By Janet Srebalus, M.M.
Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
November 16, 2025
Mal. 3:19-20a | Thess. 3:7-12 |Luke 21:28
As we approach the last Sunday of the Church’s liturgical year, many of us are looking forward to Advent, and the Christmas Season, Christ’s birth among us, and the hopeful message of “peace on earth, goodwill to all.” However, before we start preparing for a new year and new birth, the Church reminds us today that we are not there yet. There is and will continue to be suffering till the end of time.
Truly, a part of us sees and mourns the heartbreaking destruction of wars, environmental degradation, political chaos, and life’s tragedies all around us. The other part of us sees the signs of human and creation’s resilience, hope, and courage in the face of seeming insurmountable obstacles. We see ordinary people living, loving, working, cooperating to make the world a better place. The prophet Malachi in today’s first reading warned us that there will be a day of reckoning for the evil ones but healing for those who are faithful and stand firm.
This has been my experience as a missioner in Tanzania since 1966, when the country was newly independent after years of colonial rule, struggling for autonomy and against poverty, disease and ignorance. These struggles continue in Tanzania, where we have witnessed the recent election chaos but the hope and legacy of the country’s first president, Julius Kambarage Nyerere, inspires us even now to be leaders with integrity and to serve others, not enrich ourselves.
Julius Nyerere of Tanzania courageously led his people to independence and was proclaimed a “Servant of God” by Pope Benedict XVI, the first step on the road to canonization. A popular leader with the Tanzanian people, Nyerere did not take advantage of his position to amass wealth and sit on his laurels. He lived simply and worked hard for his people and the development of the country. His message to Tanzanians was clear: “Work hard, be self-reliant.”
Saint Paul could have used Nyerere as an example to the Thessalonians, some of whom believed their salvation and the second coming of Jesus meant they could relax and wait because all would be well. In his Second Letter to the Thessalonians, Saint Paul offers himself as a hard worker and calls his followers not to be lazy or meddle in other people’s business, but lead good lives, work hard and be self-reliant. He had already warned them about the difficulties they would face preaching the Good News of God’s love and remaining faithful to Jesus’ teaching, but Saint Paul encouraged them to stand firm and hold onto the truth.
In the Gospel reading from Saint Luke, Jesus gives a challenging answer to his disciples’ question about when destructive times will come. Jesus is clear that there will be strange and terrifying things coming, moreover, they will experience persecutions and betrayals even of their friends and families. However, Jesus encourages them with the promise that they will have the wisdom and means to stand up to their enemies and not be overcome. This message is given to us today as we face hardships, divisions and sufferings in our society. Jesus exhorts us to “Stand firm and we will be saved.”
If we read further in Saint Luke Chapter 21, we hear Jesus promising that though strange things will happen, we will see “the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” Of all the theologians and preachers today who have warned and prepared us for the end times, the one who speaks positively and hopefully about our current longing for an integration of our faith with the realities and understandings we have of our world today, French Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin gives us a rich theological synthesis which he calls “Christogenesis” to reframe our traditional beliefs into a cosmic-evolutionary framework.
Instead of waiting for an end that is outside of us, de Chardin inspires us to vision ourselves and all of creation in a dynamic, evolutionary, ongoing process of transformation and healing. We, being one with all that is, participate actively with divine grace through love, work and spiritual growth to bring about the coming of God’s reign of love, peace and justice.
Maryknoll Sister Janet Srebalus entered the Maryknoll congregation in 1962. Having spent most of her mission life in Tanzania, she currently serves in Mwanza, where she gives spiritual direction at Good Shepherd Lake House of Prayer and trains Tanzanian Sisters from local congregations in psychology and counseling skills.
To read other Scripture reflections published by the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, click here.
Featured image: Neighbors join in prayer at the Good Shepherd Lake House of Prayer, on the shore of Lake Victoria, where Maryknoll Sister Janet Srebalus gives spiritual direction. (Sean Sprague/Tanzania)
