{"id":1234,"date":"2013-11-17T15:53:23","date_gmt":"2013-11-17T20:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1234"},"modified":"2013-11-17T15:53:23","modified_gmt":"2013-11-17T20:53:23","slug":"homily-33rd-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/homily-33rd-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-c\/","title":{"rendered":"Homily – 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C"},"content":{"rendered":"

33rd<\/sup> Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C<\/a>
\nMalachi 3:19-20a
\n2 Thessalonians 3:7-12
\nLuke 21:5-19
\nNovember 17, 2013<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Next week we will celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King and then the weekend after that we will begin Advent.\u00a0 Advent marks the beginning of a new liturgical year in the church.<\/p>\n

Before we can begin a new liturgical year, we must first end<\/i> the current year.\u00a0 As we do so, our readings focus on the \u201cend times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jesus tells people about the destruction of the temple.\u00a0 They ask \u201cwhen will this happen<\/i>\u201d and \u201cwhat sign will there be<\/i>.\u201d\u00a0 We can ask these same questions about the Second Coming, the end of the ages.<\/p>\n

They would seem like reasonable questions.\u00a0 Many people have tried to answer these questions from scriptures to predict a day.<\/p>\n

Jesus tells us first there will be wars and insurrection, earthquakes, famines, and plagues.\u00a0 People try to match these up to actual historical events to predict when the \u201cend\u201d will come.<\/p>\n

There have been earthquakes throughout history.\u00a0 There have been (and continue to be) famines.\u00a0 There have been plaques.\u00a0 There have been many wars and insurrections.\u00a0 There is too much of all of this.<\/p>\n

Giving this, how anyone expects to predict when<\/i> the \u201cend\u201d will come is beyond me.\u00a0 Why do we care what<\/i> signs there will be?\u00a0 What are you going to do differently?<\/p>\n

If I could guarantee for you that the \u201cend\u201d will come, say, on November 1, 2014, how would you change your life?\u00a0 Would you get ready now or would you put it on your calendar to start doing good a week before, doing whatever you wanted until then?<\/p>\n

That would be wrong.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t matter when the \u201cend\u201d is coming.\u00a0 The time to be Christian begins now.\u00a0 When I see \u201cbe Christian\u201d I\u2019m not just talking about baptism.\u00a0 I mean we must be Christian<\/i> by the way we live our lives.<\/p>\n

As a society, we are not doing well at this.\u00a0 We are in a downward spiral of values.<\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

Because we are following the wrong examples!\u00a0 We talk about freedom and that the gift it is.\u00a0 We take it to mean we can do whatever we want so we do what brings us pleasure.<\/p>\n

We live in a society that wants instant gratification.\u00a0 So, we look for what gives immediate pleasure.\u00a0 The problem is that sometimes the immediate pleasure doesn\u2019t last and can be sin.\u00a0 God can give us an eternal pleasure in heaven.<\/p>\n

What do we need to do to have \u201ceternal pleasure?\u201d<\/p>\n

We need to seek to do God\u2019s will.\u00a0 This means giving up the instant pleasures that are sinful to seek a greater good.<\/p>\n

Does this mean giving up our freedom to just do what God wants?\u00a0 It is not about \u201cgiving up\u201d our freedom. \u00a0The point is to make good choices with the \u201cfreedom\u201d we have.<\/p>\n

How do we know what it is that God wants us to do?<\/p>\n

We can read the Bible.\u00a0 We can attend faith formation sessions.\u00a0 We can read spiritual material.\u00a0 We can also follow good Christian examples.<\/p>\n

What does Paul say?\u00a0 \u201cImitate us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul is not bragging.\u00a0 Ultimately, Jesus is the example we must follow but we look to the examples of people around us.<\/p>\n

As we look to people around us for examples, we need to ask ourselves, are these people making good choices.\u00a0 If not, DON\u2019T IMITATE THEM.<\/p>\n

I hope none of us wants to imitate another because of bad things they do but we might fall into the same pattern as them if we are not careful.<\/p>\n

We must also think of the example we are ourselves to other people.\u00a0 Here I think of a parent and a child.\u00a0 I sometimes see a parent that tells us a child not to do something that is bad and then goes and does it themselves.\u00a0 What kind of example is that?<\/p>\n

So as you think about what it means to be Catholic, do you see yourself as a leader or a follower?\u00a0 Maybe we need a little bit of both.\u00a0 We need to be a follower of Jesus and a leader of people to faith.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C Malachi 3:19-20a 2 Thessalonians 3:7-12 Luke 21:5-19 November 17, 2013   Next week we will celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King and then the weekend after that we will begin Advent.\u00a0 Advent marks the beginning of a new liturgical year in the church. Before we can begin …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Homily – 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-jU","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1234"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1234"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1235,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1234\/revisions\/1235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}