33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time C - 16th November 2025 

This week’s Gospel is a collection of saying of Jesus. It is a bit like a film where an old family member has gathered the family around him and is giving some final advice, trying to put things straight before they die. In a way, as we come towards the end of the liturgical year, we come also to the end of Jesus' life. 

 

In all that we hear in this Gospel there doesn't seem to be much good news. One thing we know about Jesus is that He doesn't wrap things up: He just says it as it is. He warns us, or reminds us, of many things - destruction of buildings, war, famine, plagues, earthquakes and then just for good measure - talks of being persecuted for our beliefs. We only have to listen or watch the news to know how many of these things are part of our lives. 

 

In the last sentence Jesus says "By your endurance you will gain your lives" or as one translation has it "through your unflinching endurance you will take possession of your lives". We live in an age where everything/ everyone is looking for or is centred on a quick fix - instant everything. If Google, Bing or Yahoo or whoever we use, doesn't give us a reply in less than 2 seconds we wonder what is wrong with it. We hate to wait for things, for people. We moan about traffic lights that seem to stay on red for ages or we get stuck in traffic and we think of all that we could or should be doing instead and what a waste of our time it is to be sitting there. What are we wanting to save all this lost time for? What we do with all this time we might gain? I wonder. 

 

Jesus is telling His disciples, and us, that we are likely to be persecuted for our faith. We may not be like those who are suffering physical harm or even death because of their faith but we may find it hard to share it with others and we wonder why they do not share our beliefs. Our faith is a gift to us and one we should be sharing with others just as we, in the past, were on the receiving end of others' faith story. When we DO share it is not just the joys, happiness etc. we share but also our difficulties, our fragility and our humanity. It is in the latter as well as the former that others get to share our faith story. 

 

In all our life adventures what we have to keep us going is faith. Without that all the hardships DO become a disaster and our endurance has little or no meaning. The next to last sentence of the Gospel reminds us that through everything we experience God is with us. All we have to do is to be aware of His presence and then we can do anything! 

 

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