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A good Sunday to all.

If we read the Gospel according to Mark, when we get to chapter 13, we get stuck, we find an obscure, mysterious, difficult language, different from the rest of the Gospel. Today's passage that we are going to listen to is taken from this chapter. We are going to listen to Jesus speaking of wars, earthquakes, calamities, pestilences; he will announce the darkening of the sun, he will say that the moon shall no longer give its light, that the stars will fall from heaven.

The most immediate interpretation that comes to us is that Jesus is making gloomy predictions about our future or, rather, about the end of the world. Let's say it immediately: Jesus is not talking about the end of the world at all. He is giving good news; the new world is about to be born. And to avoid this incorrect interpretation, which is still circulating, and to understand the message of joy and hope, it is necessary to mention the historical context in which the evangelist Mark wrote this chapter.

His Gospel was written around the year 68, and this chapter is set a few years later. What was the situation of the community of Rome? It was a community still traumatized by the persecution of Nero that has just ended. It lasted from 64 to 68, and many brothers were cruelly killed, as the historian Tacitus relates in a memorable page of his annals. It is moving for us Christians to read about the suffering of our brothers and sisters in faith.

With these martyrs, the two pillars of the early church, Peter and Paul, also lost their lives, but the most painful wound was the division that was created within this community during the persecution. Tacitus tells us that there were Christians who denounced their brothers; it was a time of chaos. Nero's death was followed by a few months in which the empire seemed on the verge of collapse: violent civil wars that brought to power in quick succession three emperors, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, until Vespasian took power.

Again, Tacitus tells us that there was enormous confusion in the empire and contradictory, fanciful rumors were circulating about the end of Nero. Some said that he was still alive, that he was going to reappear after a short time. Then, there were years of plagues, calamities, famine and especially in the year 70, Jerusalem was destroyed. The temple was razed to the ground, and in this dramatic moment, the Christians of Rome felt displeased and wonder where the world is going; how can these dreadful events be reconciled with the hopes that the Gospel has awakened in all of us? Where is that new world that should have sprung up? Forty years have already passed since the Passover and we see that in the world competitions and violence continue. What is the sense of all that is happening?

There is a mystery surrounding these events and no one reveals the meaning that our life can have. When these chaotic times come, a danger also appears. We also experience it today because there always appear exalted fanatics who make catastrophic predictions about the future and then there are the gullible people who listen to them because they promise their audience that they will be safe if they listen to what they suggest; and if they also ask for money the people believe them even more because they say that they are buying this hope of salvation.

That is the reason why Mark begins this page by referring us to a correct recommendation of Jesus: Be careful because you could be deceived and misinterpret the events of the story and therefore, make foolish decisions.

Let us listen to what Jesus recommends:

 

“See that no one deceives you. You will hear of wars and reports of wars; see that you are not alarmed, for these things must happen, but it will not yet be the end. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be famines and earthquakes from place to place. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be famines and earthquakes from place to place" (Mt 24:4,5-8).

 

Listening to these mysterious words of Jesus, perhaps we too, like many others, have been carried away by the idea that he is alluding to the end of the world, but if we reflect a little, we ask ourselves: Has he said something strange or new? The answer is NO; he was simply presenting what was happening in his time, what would happen in the time of Nero, what happens all the time, even today. When in history did wars of peoples against peoples, kingdoms against kingdoms end? Was there ever a time without earthquakes, calamities, famines?

Jesus was not announcing extraordinary catastrophes; it is enough to open the newspapers and find that Jesus was talking about the reality of what is always happening, of what is still happening today and is under our eyes. His purpose, then, was not to make predictions about the future, but to teach us to read the present with the eyes of God, to understand the meaning of what is happening, to have the right interpretation, because if we misinterpret the events, we make wrong decisions.

Yet, we ask ourselves how certain dramas in which we get involved can be part of God's plan? And we would that someone would remove the veil that shrouds the evil, the pain, mystery. Also, today in the face of wars, injustice, violence suffered by the innocent, many conclude that the world is at the mercy of evil and that it will get worse and worse; there is nothing to be done; people will always be driven by greed, selfishness, covetousness. The consequence of this misreading is that we lose hope, and we conclude that the kingdom of God was a beautiful dream that Jesus had in his head, but it will never come true.

This is the incorrect reading and the consequence of the loss of hope, of resignation: 'Let's not think about it anymore; let's mind our own business.' Jesus invites us to read our history in another way, and he does it with a phrase that can be misinterpreted. He says that this will be the beginning of sorrows. What sorrows is he talking about? Of other sorrows besides those he has already announced: wars, calamities... who knows what awaits us. This is not the meaning of the phrase used by Jesus. The sorrows begin, but what pains are we talking about? They are the birth pains, seeds of the birth of life, of a new world; not signs of death. Jesus has already used this wonderful image during the last supper. John tells us this when, before the sadness of the disciples, Jesus says that the woman in childbirth is sad because she knows that her hour has come, but when she has given birth to the child, she remembers no longer the affliction for the joy that a new person has come into the world. This is how Jesus invites us to read these dramatic events of history and it is the same old story; as signs of pain, but which foretell the birth of a new world.

Now Jesus continues to open our minds to this authentic interpretation of what is happening and he does it using a language that is not ours; it is apocalyptic language. ‘Apocalyptic' is an adjective that comes from the Greek verb 'apocalyptein' and that does not have the meaning that is normally given to it. When journalists say 'an apocalyptic earthquake,' they completely misrepresent the meaning of this adjective. Originally 'apocalyptein' means to remove the veil; and that is what Jesus wants to do: to remove the veil that prevents us from understanding the meaning of what happens and give the right interpretation. Now we are going to hear that he removes this veil, and he does it with images that we must decipher because it is those images that are called apocalyptic. Let's listen:

 

"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.”

 

"After that tribulation." What tribulation was Jesus talking about? The destruction of the city of Jerusalem, of its temple. Jesus had foreseen it; Israel had rejected his proposal of a world of peace, of universal love, and in so doing had decreed their own ruin while he was on the Mount of Olives, contemplating that city.

What happened after this catastrophe? For Israel, it was the end of everything. The hopes awakened by the promises of the prophets had vanished; it would be the end of everything. One had to resign oneself. Jesus says NO. After that tragedy, something wonderful and positive will emerge, and he tells us with apocalyptic images.

The first one: "The sun will be darkened." If it is the material sun going dark, it is a calamity. All the peoples of the Ancient Middle East considered the stars of the firmament as gods and believed that all the events of the world depended on them because they could favor life, vegetation or cause misfortunes or calamities; and therefore, they offered prayers and sacrifices to these deities of the sky. Throughout the Ancient Middle East, the sun god was worshipped. In Egypt: you can see in the background the famous bas-relief with Akhenaten, Amenosis IV, and his famous wife Nefertiti. They hold their daughters in their arms; above them is the solar disk Aton, the sun god. Also, in Mesopotamia: think of the god Assur, presented as the splendor of the winged sun. The god Assur, the cruelest god that history remembers. He was also presented with a solar disk.

Then, the second apocalyptic image: "The moon will not give its light." In the background, I have placed a seal of the third millennium B.C. It represents king Ur-Nammu, who is presented with some dignitaries and we are interested in the crescent moon; it is above them, it is the god Sin, worshipped in all the world the Ancient Middle East because on the moon depended then the vegetation, the transhumance of the Greeks.

Third image: "the stars will be falling from the sky." In the background, I have put a bas-relief in which we see the god Sin, the crescent moon again, then the sun god, and the goddess Ishtar, the eight-pointed morning star and Venus, which was also worshipped throughout the Ancient Middle East. Also called 'Astarte'... she has several names; she is the goddess of love and war. Jesus did not invent these images.

These apocalyptic images are found in the 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 host of heaven shall be dissolved. These are the apocalyptic images taken by Jesus. What does this darkening of the gods of heaven mean? Jesus means that with the destruction of Jerusalem a whole new world will begin. With the beginning of the preaching of the Gospel, these gods that had seduced humankind will be destroyed, –gods that justified slavery, moral corruption, oppression of the peoples, cruelty– all these stars are finished; they will lose their splendor.

Where the light of the Gospel enters, all else will be darkened. Who were these stars? All the rulers, from the Pharaoh to the Mesopotamian emperors, the kings... they all thought they were stars in the sky. Jesus says all these stars now fall, come to earth, stay down where they belong.

We remember Isaiah chapter 14 the lament about Nebuchadnezzar; the prophet says in this song: 'How you fell from heaven, you morning star, son of the dawn... see how you ended... ending in sheol.' The king of Tyre is introduced by the prophet Ezekiel who says: 'you who wanted to ascend to heaven to be equal to the Most High, yet you are not a god but a man.' In ancient times, the kings, the emperors, the pharaohs were in the heavens, they were the stars that everyone had to contemplate, admire, and invoke.

Jesus says that all these stars must not be in heaven; they are not divinities. Jesus says that all government, all oppression of people, all power based on domination, must disappear. Here is the announcement of the joy that Jesus is giving. Therefore, the message of Jesus is anything but catastrophic; it is the announcement of an earthquake that will overthrow all the kingdoms of this world; the kingdoms of injustice and lies, of hypocrisy and strong powers that starve the people, and that we think they will never fall. Jesus says NO. They will fall from heaven; they are not the ones who have to guide history.

We could list some of these falling stars, and hopefully, they will fall soon because they have been in the sky too long already, and they have seduced us. One of these stars is the avenging, vengeful god; it is a false deity, it is an idol, created by the wickedness of people. When we see this image of God eclipsed, it has already done too much damage because being his children, we try to look like Him, we should rejoice when we witness the fall of this sun.

When we see the false stars of the world that seduce, that cheat so many people with their false promises of success, stars that shine in the fair of vanity... we see it every day. When their frailty, inconsistency is revealed, we must rejoice because they will be idols less and less adored, idols that dehumanize you when you want to look like them: money, possessions, the accumulation of power achieved by any means, trampling on everyone. Let us rejoice when these idols fall from heaven.

And now, Jesus introduces a new apocalyptic image. Let us listen:

 

“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.”

 

To understand the apocalyptic image of the son of man, we must refer to the prophet Daniel. In chapter 7, he presents the succession of four empires with the image of ferocious beasts. The first is the lion (you see it in the background; the lion at the gate of Ishtar, in Babylon); represents the Babylonian empire which with Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the city of Jerusalem and lasted as long as it had the strength to be superior to the other peoples; but, at a certain moment, a bear overcame the lion; it is the empire of the Medes; and then the Medes also were overtaken by another beast, a leopard, which represents the empire of the Persians, agile and swift that spread throughout the ancient world and reached as far as Greece. Finally comes a fourth beast that is not identified by name, but it is beastly. He says it is greedy, relentless, so much so that it cannot be described; it cannot even be found a comparison to say what animal this fourth beast is. It is Alexander the Great and after him the Seleucids who ruled Syria and Palestine.

None of these empires were human. Each empire succeeded by the next, which was worse, more inhuman and ferocious than the preceding one. After these four beastly empires, Daniel promises that there will be no fifth beastly empire, but that God will deliver the kingdom not to a stronger beast, capable of winning over the previous ones, but to a personage with a human heart, his government will be eternal, it will not pass away, and his kingdom will never be destroyed.

Who was this son of man who would appear and who was announced by the prophet Daniel? Jesus is presented as this Son of man 80 times in the Gospels. He is the one who started the world after the kingdoms of the beasts tried to dominate one another because they were guided by the impulse that led them to compete and to dominate. Now has come the one who presents himself as the true man, the man who has triumphed according to God.

Here is the message of great hope that Jesus wants to instill with these apocalyptic images. He tells us not to be frightened by the dramas of history because all inhuman powers are destined to fall. Then he says that this Son of man will send the angels to gather his chosen ones from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

Perhaps we think that he will send his angels to awaken the dead and bring them to universal judgment... Jesus is talking about something else; let us not confuse it with the 25th chapter of Matthew. The meaning of the image of the angels gathering the elect from the four winds is not the announcement of judgment. It is not about any punishment.

The message is a consoling answer that Mark is giving to their communities, to those Christians who are tempted to drop their arms. Mark remembers the promise of Jesus: The Son of Man will not permit his disciples to be scattered to the four winds; the persecution that, in Mark's time, when he wrote this chapter, the drama was still going strong and had scattered the community, Mark says, remembering the promise of Jesus, angels will be sent to gather them from the four winds. The symbol is that of the four cardinal points, therefore, these angels will gather all those who have been scattered.

Let us try to identify these angels that the Son of man will send. The term 'angel' does not necessarily designate a spiritual being with wings, perhaps as in general we imagine it to be. Angel in the bible means any mediator of salvation, of God's tenderness. And it is applied in the bible to everyone who becomes an instrument in the hands of the Lord for the benefit of people.

Here we are speaking of a dispersion that has taken place and from the four winds, these scattered ones must be gathered together. They are the angels sent by the Lord who carry out this mission. What are the winds and the storms that are also present today and that disperse the elect who must be gathered again? Let us think about what has happened in our communities and is still happening. The winds of secularism, of permissiveness, of the pagan conception of sexuality, the loss of reference values, religious indifferentism, the hedonistic mentality for which the law is good and right according to what I like. These are the winds that have emptied our churches and have carried away many brothers and sisters to desert the faith.

These winds have caught us unawares, with fragile foundations on which our faith was based. The faith was not rooted in the word of God but was often founded on credulity, and this faith did not withstand the winds so that many were scattered. Who are these angels that the son of man send now to gather these elect? They are those brothers and sisters who have known how to remain faithful to Christ and the Gospel, and now commit their whole life to reunite the brothers and sisters who have abandoned the Christian community. Now with a brief parable, Jesus wants to instill this hope in us. Let us listen:

 

“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.”

 

The fig tree is the last of the trees to put forth leaves; when it begins to sprout, the farmer feels that summer is approaching, he rejoices because the time of harvest has come. Jesus says: 'learn from the farmer.' What should we learn from this image? Jesus speaks to us today: What are the conversations we hear among Christians? Doesn't a great deal of pessimism perhaps mark them? They wonder what impact is having in our present society, the Gospel that we announce? People are interested in something else; the values they are referring to are not the Gospel values, but money, pleasure, success and those that do not adjust to the prevailing way of thinking, to the new fashions are accused of being obscurantists, of being medieval. Then there is the secularist world that affirms that we must resign ourselves to disappear; some people believe in these hopes of the secularist world.

In this society that is becoming pagan, many Christians live as if they can't see what does Jesus say to us… What does Jesus say to these people? 'Open your eyes because there are clear signs that the new world that I started is unfolding and is advancing amid so many contrasts and difficulties. Know how to grasp these signs of the new springtime that is coming.'

These Christians must learn to assume the attentive gaze of the farmer who knows how to see the signs of the new season; open your eyes... I want to give some examples: When has there ever been so much interest in the word of God? They say people don't go to church, but now the faith is based on the word of God and no longer on credulities; we also have realized that the proclamation of the Gospel today is done differently than in the past; the choice of faith is more credible, it is presented in all its reasonableness, and these are solid foundations for our belief.

In fact, there are more and more mature Christians who know how to expose the reasons for their faith and who are not afraid to compare the humanism they have learned from Jesus of Nazareth with any other humanism that they respect, but they are happy with their choice. Isn't the sensibility for universal fraternity, solidarity, attention to the humanism of the world growing today? The attention to the marginalized, the wounded and the suffering? The violations of human dignity are denounced today; attention to creation, rejection of all forms of racism, encounter, dialogue, even if it is difficult, between religions and different cultures, the respect that grows… Are they not just a few of the signs of this new world that is advancing?

Let us know how to take advantage of them to rejoice and to hope. Do not be deceived, says Jesus, by pessimistic discourses; do not be seduced by the principles of the world that govern the old world, the world of idols, the world of stars that are contemplated and admired in the sky as if they were gods... they are pagan divinities, shooting stars, do not follow them. Jesus says: 'Be sure that the old world is destined to disappear; do not stake your life on its values, stake your life for the kingdom of the Son of Man because it is to him that the future belongs.'

And Jesus concludes by saying, 'Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away...trust in me if you want to be a builder of the history that remains, of the kingdom of God. Trust in my words.'

I wish you all a good Sunday and a good week.