Waiting in love, not anxiety

For more commentary on this week's readings, see the Reflections on the Lectionary page, which includes Fowl's current Living by the Word column as well as past magazine and blog content. For full-text access to all articles, subscribe to the Century.

This Sunday’s texts from Daniel and Mark (and, perhaps, Hebrews) are quite apocalyptic in their outlook. This may lead most preachers to focus their attentions elsewhere—though post-election, many U.S. partisans may be feeling fairly apocalyptic themselves.

Jesus, too, lived in apocalyptic times. Many of his fellow Jews, including his relative John the Baptist, were convinced that the world was on the verge of a great apocalyptic judgment. In the gospel reading for this Sunday, Jesus has just predicted the destruction of the Temple—also hinting at the immanent onset of the end of the world as we know it.