Homily: 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
November 16, 2025
My dear brothers and sisters, we are celebrating the liturgy of the thirty-third Sunday, the penultimate Sunday, that is the last but one Sunday of this liturgical year. The Church in her wisdom in the arrangement of the liturgical cycles organizes it in such a way that the Church’s cycles would also draw our attention to the cycles of life. There is time for everything, a time for the beginnings of life and a time for the end of life. The approaching end of the liturgical year always reminds us that the evening of our life is also gradually approaching, one day our earthly life must come to an end, and we do not know when.
All the readings of today focus our attention to this reality, they together strengthen us to remain focused on God so that it will all be glory and praises when the time comes. I remember the story of this young married woman who was having a rough time with her hubby, in her youthful exuberance and feeling very beautiful, she decided to start flirting in infidelity, so she started changing boyfriends the way a young mum changes the diapers of a newborn. Her old grand mum called her and advised her to calm down and take this life easy. Her granny told her, “You see this my dry hands, they were previously very fresh like green vegetables, this my bent waist was previously standing erect like an electric pole but now I can’t even walk without a walker. So, my daughter, you will not shine forever. It was because I calmed down to life when I felt I was shining like morning star that made I and your granddad build a future for your dad and a future that made you who you are.”
Brothers and sisters, the readings of today echo this need for us to calm down and prioritize what really endures forever. The first reading from the prophet Malachi is one of the prophecies of old which reminds us that tribulations, sin, arrogance can never triumph eternally. For a brief time, it may apparently seem the arrogant are excelling, be patient, time will tell, the words of the prophet Malachi in the first reading makes it clear that those who cling tenaciously to these lifestyles are heading to doom, while on those who revere the name of the Lord, the sunlight of righteousness shall shine.
This prophecy of hope first came to the Israelites that returned to Jerusalem from exile. The desolation of Jerusalem and the rubble from the destruction together with the pitiable life that they faced from the hands of brigands and thieves started making some of them sink into hopelessness. However, the words of the prophets strengthened them that God never abandons his faithful ones. This prophecy ultimately references the heavenly Jerusalem. The servants of God who wait upon the Lord, Isaiah 40:31 tells us, they will fly on the wings of an eagle, Revelation 22: 4-5, they will see the Lord face to face and they will not need sunlight or lamplight because the Lord God will be shining on them and they will reign forever and ever.
In the gospel reading, Jesus Himself also teaches about the forthcoming end time. When the people were celebrating the glories of the earthly temple of Jerusalem, Jesus told them that a time will come when no stone will be left on top of another, the glories of the world can never last forever. Jesus makes it very clear that preparation for the end time is not about prodigious signs and wonders happening, it is not about noisy and empty end time prophecies. Jesus was very honest; it is all about calming down to accept the daily cross and persecution of living our Christian obligations. The world may see these Christian principles as archaic and meaningless, they will consider us as fools and persecute us, but in the words of Jesus, by your endurance, you will gain your souls, not a hair of your head will be lost.
On this penultimate Sunday of the liturgical year dear brethren, let this word of Jesus “by your endurance, you will gain your souls” get stuck on our hearts. We may buy a book, we gain it by reading it, we may have a field, we gain it by cultivating it, we may buy spinach, kale and curry flowers from the mall, we only gain the vitamins from them by eating them. We all have a soul; we gain our soul by enduring in living virtuous life. One man once observed a very small ant climbing a wall and carrying a corn larger than itself. Again and again, the corn fell and the ant again and again went and picked it up, for sixty-nine times the ant picked up this corn and on the seventieth time, the ant managed to reach the top of the wall, its destination with the corn. Our perseverance and endurance again and again even amidst difficulties and challenges will win our souls for eternity.
