In November, we reach the end of the Church’s liturgical year, and the readings direct our minds towards the end of all things. Traditionally, Catholics have spoken of four “last things”: death and judgement, heaven and hell, and on the penultimate Sunday of the year (this year, 14 November), the Gospel speaks of the time when “the powers in the heavens will be shaken” and we will see “the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory… to gather his chosen from the four winds”.
Scholars refer to Mark 13, from which this passage is taken, as Christ’s “apocalyptic discourse”, and with all its talk of the sun turning dark and the stars falling from heaven, it is a passage that many find deeply uncomfortable. An additional layer of discomfort is added by the fact that Christ tells us “before this generation has passed away all these things will have taken place”. After all, we are quite some generations later, and as I write the sun is still shining and the stars, so far as I can tell, are still in place.
