We are now approaching the end of the Church’s liturgical year, soon we will come to the time of Advent and preparing for Christmas. In these final weeks there is a strong emphasis on the teaching of Jesus that he will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. Bt we do not know the day or the hour! But we do need to  prepare and be ready whenever it come.

Our readings today from Daniel and Mark’s Gospel are known as “apocalyptic literature”. These writings are full of poetry, vivid imagery, metaphor, and fantasy, like the final book of the Bible—the Apocalypse or Book of Revelation. They are full of visual images and therefore  difficult to interpret. But we must not make the mistake some of the fundamentalists do and interpret these passages literally. On the other hand, we must not make the opposite mistake of dismissing them as “nothing but” poetry or fantasy.

It is thought that the book of Daniel inspired the style of later biblical writings, like the Apocalype. The important thing to grasp here is that such writing arose out of a situation of oppression and great difficulty, it aimed to give assurance to the faithful. The basic message is “Hang in there—evil will not triumph forever. God will not let you down”. In the Gospel today Jesus foresees the destruction of the temple and the downfall of the city of Jerusalem, wars and turmoil, persecution of his followers. In the midst of all this Jesus is saying: ‘Don’t give up. Hang in there:the Son of Man will come again.’

The truth is Heaven and Earth may indeed pass away, but not before the Final Resolution in which good will triumph over evil and life over death. We don’t know when or how that will happen. Those issues really don’t matter. What does matter is that Jesus and his true followers will finally win.

Understood in this way, the Gospel, for all its strangeness is relevant to our present day world and the dismay and uncertainty that surround us in so many spheres of life, including the Church itself. Jesus knows all about it and knows and understands our concerns and the way we feel.

The parable of the fig tree tells us that we should be ‘reading the signs of the times’ and face our world and the realities of life with confidence and trust in God who will not abandon us.