Archbishop of Sydney

33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

St. Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney
Dan 12:1-3; Heb 10:11-14,18; Mk 13:24-32

By + Cardinal George Pell
Archbishop of Sydney
16 November 2003

More than twenty-five years ago we were having a mission by visiting priests, as was common then to strengthen the faith of the parish and bring back the stragglers.

There was morning Mass, devotions, visitation of the parishioners’ homes and a sermon and prayers every evening on a different set topic.

I was discussing the mission with a group of local teenagers and one of them explained that while he was not coming every night he was going to come on the 2 evenings when sex and the last things, heaven and hell, death and judgement were to be discussed.  Both were then regarded as interesting topics.

Certainly there is as much interest in sexuality as there ever was, inside and outside the Church (whether parents, teachers and priests explain Christian perspectives as much as they used to is another question).  But heaven and hell seem to have slipped in the ratings and even in the Catholic consciousness.  This is a pity.  Some see heaven as another human right, in this case owed to us by God.  Others see it as a vague promise, offering some consolation, but an uncertain prospect.  The element of threat, punishment for evil, has also receded, although some wish hell upon their opponents.

We had too many fierce sermons about the pains of hell and the prospect of eternal punishment in my youth.  One consequence of that was that God tended to be seen not as a loving, merciful and just Father concerned for all his children, but as a fierce and vindictive judge, inclined to punish unreasonably and disproportionately.  It is a question of balance.  Our Lord clearly taught the reality of punishment after death for unrepentant sinners and this cannot be rejected out of hand.  The challenge is to set all this in a climate of love and justice.

Some years ago there was an effective campaign in Victoria about the terrible effects of drink driving and careless driving.  We saw the preliminaries to awful crashes, the crash itself and the aftermath.  I did not like looking at them.

It occurred to me that they were like the old sermons of my youth about the pains of hell and I wondered with the author of the ads had been a Catholic and also exposed to these sermons.  My suspicions were justified when I met the man at a football luncheon where he cheerfully admitted the source of his inspiration.  These ads also reduced the death and injury rate from traffic accidents in Victoria very significantly.

The sections in today’s readings from the Old Testament prophet Daniel and from Mark’s gospel provide colourful material for any sermon on the last things.  They belong to a type of literature known as apocalyptic, which means the unveiling or revelation of the future.  This genre flourished from about 200 BC to 100 AD and discussed the end of things and the destiny of the world in general.

There is no doubt that Our Lord himself used this type of imagery to talk about the end of the world and final judgement and some early Christians had expected Christ to return quickly to set up his heavenly kingdom.  So vivid was this expectation that some Thessalonians had stopped work and St. Paul had to tell them to take up their tools again.

An important background to the imagery was the violence and oppression the Jews were then suffering regularly from foreign invaders.  They understood the imagery.

As well as clearly spelling out the reward and punishment of the next life, these readings emphasise the reality of struggle and conflict between good and evil, with the suffering that brings.  Today even Christians can become uneasy with talk about sin, the knowing personal choice of evil.  People who have suffered violence, especially in time of war know that evil exists and that there is a spirit of evil.

Both Daniel and Our Lord speak about a final violent struggle between the forces of good and evil, the final showdown at Armageddon.  We do not know what form this will take, but we do know that there have been many preliminary runs at this awful finale, even in the last century.  Two World Wars, Mao in China, Pol Pot in Cambodia, the slaughter of hundred of thousands in the strife between Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda; all of these could contribute to the time of distress, the darkening of the sun and the shaking of the very powers of heaven.

But both passages are supremely confident about the fate of believers, of those trying to be good, the just.

Daniel tells us that good people will be spared; all those whose names are in the Book.  Those who have instructed many in faith will shine brightly in eternity.

Jesus too promises us that his angels will gather the chosen from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

But he says no one knows the day nor the hour of this historic climax; only God himself knows.

It is useful to ponder these strange texts so that our faith in Jesus and his promises will remain strong.  And one of Jesus’ core promises is that of reward for his followers, those kind people of good will, and punishment for those who reject love.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.