Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away
until all these things have taken place.
There was a specific way this was true for the original audience of Jesus. But there is a way in which it is true for each subsequent generation, including our own, and on to the final generation.
"These things" once referred to the fall and destruction of Jerusalem by items enemies in the first century. But to what do they refer for us? Perhaps that we ourselves will not be permitted to live in an earthly utopia, and that our vain hopes for complete fulfillment in the earthly city will not be countenanced. Even the best elected officials and policies will inevitably fall short of creating a paradise here on earth. Things that dismay, perplex, and frighten us will continue. The very powers of the heavens will be shaken as to remind us that we have here no lasting home.
“Consider the fig tree and all the other trees.
When their buds burst open,
you see for yourselves and know that summer is now near;
This season is meant to be one in which we bear fruit, for summer is drawing near.
But well is the kingdom of God compared to summer; for then the clouds of our sorrow flee away, and the days of life brighten up under the clear light of the Eternal Sun.
- Saint Gregory
The "Kingdom of God is near" us. It is already in our midst in a mystical fashion in the Body of Jesus, the Church. The saints already live and reign "with Christ for a thousand years." The enemy, while clearly not gone entirely, is massively restrained (no matter how it may seem to us). This invisible reign is Christ is meant to prepare the way for his visible coming in glory.
The Kingdom is already a seed within each one of us. We are meant to be trees that bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit rather than trees which merely show their leaves, promising fruit, but bearing none (see Mark 11:12-14). It is this fruit which will be the criteria of our judgment when summer finally arrives. Are we trees that are fit for paradise, or are we instead withered and fruitless, having chosen to rely on ourselves rather than remaining connected to Christ?
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing (see John 15:5).
Jesus is trying to remind us to look to those things which will not pass away, and to show us how to remain rooted and grounded in those realities.
Heaven and earth will pass away,
but my words will not pass away.
Let us allow the tumult of our own age to reveal to us the urgency, not so much of fixing this age, but of transforming it by bearing fruit fit for an endless summer.
Blessed they who dwell in your house!
continually they praise you.
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