Building God's Kingdom Piece by Piece

This week is the thirty-third and last Sunday of Ordinary Time this year. Soon the liturgical year will conclude and we will enter into the advent of a new year. It's somewhat appropriate then that the focus of our readings this Sunday is eschatological, that is focused on the last days.

The image of the last days that we are presented with is somewhat apocalyptic in that it describes suffering, persecution, natural disasters and revolution.

First, we hear from the prophet Malachi - a messenger whose writings mostly warn a wayward people of the upheaval and loss that lies ahead of them if they choose a path that leads away from God. Yet in the few brief verses we hear from him this Sunday he speaks of healing for those that reconcile themselves with God.

Luke's Gospel then picks up on the same theme. In it, Jesus speaks of the end times - of destruction, war, famine, natural catastrophes and persecution. But again, as there was in Malachi, there is encouragement. This will be your opportunity to bear witnesses to your faith, He tells them. For those that stand up for what they know is right, they will not be harmed. And their endurance will win them their lives.

But what does He mean by this. Throughout history, and throughout our world today, there are people of all faiths that are persecuted and lose their lives. And by refusing to accept, or to cooperate with evil, they become martyrs.

As a faith community we both mourn and celebrate their martyrdom - their witness to enduring power of selfless love. We pray for an end to suffering and persecution, and we pray that we would have the courage to do the same.

But short of living through the end of times that the Gospel is describing what do I actually do to witness to my faith in the present day? To ease suffering, to defend dignity, to love selflessly?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that to love is to will the good of the other. In his final encyclical on human and divine love, Pope Francis took up this teaching and spelled out, explicitly and repeatedly, that goodwill involves more than desiring good, it actively seeks to do good for others.

And this is what the Gospel call is - to witness to our faith by striving to bring good into those places where others are downtrodden and their dignity is denied. To pray for an end to suffering and persecution on the grand scale, but also to put an end to it ourselves on the small scale in the ways that Jesus outlined to his first followers - feeding the hungry, clothing and sheltering the poor, the homeless, the displaced.

And by these acts, we not only reconcile ourselves God, as Malachi says, but help to reconcile the world to God's will, building up God's kingdom piece. And it is in this that we will win our own lives.

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