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33rd SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME  --  2009  --  B Cycle
 The dark days are coming.
 Through the Scriptures of this day we look into the vortex of the end time, of the final days. After all we are in the final days of the Church calendar: the liturgical year brings us to today's vision then celebrates Christ, the King of all times and places to end our year next Sunday and then we begin again with Advent and the promises not of the end time but of the fullness of time when lambs and lions will play together and there will be peace.
  In today's first reading: the prophecy of Daniel is preoccupied with "at that time"... "in those days"… which means at the end of time, as we know it: the point at which the next life meets this life.
 The Gospel of Mark is full of the signs of the times, the signs that lead to the passing away of the heavens and the earth - but the stability of the Word of God remains beyond these times.
 BUT we look into this vortex, which is the result of sin, we look into this vortex as the people named in the Letter to the Hebrews: "By one offering he has forever perfected those who are being sanctified." We look not only into this vortex but are able to look all around us through Easter eyes that see the work of God perfecting us and all creation: with our help, with our creativity, with our fidelity to the baptismal-Eucharistic covenant with God and with each other. The vision of the end time gives us a perspective, a lens through which to see our choices today more clearly.
 Our plea in the psalm we sing today: "Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope;" is sung in the midst of our determination to make a difference in the world in which we live. Our determination to grab onto this God who sanctifies us - you and me - in and for the holy work we do: as priests, deacons, married people, widows, single people, engaged couples discerning their future, young, old, and middle - ALL being perfected in and through the work we do for the Kingdom that comes through the whirlpool of the chaos of sin in our world. "Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope"  -- 'keep me safe to be faithful, safe to be creative, safe to be holy and safe to tell the story of your love so that others might hear it and come to know you as the one who perfects and makes holy all that you have made.'
 You see, the end time is a time filled not with threats to scare us into behaving, but filled with promises to be reserved for those who are being made holy by the power of God.