Friday 34th week even numbered year “Heaven and earth will pass away, my words will not pass away’, says Jesus. Jesus told them a parable : ’Look at the fig tree and the other trees.As soon as they come into bud, you will understand that Summer is drawing near.”
God expects us to be standing upright, welcoming the Lord Jesus who comes. In the coldest of iciest of winters we get the impression that nothing will be able to be warmed up again. Seemingly no life remains, and yet life will be born again; the fig tree is already in bud, says Jesus.
The closer we are to Jesus in our daily life, the more solid He makes us. At times we may have the impression that we are at the end of our tether, that everything will break up, it doesn’t take much for us to give up : this is the time for hope. Our hope is to count on God, to give our consent to Jesus.
’Have complete trust, the Lord is very near.’
This budding is the sign of our hope. Come what may, we remain firm in our ordeals.
Jesus announces the ultimate Paschal mystery, the dazzling passage from the present world to the Kingdom.
God had given us a sign , He is calling us to leave the slavery of Egypt in order to pass to the freedom of the Promised Land. This ’Passover’ was the prefiguration of the passage which Christ invites us to cross so as to leave this world, inviting us to share with Him Eternal Life.
All of the nature which flowers in Spring announces the splendour of summer time. The Coming of the Lord will bring this explosion of light, of freedom and of life. In order to take part in it, we need always to be ready, to trustingly watch for the dawn and to constantly revive our hope.
“As soon as the buds come out, you shall understand that summer is drawing near. And so when you see all this happening, understand that the Kingdom of God is near.”
Jesus teaches us to trust and to hope. For the one who believes, who looks with faith to Jesus and not to his own self, the future is not a source of fear but one of hope.
Jesus broaches the subject of his final week of his mission on earth, which will reach its peak on Good Friday.
There is no doubt that he is agitated by anguish , yet it is with a gaze full of serenity and confidence that Jesus views this crucial moment. His heroic attitude becomes the example and source of perseverance for Christians, thy form a small group undergoing persecution in poverty.
To evoke the solidity of our faith in our lives, we can take the image of soaked steel. It is heated up to whiteness, it can’t be heated up any more than that. Then it is plunged into icy water and becomes unbreakable.
When everything in our lives is going as best as it can, we believe that this is great, God is present. But this isn’t where we find Him in order to go through ordeals! It is our experience in Christ, small and poor, which plunges us in the Passion and Resurrection as to become strengthened.
“Truly I say unto you, before this generation has passed away all will have taken place.Heaven and earth will pass away but my words will not pass away.”
The Lord comes with His Cross.He comes with Mary, the Mother of Compassion.
A good means to go through ordeals in life is fraternal love. If we find strength in trust in God we also find support in fraternal love.
Our brother might be at the end of his tether going through ordeals, this is when real marks of affection will help him to remain upright.
Now is the time to remain upright together, to raise our heads up high as people of the Risen Lord, for Salvation is not far off from us.
The destruction of the present world announces the birth of a new world.
Jesus exhorts us to settle into the present moment. A lucid gaze on conditions in our world reveals to us that the destruction of this world marks the beginning of our salvation, the dawn of God’s Kingdom.
When we see the buds of new life, then hope arises in our hearts.Jesus offers us the example of the fig tree.
Saint Gregory the Great would say : ’And so, brothers, do not love the world, which will not be able to last for very long, as you can see. Bear in mind this commandment which the apostle John gives us, warning us ’Do not love the world, nor what is in the world; for if anyone loves the world, the Love of the Father is not within him."