Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are reminded yet again as our current liturgical year cycle is coming to an end, that we have to put our trust and faith in God. We must not lose faith in the Lord just because of the persecutions, trials and troubles we face and will encounter in our respective journeys in life. We have to keep faith because the Lord is always ever faithful to His Covenant and promises to us, and He will lead us into the final and ultimate victory.

In our first reading today we heard the account from the Book of Revelations on the declaration of the Angel of God at the end of all the trumpets of the world’s end and the plagues, of the final defeat of the devil and all the forces of the wicked, by the declaration of the fall of ‘Babylon’ that shall never rise again, for it has been handed the final and ultimate defeat. God has triumphed and has won the complete and total victory for His faithful ones.

In our Gospel passage today we heard then of the account that the Lord had made, the premonition and prophecy on what would happen to the great and holy city of Jerusalem, that would be besieged and then destroyed. This would come to pass as the Romans would put down the Jewish rebellion in Judea and Galilee just less than four decades after the death and resurrection of Christ, causing many deaths and the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple.

Through all of these, the Lord wants us to remember that despite the difficulties and trials that we may have to endure as those in the past had endured and suffered, but we must not allow ourselves to be overcome by fear and by despair, for the Lord will always stand by our side and will not allow us to be thoroughly defeated and destroyed. He spoke of the suffering and trials that all the faithful and the devout will have to endure for their constant dedication and obedience to God.

Babylon is symbolic of the forces of evil that has once destroyed the city of Jerusalem earlier on, during the time of the end of the kingdom of Israel and Judah, when the Temple of God built by King Solomon was ransacked and destroyed, the whole city destroyed and the entire kingdom and population of Judah laid to waste. The destruction of Jerusalem and Judah was truly a terrible event for the people of God, much as the later destruction by the Romans would be as well. Hence, the symbolic representation of Babylon was used to refer to the forces of the enemy of God and His people.

And through that, the Lord wanted to show all of us that just as He humbled king Nebuchadnezzar and his mighty Babylonian kingdom, for all of his hubris, ego and ambition, the Lord will also bring low the forces of Satan and his mighty forces. The forces of evil and darkness may seem fearsome and terrible for us, but we must not forget that all those who are opposed to God, will be defeated and the Lord and His people will triumph in the end. That is why and how the Church and our faith still perseveres and going strong yet to this very day.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us all not be easily tempted and swayed by the falsehoods and the lies of the devil, all the efforts that he and his allies are trying to put in order to make us fear them and to lose hope in God. When things go bad and sour for us, we must remain firm and faithful in our dedication to the Lord, for the Lord alone is our firm foundation and in Him alone we have true hope for the future. We must not be swayed by the false leads and persuasions that the devil have put in our path as obstacles.

Let us all renew our faith and commitment to the Lord from now on, and strengthen our faith and be more courageous in living our lives with faith and with real action of faith. Let us all help one another to persevere through the challenges and trials of life, and remind one another that we must never lose hope in God, but instead must be ever more true to our faith in Him, with each and every passing moments of our lives. May God bless us all, now and always. Amen.