Dear Parishioner,

In today’s Gospel; Jesus, before he dies, gathers together his disciples and delivers his final teaching on the future age, instructing them how to live in the midst of political and cosmic upheavals. It is helpful to remember that St Mark is writing at a time when there is widespread oppression and persecution of the Christian community in Rome. No doubt Jesus’ followers are wondering if the end is near, uncertain in their suffering how things are going to turn out. Nobody knows the details of the last pages of history, but there is a form of writing that imagines the end time: it is called apocalyptic, and to give his readers hope Mark gives the Jesus’ vision of the future.

The vision of the future doesn’t look very appealing at first reading. The bad news is delivered first of all. Jesus imagines a time of terror trouble and persecution. People will be betrayed and handed over to the authorities. There will be wars, and earthquakes and famines. Then there will be cosmic upheaval. But after the catalogue of disaster there is good news. Jesus looks beyond the time of distress to the final time, when the Son of Man will gather the scattered people of God to himself. He sees beyond suffering and persecution to a future of peace with God.

We live in an age of uncertainty where the future never looks wholly secure. But Jesus holds out a vision that takes us beyond our worst imaginings. There is a place beyond the mountains of arms and weapons, beyond environmental damage and terrorism. Such a vision doesn’t free us from the duty to strive for peace and right living, but it does free us from the blasphemy of believing that a nuclear holocaust will be the last word in the human story.

With blessings,

Deacon Alex