There are two sets of Readings for today, one set for Thursday of the 34th Week in Ordinary Time and another for Thanksgiving Day in the United States.
Mass Readings – MassTimes.org – TheCatholicDirectory.com – VIDEO: Daily Mass – Toronto – VIDEO: Daily Mass – Boston/Catholic TV
MASS READINGS: Thursday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
In this final week of Ordinary Time, there continues a focus on the end times.
It is the culmination the liturgical year. At the same time, we await Advent, which has a theme of awaiting and anticipating the arrival of Christ.
Jesus discusses with the Disciples two kinds of end times. He talks of the destruction of Jerusalem, which happens to some extent four decades after His Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension. Yet He also talks of the end times at the end of the age, when the Second Coming of Christ occurs.
‘… There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars … on earth nations will be in dismay, perplexed by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will die of fright in anticipation of what is coming upon the world, for the Powers of the Heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with Power and Great Glory. But when these signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand.’
(Of course, we have no way of knowing if the Apocalypse will also feature a destruction of Jerusalem as part of more global turmoil and destruction.)
We are invited to prepare for the future by following and loving Christ, so that no matter what happens we can face, with confidence, the Reign of God and our own Final Judgment.
MASS READINGS: Thanksgiving Day
The Gospel for Thanksgiving Day in the United States includes the story of Jesus healing ten lepers on the road, of whom only a Samaritan leper returns to thank Him.
… Jesus said in reply, ‘Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?’ Then He said to him, ‘Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.’…
We are reminded of the need always to give thanks to God.
