Friday in the 34th Week of Ordinary Time, November 26, 2021

Luke 21:29-33

Jesus told his disciples a parable. “Consider the fig tree and all the other trees. When their buds burst open, you see for yourselves and know that summer is now near; in the same way, when you see these things happening, know that the Kingdom of God is near. Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”

“Consider the fig tree and all the other trees.”  The Lord Jesus continues to speak of the end of the world and the final judgment.  Here, he teaches us that not only can we learn that the end has come, but we should do so.  He gives the crowd the everyday example of the fig tree.  “When their buds burst open, you see for yourselves and know that summer is now near.” Although the prospect of the world ending causes fear among the ungodly, it is like the arrival of the summer for the faithful.  Fig trees go dormant or “hibernate” during the winter.  Their leaves turn yellow and fall off, their bark goes very dry and, for all the world, they look dead.  Spring brings a remarkable transformation with green leaves and buds.  Even the bark softens.  Keeping in mind that the fig tree signifies Israel, we can interpret this sign as the Church, the new Israel, debilitated and gone underground through a savage, worldwide persecution, and emerging into a respite granted by Almighty God.  This most terrible of persecutions will itself be a sign of the coming end, and the peace afterwards shows that the time is imminent.

“When you see these things happening, know that the Kingdom of God is near.”  For the faithful, the end of this world and of this life is not to be feared.  It brings the Kingdom of God, where they exult with the angels and their fellow saints.  Throughout their lives, they washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb (cf. Revelation 7, 14).  In heaven, the saints will experience unimaginable happiness.  As St. Paul tells us, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard: nor has it entered into the heart of man, what things God has prepared for them that love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).  Thus, the persecution, as bad as it will be, is a sign of the glory that is to come to those who persevere.  The fig tree will appear dead, but it is preparing itself for the spring.  

“Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.”  There will be no further messiah or savior to look for.  The Lord Jesus declares here that his coming into this world marks the sixth and last age or generation of the world, as St. Augustine describes it.  The Lord’s second coming will inaugurate a seventh generation or age — the eternal Sabbath — in which the just shall rest from their labors: “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. From henceforth now, says the Spirit, they may rest from their labors” (Revelation 14, 13).  

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”  Listening with the ears of his original hearers to the Lord speak in this way, we are confused and disturbed:  Who can say such a thing?  Is this man greater than heaven and earth so that his words will outlast them?  But if they put these words and his mighty deeds together, they would know that this was the Son of God, the Word who was to come into the world (John 1, 1).