33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time - reflection on light in the midst of darkness - Daniel 12:1-3 - Mark 13:24-32

      Next weekend we celebrate Christ the King, the last Sunday of our liturgical year.  So, as we get close to the end of the liturgical year, perhaps this is an appropriate time for us to hear a Gospel reading about the end times.  In the reading from Mark’s Gospel this Sunday, Jesus' pronouncement about the end times comes just before the last supper with the apostles, leading up to his passion, death, and resurrection.  Jesus tells us that the sun will be darkened, the moon won't give light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers in heaven will be shaken.  These are certainly dark and jagged images! But this apocalyptic message brings us not only an expectation of the light to come, but also enlightenment and hope in the darkness itself.  

        Indeed, this Gospel reading takes place at a dark time in Jesus’ life.  The communities of the early Church first heard this Gospel in the midst of their own darkness, living under a cloud of fear and persecution. I think of our readings last week, of a poor widow who is starving in the midst of a famine, who gives the prophet Elijah the last portion of her food.  We also hear of a poor widow in the Gospel who gives her last coins to the temple. In the midst of darkness, these two widows found trust and hope. We can find hope and light in the darkness in our lives as well.  In the hope of our faith, we place our trust in God, knowing that the darkness is not going to prevail.

      We are to approach our life of stewardship in that same way as well.  Right now, if we are going to be honest, we see a lot of darkness at work in the world.  Most of us probably have some form of personal darkness or personal demons that we are battling with in life as well.  When we feel overwhelmed and burdened with the darkness in our lives, perhaps that is the best time for us to hear stewardship calling out to us.  Any blessings or any light we receive from God, we are not to keep that light or those blessings for ourselves.  As disciples of Christ, we are called to be distributors of God’s goodness and light. If we distributed that light to others, we will be able to feel that light getting even brighter in our lives.  We are called to bring Christ’s light to others through our gifts, our time, our talent, our treasures, our ministry, and our contributions to our parish. No matter what darkness we have in our lives, we can still be a beacon of light.