The End of the World

33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B; World Day of the Poor (18 November 2018)

Daniel 12:1-3. Psalm 16:5, 8-11. Hebrews 10:11-14, 18. Mark 13:24-32.

“The stars will fall from heaven and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.”

The above quoted verse from today's gospel makes an interesting reading. Even with our limited knowledge of cosmology we could ask, is it possible for the stars to fall on earth? Let us do a mental experiment. The nearest star to our planet is the sun. It takes 8.3 minutes for light to travel from the sun to the earth. Let's say if the sun moves a few light minutes away from the earth, then all of us on this planet here will be frozen to death. Let's say if the sun moves a few light minutes towards the earth, then the earth will become too hot for any life to survive. It's mind blowing. It's not even necessary for the sun to fall on the earth, the earth will be R.I.P. much before that! Now which is bigger: the sun or the earth? The sun, of course. It is so gigantic and humongous compared to the earth that about 13,00,000 planet earths can fit inside of it. Surely mind-blowing! We are talking of just one star, imagine the billions of stars in the universe. Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine!

At any rate, we need to agree with Albert Einstein, God does not play dice with the universe. What today's reading gives us is a commonsensical picture of the end of the world. This mind-blowing and beautiful universe of ours will have an end, but we may not be able to witness it, I suppose. The above quote of Arthur Eddington can surely be applied to the Creator of the universe: God is not only stranger than we think, but God is stranger than the mind is capable of thinking! Everything is perfectly arranged in the universe (cosmos, meaning order). Even the seeming chaos is all in a balance. Whether we come to know or not if the universe is ending, there is only one thing we can be absolutely sure of regarding our future: We will one day die. No matter how healthy you think you are, you are suffering from an incurable condition called human mortality. Jesus had to die; Mary had to die. All humans are destined for an end.

But our death is not really an end. It is perhaps a beginning, or rather a continuation of the best that we can ever think of, and even more! In death, nothing is lost, everything is transformed. We need a sense of perspective, not only to cherish our planet, but also to eventually detach ourselves from this passing world. When it does finally end (that is through our physical death), we should merit Daniel’s prophecy from today's first reading: “The learned will shine as brightly as the vault of heaven, and those who have instructed many in virtue will shine as bright as stars for all eternity.” And thus move on to embrace the God-Mystery even more fully.

Are we ready to meet this God who is full of surprises?