December 1, 2025 | Liturgical Year C
Thirty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time
- Malachi 3:19-20a
- Psalm 98:5-9
- 2 Thessalonians 3:7-12
- Luke 21:5-19
Steady On
Picture of the repression of a group of priests, nuns and lay people as they peacefully prayer the Our Father for victims of torture in Chile, 1983.
I often tell people that my time on mission in Chile prepared me for my return to the United States. Chile lost its democracy in 1973, and it fell to the Church to shelter and support those who struggled to bring it back, because all other organizations were suspended, banished or severely restricted.
So now, the Catholic Church in the U.S., under the growing and severe drought of justice, truth and solidarity with the poor and vulnerable in our society—not to mention the lack of sustainable, effective respect for our natural home—finds itself stepping up to the plate abandoned by other institutions, in a situation that is unprecedented, in which the rich get scandalously richer, and the powerful see an “enemy within”. So much like Chile, during the dictatorship.
Just as St. Paul warns the panic-stricken busybodies of the early Church, in today’s second reading, to cease speculating and creating a frenzy of empty talk about the end of the world, and to return to the steady, quiet work of concretely living the Gospel every day, so we hear Jesus himself urge us to stand firm in our faith, especially when it is difficult to live out, in times of suffering and insecurity.
“You will be hated by all because of my name, but not a hair on your head will be destroyed,” Jesus announces. “By your perseverance you will secure your lives.”
A recent Maryknoll photo.
We learned, in Chile, what our faith community is finding out today: how to implement, and accept help in, our mission of standing with the poor, of healing the victims of barbaric violence and of creating new bonds of mutual trust among people who knew nothing of our faith, but appreciated enormously our concern and defense of their basic rights to security, health and justice.
Notes on the Readings
First Reading – Malachi 3:19-20a
Written by the prophet Malachi, whose name means “messenger”, in the period after the end of the exile in Babylon, these inspired words revived the hopes of the faithful, promising them a healing warmth from the coming Sun of Justice.
Responsorial Psalm – 98:5-9
The musical instruments mentioned were used for worship inside the Temple, while the Psalmist’s call goes out, beyond the borders of God’s People and to the entire human family, and then to all of Creation, to joyfully celebrate the Lord’s rule over them.
Second Reading – II Thessalonians 3:7-12
The Apostle Paul warns us not to fall into a lifestyle of chattering ‘busybodies’, endlessly speculating about the end of the world and the Second Coming of Jesus, but to return to the duty of quiet, self-sustaining work, and of living the values of the Gospel every day.
Gospel – Luke 21:5-19
The first readers of Luke’s Gospel were undoubtedly impressed that the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D./C.E. was predicted by Jesus as a prophet, but even more importantly, that their own persecution and suffering for believing in and living the Gospel was also foreseen. The inspired author of this Gospel will describe in detail the fulfillment of this prophecy in his second book, the Acts of the Apostles.
Notes and Commentary by by Fr. Bob Mosher, a member of the Missionary Society of Saint Columban.