known to his hearers that passed away, the Jewish world. It tragically passed away with the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. When, in 410, the Vandals sacked Rome, many great figures of the time thought that it was the end of the world. They were not all that wrong; one world did end, the one created by Rome with its empire. In this sense, those who, with the destruction of the twin towers on September 11, 2001, thought of the end of the world, were not mistaken ...

None of this diminishes the seriousness of the Christian charge but only deepens it. It would be the greatest foolishness to console oneself by saying that no one knows when the end of the world will be and forgetting that, for any of us, it could be this very night. For this reason Jesus concludes today's Gospel with the recommendation that we "be vigilant because no one knows when the exact moment will be."

We must, I think, completely change the attitude with which we listen to these Gospels that speak of the end of the world and the return of Christ. We must no longer regard as a punishment and a veiled threat that which the Scriptures call "the blessed hope" of Christians, that is, the return of our Lord Jesus Christ (Titus 2:13). The mistaken idea we have of God must be corrected. The recurrent talk about the end of the world which is often engaged in by those with a distorted religious sentiment, has a devastating effect on many people. It reinforces the idea of a God who is always angry, ready to vent his wrath on the world. But this is not the God of the Bible which a psalm describes as "merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, who will not always accuse or keep his anger forever ... because he knows that we are made of dust" (Psalm 103:8-14).

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