You will be hated by all because of my name, but not a hair on your head will be destroyed. By your perseverance you will secure your lives.

To some, this reading might sound like a prophecy of the end of time, and on some level it may be. Many at the time of this reading thought just that, and thought that the end of time would come within the current generation. But clearly that did not happen. So how are we to approach this message? We must understand, that all prophecy must be interpreted with multiple meanings in mind. There is always a meaning for the time in which the prophecy is told, but there is also a future meaning, and finally a meaning related to the end of all time. And this prophecy is no different. For Catholics we look at divine revelation as not “either or…” but “both and…” So when we approach this message from Jesus, most scholars believe that this is first, a prediction of the desctruction of the temple in 70AD, but also a message about what will happen at the end of all time.

For many years, I wondered why judiasm and catholicism could not have just coexisted side by side. If so, the Jews would still have their temple and the christians would have their churches. Why was it important that the temple be destroyed. The first reason is this… the temple was the absolute center of every aspect of the jewish faith and worship. over 350 of the 613 laws of moses were directly related (and connected) to the temple and this worship was not even possible without the temple being present. If the one true God was to bring His message of salvation to all of the world, it had to be separated from the temple sacrifice. The problem of pilgrimage alone would make it impossible to bring the worship of God to the whole world. So the jewish temple worship needed to be ended, in order to usher in the new “way” of Jesus.

The next reason is that…, for the Jews, the temple was where the Lord resided in this world, and the place where all sacrafice was made, and the only place where forgiveness could be recieved. When Jesus came, and established His church He changed all that. He gave us the eucharist, and in the eucharist He now resided everywhere, in every church of the world, and in the eucharist, He brings forgiveness for all of our venial sins, and in the eucharist, He resides in us, as the new ark of the covenant the new dwelling place of the lord. The eucharist is the next evolution of worship that the fullfillment of all prophecy, and as such is not compatible with temple worship

Lastly, I want to address this last sentence, the word “perseverence” does not quite encapsulate the greek word that this was translated from. The translations should be something more like “to put everything under one God.” This is what we are called to do in all of our catholic faith. Our lives, families, spouses, our jobs, everything in our lives needs to be subject to, offered up, and united to the one true God.

That is why the jews could not be allowed to persist in their temple worship, and when you truly consider the question in this light, it becomes clear that these two faiths are totally incompatible with the need to preach it to the whole world. This is why catholics cannot sit idly by while others worship other Gods, we must proclaim to them all, that Jesus is the way the truth and the life and no one comes to the Lord except through Him. And this is why we must strive to make every part of our lives, united to Him. Anything less is to make excuses and to fall short of the glory of the God.

Oh lord, help me today to unite every aspect of my life to you, and to guide other in my life to do the same. Amen.