Fr. Vincent Munari
The Gospel of Luke Chapter 21, verses 5 to 19 is called the great apocalypse; the small one in chapters 17 and 18 is about our story as individuals. In chapter 21 Jesus speaks of the story of all of us, whose conclusion is the destruction of the whole world as we know it now. And we tremble, we are afraid. But “Apocalypse” does not mean disaster; it means “revelation” of something not known.
Jesus here reveals the deep meaning of our present reality. He takes away the veil (revelation) that our fears and errors have put and are putting in front of our eyes, and allows us to see the truth of what God has in mind for the end. We are not going towards the end of all life but towards the stopping of the kind of life we live now and the beginning of a new one. Christ was speaking about it in all the parables of the seed, of the sower, of the gladness coming with a new birth … So no anxiety, no worry about our death; the sins are the cause of it: but for our sins Christ died and rose again: united with Him we shall enter His new life. Here the disciples ask Jesus for more information, for the signs (when and what) but He is not a soothsayer; He asks his followers to be witnesses also in the case of the destruction of Jerusalem and of persecutions (verse 12). In fact the followers of Christ in the beginning gave birth to the universal Church because persecutions scattered them all over the world. Now I and you are able to understand better the parables like that of the seed scattered all over. This presence of the Christians all over the world is the real end of time: the end of wars (see v.10), the end of natural disasters (see verse 11) because Christ will be present in us to forgive, to be meek, to be poor, to help all human beings and care for all creation. This is the conversion of mankind.
The Gospel of Luke Chapter 21, verses 5 to 19 is called the great apocalypse; the small one in chapters 17 and 18 is about our story as individuals. In chapter 21 Jesus speaks of the story of all of us, whose conclusion is the destruction of the whole world as we know it now. And we tremble, we are afraid. But “Apocalypse” does not mean disaster; it means “revelation” of something not known.
Jesus here reveals the deep meaning of our present reality. He takes away the veil (revelation) that our fears and errors have put and are putting in front of our eyes, and allows us to see the truth of what God has in mind for the end. We are not going towards the end of all life but towards the stopping of the kind of life we live now and the beginning of a new one. Christ was speaking about it in all the parables of the seed, of the sower, of the gladness coming with a new birth … So no anxiety, no worry about our death; the sins are the cause of it: but for our sins Christ died and rose again: united with Him we shall enter His new life. Here the disciples ask Jesus for more information, for the signs (when and what) but He is not a soothsayer; He asks his followers to be witnesses also in the case of the destruction of Jerusalem and of persecutions (verse 12). In fact the followers of Christ in the beginning gave birth to the universal Church because persecutions scattered them all over the world. Now I and you are able to understand better the parables like that of the seed scattered all over. This presence of the Christians all over the world is the real end of time: the end of wars (see v.10), the end of natural disasters (see verse 11) because Christ will be present in us to forgive, to be meek, to be poor, to help all human beings and care for all creation. This is the conversion of mankind.