27 November 2025 - forgetting what lies behind

Today's Readings - For Thursday, not Thanksgiving
(Audio) 

When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies,
know that its desolation is at hand.
Then those in Judea must flee to the mountains.
Let those within the city escape from it,
and let those in the countryside not enter the city,
for these days are the time of punishment
when all the Scriptures are fulfilled.

What lesson can we learn from this text, which was specifically directed toward those who would face the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple in 70 AD? We hope our cities to be safe from such apocalyptic judgment, and even if this isn't so, Jesus does not provide a universal recipe for response. But there is nevertheless a spiritual lesson in his words that still applies. In order to do what he advised, the people could not be like the wife of Lot, and look back because of lingering attachment to what was left behind. They needed to do what Paul advised, "forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead" (see Philippians 3:13). Rather than letting the chaos and destruction dominate their horizon they needed to do what the author of the Letter to the Hebrews advised, "fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith" (see Hebrews 12:2). It was important for them to remember that their "citizenship is in heaven" (see Philippians 3:20) rather than any earthly city. They were not to be like those who looked back once they set their hand to the plow (see Luke 9:62). Too much attachment to the things of this world, or too little affection for the things of the Kingdom, could cause delay enough that one risked being overtaken by the coming judgment, rather than successfully escaping to freedom in the place of rest prepared by God. This applied in a literal way to the people that faced the fall of Jerusalem. But it applies in a spiritual way to people in all times and places.

People will die of fright
in anticipation of what is coming upon the world,
for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

Those who have built their lives on the shifting sands of mortal life in this ever changing world have no recourse when everything begins to shake. There is nothing permanent here below to which they can cling. The only ones who can face such situations standing erect with raised heads are those who know that, no matter what happens here, no matter how bad things seem, their redemption is at hand. This is the posture of those who truly believe that nothing in "all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (see Romans 8:39). The same God who shut the mouth of the lion for Daniel and for Paul (see Second Timothy 4:17) can close the mouth of death itself and bring us safely to his eternal shore.

 

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