If You Wait for Me: Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time 2025

                                                       If You Wait for Me:

Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time 2025 

November 16, 2025

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Malachi 3:19-20; Psalm 98; 2 Thessalonians 3:7-12; Luke 21:5-19

 

As we move to the close of our Church year, our readings are filled with frightening language. Some will even say that the images depicted in the Gospel are happening as we speak. The Gospel paints a portrait of confusion and destruction where people do not know who to trust or to be able to discern the signs of the end times. The author describes terrifying events and still cautions people not to be afraid. We are to wait out the drama and persevere in prayer.

 

One of the most alarming points is that some will deceive us by preaching Gospel values in Christ’s name, but they are not to be believed. They say the right words and give a believable message to some, but they are deceitful and their message does not have integrity or lasting truth. These people will manipulate others by appealing to what they most need, but they are not in it for the common good or the religious virtue. They are clever and they have some other motive that is not grounded in genuine charity and righteous concern for others.

 

We are told to persevere and to diminish the drama that is around us. We are not to get alarmed or filled with outrage for every little disturbance, and there will be many. Our minds and hearts will get uprooted and highly sensitized to commotion around us, and it is the effect of turbulence to disorient us. We are more easily controlled by other forces when we are separated and in distracted. We are called to pause and stay centered. The person of faith knows to remain calm and to wait it out. 

 

When we are filled with anxiety and fear, we are not free, and we cannot see clearly. The one who is free is the one who can breathe and make well-reasoned and well-discerned choices. The one who is free will respond thoughtfully rather than react precipitously. The one who is free can act is wisdom and will be a type of person that others can trust. 

 

As we have seen, people read and interpret Scripture through different lenses, and it does not seem that we have a common starting point for dialogue. Many pick out Scripture passages to support their causes and arguments and that is a disingenuous way to treating the Sacred text. Scripture is there to form and inform our consciences. We need to take Scripture and bring it into prayer so that Jesus or his Spirit can guide us through discernment. Scripture is about getting to know the mind and heart of God as Jesus revealed to us. Scripture is a living word that is spoke afresh to our situations.

 

Lastly, we can trust someone if we know that the person genuinely cares for you and your well-being. A person whose life is marked by caring for others, building up the common good, and providing acts of almsgiving is someone who can be trusted. The ultimate person we can trust is Jesus Christ whose fundamental act was to give his life so that we may live closer to God. He is still building up the common good, that is, the Kingdom of God, and every day his almsgiving is his act of dying for us. Every day he cares for us in a new way. He is the one who is life-giving and life-sustaining, and he unmistakably cares for you. Every day, he waits for you, and he just asks us if we can hold a place for him in our hearts. And we will hear his words: I vow to come for you, if you wait for me. 

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

Monday: (1 Maccabees 1) In those days there appeared Israel men who were breakers of the law, and they seduced many people, saying: "Let us go and make an alliance with the Gentiles all around us.

 

Tuesday: (2 Maccabees 6) Eleazar, one of the foremost scribes, a man of advanced age and noble appearance, was being forced to open his mouth to eat pork. But preferring a glorious death to a life of defilement, he spat out the meat.

 

Wednesday: (2 Maccabees 7) It happened that seven brothers with their mother were arrested and tortured with whips and scourges by the king, to force them to eat pork in violation of God's law.

 

Thursday: (1 Maccabees 2) The officers of the king in charge of enforcing the apostasy
came to the city of Modein to organize the sacrifices. Many of Israel joined them, but Mattathias and his sons gathered in a group apart.

 

Friday (1 Maccabees 4) Judas and his brothers said, “Now that our enemies have been crushed, let us go up to purify the sanctuary and rededicate it.” So the whole army assembled, and went up to Mount Zion.

 

Saturday (1 Maccabees 6) As King Antiochus was traversing the inland provinces, he heard that in Persia there was a city called Elymais, famous for its wealth in silver and gold, and that its temple was very rich, containing gold helmets, breastplates, and weapons left there by Alexander, son of Philip, king of Macedon, the first king of the Greeks.

 

Gospel: 

Monday: (Luke 18) As Jesus approached Jericho a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging, and hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what was happening. They told him,
"Jesus of Nazareth is passing by."

 

Tuesday: (Luke 19) At that time Jesus came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town. Now a man there named Zacchaeus, who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man, was seeking to see who Jesus was; but he could not see him because of the crowd.

 

Wednesday (Luke 19) While people were listening to Jesus speak, he proceeded to tell a parable because he was near Jerusalem and they thought that the Kingdom of God would appear there immediately.

 

Thursday (Luke 19) As Jesus drew near Jerusalem, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If this day you only knew what makes for peace–but now it is hidden from your eyes.

 

Friday (Luke 19) Jesus entered the temple area and proceeded to drive out those who were selling things, saying to them, “It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.”

 

Saturday (Luke 20) Some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, came forward and put this question to Jesus, saying, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us, If someone's brother dies leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife
and raise up descendants for his brother.

 

Saints of the Week

 

November 16: Roch Gonzalez, John del Castillo, and Alphonsus Rodriguez, S.J. (1576-1628) were Jesuit priests born to Paraguayan nobility who were architects of the Paraguayan reductions, societies of immigrants based on religious faith. They taught the indigenous population how to plant farms and other basic life skills that would protect them from the insidious slave trades of Spain and Portugal. By the time the Jesuits were expelled, 57 such settlements were established. Roch was a staunch opponent of the slave trade. He, John, and Alphonsus were killed when the envy of a local witch doctor lost his authority at the expense of their growing medical expertise.  

 

November 16: Margaret of Scotland (1046-1093) was raised in Hungary because the Danes invaded England. She returned after the Norman Conquest in 1066 and sought refuge in Scotland. She married the king and bore him eight children. She corrected many wayward abuses within the church and clarified church practices. 

 

November 16: Gertrude the Great (1256-1302) was placed for childrearing into a Benedictine monastery at age 5 in Saxony. She lived with two mystics named Mechthild and as she developed her intellectual and spiritual gifts, she too became a mystic. Her spiritual instructions are collected into five volumes. She wrote prayers as a first advocate of the Sacred Heart.

 

November 17: Elizabeth of Hungary, (1207-1231) was the daughter of Andrew II, king of Hungary. She married Ludwig IV of Thuringia and as queen supported many charities. When her husband died in a crusade in 1227, she entered the Third Order of Franciscans. 

 

November 18: The Dedication of the Basilicas of Peter and Paul celebrates churches in honor of the two great church founders. St. Peter's basilica was begun in 323 by Emperor Constantine - directly over Peter's tomb. A new basilica was begun in 1506 and it was completed in 1626. Many great artists and architects had a hand in building it. St. Paul Outside the Walls was built in the 4th century over Paul's tomb. It was destroyed by fire in 1823 and subsequently rebuilt.

 

November 18: Rose Philippine Duchesne (1769-1852) joined the Sisters of the Sacred Heart and at age 49, traveled to Missouri to set up a missionary center and the first free school west of the Mississippi. She then founded six more missions. She worked to better the lives of the Native Americans.

 

November 21: The Presentation of Mary originated as a feast in 543 when the basilica of St. Mary's the New in Jerusalem was dedicated. The day commemorate the event when Mary's parent brought her to the Temple to dedicate her to God. The Roman church began to celebrate this feast in 1585.

 

November 22: Cecilia, martyr (2nd or 3rd century), is the patron saint of music because of the song she sang at her wedding. She died just days after her husband, Valerian, and his brother were beheaded for refusing to sacrifice to the gods. She is listed in the First Eucharistic prayer as an early church martyr.

 

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• November 16, 1989. In El Salvador, the murder of six Jesuits connected with the University of Central America together with two of their lay colleagues. 
• November 17, 1579. Bl Rudolph Acquaviva and two other Jesuits set out from Goa for Surat and Fattiphur, the Court of Akbar, the Great Mogul. 
• November 18, 1538. Pope Paul III caused the governor of Rome to publish the verdict proclaiming the complete innocence of Ignatius and his companions of all heresy. 
• November 19, 1526. The Inquisition in Alcala, Spain examined Ignatius. They were concerned with the novelty of his way of life and his teaching. 
• November 20, 1864. In St Peter's, Rome, the beatification of Peter Canisius by Pope Pius IX. 
• November 21, 1759. At Livorno, the harbor officials refused to let the ship, S Bonaventura, with 120 exiled Portuguese Jesuits on board, cast anchor. Carvalho sent orders to the Governor of Rio de Janeiro to make a diligent search for the supposed wealth of the Jesuits. 
• November 22, 1633. The first band of missionaries consisting of five priests and one brother, embarked from England for Maryland. They were sent at the request of Lord Baltimore. The best known among them was Fr. Andrew White.