Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
TREASURES FROM OUR TRADITION
	We are faced with strong and disturbing readings today that hold a certain fascination, since they seem at first glance to be blueprints for future inevitable wars and hardship. A fundamentalist interpretation focuses on this aspect. Yet we hear them at our Sunday celebration of the Eucharist, which infuses them with hope and optimism. Rather than dreading the future, today’s liturgy assures us that God is with us in all of life’s inevitable trials, and that we have a role in shaping the outcome of human history. Occasionally, some Christians have attempted to decode these readings for an exact measure of the world’s end, but they have thus far been disappointed.
	“Nothing lasts forever” is a lyric from a Broadway show. Stars fall from the sky, leaves wither and fall, mountains wash into the sea, human projects and governments totter and collapse with great regularity. Today’s liturgy opposes this idea as incomplete, reminding us that Christ has made a permanent change in human history, and that life in him is life forever. Rather than inviting us to throw in the towel, today’s liturgy strengthens us for acts of goodness and grace in our families, communities, and world.
—James Field