Gospel (Lk 21,20-28) - At that time, Jesus said to his disciples: «When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its devastation is near. Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, those who are inside the city must leave it, and those who are in the countryside must not return to the city; for those will be days of vengeance, so that everything that has been written may be fulfilled. »In those days woe to women who are pregnant and to those who are breastfeeding, for there will be great calamity in the land and wrath against this people. They will fall by the edge of the sword and will be led captive into all nations; Jerusalem will be trampled by the pagans until the times of the pagans are fulfilled. There will be signs in the sun, in the moon and in the stars, and on earth the anguish of peoples anxious about the roar of the sea and the waves, while men will die from fear and waiting for what is to happen on earth. Indeed, the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with great power and glory. When these things begin to happen, rise up and lift your heads, because your liberation is near."

The commentary on the Gospel by Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia

The evangelical passage speaks of the destiny of Jerusalem. The evangelists Matthew and Mark only announce the end of the temple, while Luke also adds the destruction of the holy city. The Church, by making us listen to this song as the liturgical year is about to end, wants to help us meditate on the end of times. The Word of God reveals to us the purpose of our life: the Jerusalem of heaven. We walk in earthly Jerusalem with our eyes fixed on the city of heaven where the Lord awaits us to embrace us together with all the saints. The image of the Jerusalem in heaven underlines that Christian salvation is not on an individual level, but on a community level. Yes, the Lord does not save us one by one, individually, but as a community, as a people, as, indeed, a city. Salvation, for Christians, comes through their commitment to the society in which they live, to the city where they live. The evangelical image of Jerusalem besieged and trampled also leads us to think about the situation of current Jerusalem, the city of the three religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. We cannot forget her; the words of the psalm are also true for us: "Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I let the memory of you fall... Jerusalem" (Ps 137.5-6). Its difficulties are ours too, and prayer must not cease for it to become the "city of peace" again, as its name suggests. In it we glimpse the heavenly Jerusalem, where all peoples gather around the one God. And the current disorder of the world, which the evangelist describes with apocalyptic language, but which also describes well the anguish of anxious peoples, pushes we believers to rise up and raise our heads because the Son of man is near, indeed he has come to live among men so that the world is no longer under the yoke of evil and violence. He came to show everyone the path to peace. We believers are entrusted by the Lord in a very particular way with the responsibility of showing the world the beauty and strength of the Gospel of love and peace.