This Gospel passage (Luke 21.5-19) is a collection of many different sayings of Jesus, all of them relevant to a situation of crisis in the present or looming in the future. You will recognise their truth from your experience of small as well as big crises.
In verses 5 and 6 the people are typical of us when we allow ourselves to be seduced by earthly glory, and Jesus is the voice of God reminding us of how short life really is.
Lord, we quite rightly wonder at human achievement today. The exploration of outer space and of subatomic particles.
Supermarkets and shopping centres stocked with goods of every kind. All kinds of modern means of communication, satellite, television and the internet. They are the temples of our modern world, and we are like the disciples of Jesus, remarking how adorned with fine stonework and votive offerings the temple is. We remind ourselves that all these things will come to an end and “not a single stone will be left on another”.
Remember that the church, a body of people, that follows Christ, is in fact, Christ and us.
Remember verses 18 and 19 “but not a hair of your head will be lost. Your endurance will win you your lives”.
I will be reading this passage again.
with love and prayers Fr Michael