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Daughter of Zion, behold the signs of the coming of The "Son of Man" and be filled with joy. You are all the "Daughter of Zion" for you are His Bride, His Church, His Lambs, His Brothers and Sisters. Today's Gospel gives you Jesus' precious words of encouragement and hope for His family struggling through this world of sin.

He had just concluded His prophecy on how the city of Jerusalem would be destroyed in the year 70. But He continued: "And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars..." Christ was talking about the end of the world. And yes, that's a good thing! The message to you is that the "Son of Man," Jesus the King, is coming--soon, real soon. Yes, that is a good thing.

You regularly celebrate the First Advent. You celebrate it now, during a special season set aside, but also on the Feast of the Nativity and its subsequent 12-day festival. You celebrate His eternal Incarnation every Lord's Day; the First Coming of Immanuel and His victory over sin, death and satan on Good Friday and Easter. But all of that points to right now, and points to what is about to happen: Christ's Second Advent, His final return. It also points to what happens right now today, here, at the Mass. The "signs" are all there.

There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. Nature does show that the end times are upon us. And they are -- the false teaching of the millennialists aside. You live, right now, in the Last and Final Days; St. Paul writes to the Corinthians: "[the Scriptures] were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages have come." [1 Cor. 10.11] Likewise the Apostle Peter writes: "...[but He, Christ] was manifest in these last times for you." [1 Pet. 1.20] So, when there are solar eclipses and abnormal sun-spot activity, when there are comets and tsunamis, earthquakes and floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, mud-slides, conflagrations, hailstorms -- you know. You know what the believers from the time of the cross until now have known: "He stands at the door and knocks;" His imminent return in glory is at hand. Christ likens these signs to the buds on a fig tree. Elsewhere He likens the final signs to the birth pangs of a pregnant woman. The delivery is at hand, we just don't know precisely how long the "labor" will be---a minute, an hour, maybe longer.

These signs are a prelude to the end of the world. They will cause (indeed are now causing) great distress on earth, upon the "nations." St. Luke's term for the "nations" means all the "ethnics," i.e.: all the Gentiles; all of us! All will suffer the dislocations of nature, the ravages and destructions of the temporal order, but only those who are enemies of the cross will be plagued with the terrors of the end: "men's hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth..." St. Luke is literally saying that these pagans will "cease to breathe from fear;" they will faint. Is this not what Simeon prophesied to the Blessed Virgin at the "Presentation:" "Behold this Child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against." [St. Luke 2.34] Mary herself had testified: "He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted the lowly." Be encouraged and have hope for you are those lowly; you wait for the beautiful flowers to bloom from the waiting buds. You are encouraged because the very One that does the encouraging is with you. The "end of Days," the Fulfiller of all times, the Alpha and Omega is with you! Jesus is not just a warm and fuzzy memory, but He's with you, and in you, in His Words, His absolutions, and His Feast of Forgiveness.

Yes the sea and the waves are roaring. Yes false doctrine and heretics abound so as to deceive the faithful, to make them just like the heathen: lost and condemned. The Son of Man has told us that this would all come to pass: "Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons..." [1 Tim. 4.1]

God's paradise, His mansions, will never be shaken; His Kingdom beats down the very gates of hell. But when St. Luke writes that "the powers of heaven will be shaken" he is referring to the visible heavens, the air, the sky, i.e.: that which can be seen. Thus the Lord refers to the devil as the "Prince of the Air." But the First Advent is over; be encouraged; have hope; the "counterfeit prince" is judged; the deed is done; one little Word has felled him.

The earth and sky, as we see them now, will pass away. The deadly and lethal side effects of a decaying nature will pass away. Powers and principalities; vanities and mammon will pass away. "Change and decay in all around I see" will pass away. But brothers and sisters the "Word of the Lord endures forever." And that Word isn't just print on a page, that Word is Christ in the flesh; the returning King. The King proclaims: "Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory..."

You are encouraged and you do have hope because you know with a certitude called "faith" that you will, like Job, see the Lord Jesus Christ with your own eyes. You will witness His return in power and glory. You will witness Him return in the flesh. He will have His final Advent with His same Incarnated Body, now forever glorified, as your resurrected body will be also.

So, "lift up your heads because your redemption draws near." Your redemption is your Redeemer. He draws near even now as I speak (my prayer is that He would return before I stop speaking). But however long it takes for us to have Him back visibly in our midst; we believe that right now the Body of Christ is here. You the Church Catholic are the Body of Christ, with Jesus being the Head. And, Sacramentally, He draws near this very morning. He is as close to you as His word which you have heard and will hear in His testament. He is as close to you as His Body which you will eat and His Blood which you will drink.

There's a reason that the Holy Supper is called a "foretaste of the feast to come." At His Table you enter upon timelessness. The Eucharist bridges the time between your Lord's Days on earth, His first Advent, and His return in glory, His Second Advent. Just because you know and believe "He will come again to judge both the quick and the dead," you don't take a "pass" on the here and now. Dr. Luther was asked what he would do today, if he knew the world would end tomorrow; he said he would plant a tree.

"Be assured" says Jesus, "I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place." The "this generation" to which Christ referred to wasn't just the 12; it wasn't the Apostolic church only, or the church of the 1st century. "This generation" is you, all the church of whatever time, location, language group or ethnic origin. Until His reappearing you do what you have always done since the night in the upper room. You receive Him by faith and you pray for His visible final Advent.

You recite together after the last table has returned to its pew: "As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup: Ye do show the Lord's death till He comes. " Till He comes... soon... very soon.... Maranatha; Come Lord Jesus.

In the Name of The Father and of The Son + and of The Holy Ghost