Reading I     

                                                                                    RV 20:1-4, 11—21:2

I, John, saw an angel come down from heaven,

holding in his hand the key to the abyss and a heavy chain.

He seized the dragon, the ancient serpent,

which is the Devil or Satan,

and tied it up for a thousand years and threw it into the abyss,

which he locked over it and sealed,

so that it could no longer lead the nations astray

until the thousand years are completed.

After this, it is to be released for a short time.

Then I saw thrones; those who sat on them were entrusted with judgment.

I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded

for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God,

and who had not worshiped the beast or its image

nor had accepted its mark on their foreheads or hands.

They came to life and they reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

Next I saw a large white throne and the one who was sitting on it.

The earth and the sky fled from his presence

and there was no place for them.

I saw the dead, the great and the lowly, standing before the throne,

and scrolls were opened.

Then another scroll was opened, the book of life.

The dead were judged according to their deeds,

by what was written in the scrolls.

The sea gave up its dead;

then Death and Hades gave up their dead.

All the dead were judged according to their deeds.

Then Death and Hades were thrown into the pool of fire.

(This pool of fire is the second death.)

Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life

was thrown into the pool of fire.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.

The former heaven and the former earth had passed away,

and the sea was no more.

I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem,

coming down out of heaven from God,

prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Responsorial Psalm                                  PS 84:3, 4, 5-6A AND 8A

Alleluia                                                          LUKE 21:28

Gospel                                                           LK 21:29-33

What’s the Season of Your Soul?

The Liturgical Year is a series of spiritual seasons. We’re about to begin the Season of Advent, which launches us into a new spiritual year by preparing us for a rebirth of Christ in our lives. The Christmas Season, which starts on Christmas Eve and ends with the Baptism of the Lord, will remind us that Jesus became one of us to show us the way to heaven.

Then a new season of “Ordinary Time” begins. It’s not “ordinary” at all; it’s “ordained” to be a season of learning, with Jesus as our teacher. Lent soon interrupts this for a season for examining how well we’re living what Jesus teaches. This brings us to Holy Week, when we give to Jesus all the ways that we have rejected his teachings.

On Easter Sunday, we enter into a season of celebrating our victory over sin as we continue our journey of holiness. This season ends with Pentecost, when we recommit ourselves to the in-dwelling of Christ’s Holy Spirit, who empowers us to learn more and live better the ways of holiness. Now the lessons of Ordinary Time resume until the end of the Liturgical Year.

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus gives us the fig tree as a visual aid for understanding the seasons of our faith. Fig trees produce fruit both in the spring and in autumn. Since the disciples, like other Jews, believed that the Messiah would usher in the reign of God at Passover time, Jesus used the fig tree to make a very specific point: His sacrificial death on the day after Passover would be the first harvest of the kingdom of God. Its fruit is our freedom from the deadly consequences of sin.

The second harvest is the autumn fruit. We see a wonderful image of this in our first reading today. Its fruit is heaven. We have been resurrected into eternal life by accepting Jesus’ sacrificial death for our sins.

In contrast, those who reject the sacrifice of Jesus and continue in their self-destructive sins to the very end have no eternal life in them. There is nothing to harvest.

When we’re unhappy about someone else’s spiritual growth, we should remember that we’re all in different seasons of our souls.

What season are you in? Is it the winter of dying to self because your sins have left you cold and almost lifeless? Is your faith a seed waiting to sprout in early springtime? Are you a sapling Christian who’s just beginning to gain strength? Is your relationship with Christ providing summer shade under which others find shelter? Are your branches reaching out to others? Have you begun to bear fruit by serving in ministry?

Remember the necessity of each season. Even the most dead-looking times have divine purposes.

Today's Prayer

Lord, Give me Your light to discern Your path through my life. Teach me how to recognize Your voice, and with Your grace I will follow You wherever You want to take me. Amen.