NOTES for Mar 13:14-23

In His conversation with the disciples about the end of the world, the Lord, as the biblical prophets sent by Him did, speaks at the same time about nearby concrete events and about the still distant end of history. In this case, clearly, the Lord uses the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD as an image of the end of the world. Yet His words can in many ways also be applied to other eras. In the passage we read today, it is important that the Lord says to the disciples: "Pray..." He also adds that for the sake of His elect God shortens the last days. It follows from this that it is within our power, through prayer and faithfulness to God, to lessen the weight of the sufferings of the last time. Together with the preaching of the Gospel, this becomes the most important task of the Church, giving a truly cosmic meaning to its existence.