Luke is writing to a community who is trying to live by the faith who saw Jesus being raised up and were promised that he will return. But as time passes, their doubts creep in and start to challenge their beliefs. They get impatient and want to know exactly when Jesus will return. Jesus teaches if his disciples remain faithful to him, they should expect to be hated, even by relatives and friends and they may be persecuted by authorities. If you've never been harassed or insulted for your faith, then you should examine how you live your Christian lives. 

If you have been paying attention to the recent gospel readings from Luke, they have appeared to be pretty harsh. But that's OK, if you know the Lord and believe what he has taught us, you already know the ending!

Even in today's first reading from Malachi, who is the last prophet of the Old Testament. Interestingly, it was the last thing God said through the prophets for centuries until John the Baptist started preaching again! Malachi paints a pretty dark picture “the day is coming, blazing like an oven, when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire, but for you who fear my name, there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays.”

Some people that hear these first couple of sentences think that here is an example of a very harsh and vindictive God, but if they stay with this scripture to the end they would realize that God has a strong desire for you to be saved. This is why he sends people into our lives who speak the truth to us even if we don't like it. God empowers those people to help save you. God does not make this a mystery, he sends Christian leaders into our life who know and follow Him looking how they live and try to imitate Christ. He sends these people as examples, because they try to model Christ and we should try to model them! 

St. Luke's gospel also sounds scary before the final judgment happens in the end times they're going to be wars and insurrections and country against country earthquakes famine plagues. Obviously, these things have been going on for centuries. Just like in the first reading and Luke’s the gospel, don't get carried away with the beginnings of these, but listen to the end. “not a hair on your head will be destroyed, your perseverance you will secure your lives.” That is the good news, the bad news is maybe you'll be persecuted because you shared your faith, it could be because of a t-shirt you wore, by something you say or something you post online. If you live our faith the right way you will be persecuted. If you have never been persecuted, you are probably not living boldly enough. But Jesus tells us that if we are one of HIS then HE has our backs. Please don't focus on the darkness of these Scriptures, instead focus on the hope and the promise that the Lord despite all the evil in this world, HE is still the Lord and we are HIS children.