🌋 Chapter 9: The End of Empire
Mark 12 – 13 — “Apocalypse as Awakening”
A Franciscan Clarean Commentary by Sister Abigail Hester, OFC
📖 Scripture
“Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”
— Mark 13 : 2
🏛️ 1. Teaching in the Lion’s Den
Jesus walks straight into the Temple — the headquarters of both religion and empire.
He debates priests, scribes, and politicians who try to trap him with trick questions.
Scholars see this as a verbal street fight.
Rome’s power and the Temple’s privilege converge to corner a Galilean nobody who dares to speak as if God were free of them both.
Franciscan Clareans understand this courage: the holy mischief of standing bare before systems that mistake domination for divine will.
💰 2. The Tribute to Caesar — The Question of Allegiance
“Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
Most modern scholars agree this is not political neutrality but political exposure.
The coin bears Caesar’s image — but humanity bears God’s.
You can pay tax, but you cannot outsource your soul.
Franciscan Clareans read this as a manifesto of conscience.
Money belongs to empire; mercy belongs to heaven.
Give empire its coin, but never your heart.
💞 3. The Greatest Commandment — Love as Law
“You shall love the Lord your God… and your neighbor as yourself.”
A scribe asks sincerely, and Jesus answers with clarity that dissolves centuries of argument.
Scholars note how Mark presents love not as sentiment but as synthesis — the thread that ties theology and ethics together.
For Franciscan Clareans, this is our whole Rule boiled down to one sentence:
Love God → by loving everything that breathes.
Love neighbor → by dismantling whatever blocks that flow.
Love self → not narcissistically but tenderly, as God’s dwelling place.
🕯️ 4. The Widow’s Mite — Sacred Generosity
“This poor widow has put in more than all the others.”
Jesus sits across from the treasury watching people toss in their offerings.
Scholars highlight the Greek nuance — she gives her whole life (holon ton bion).
Franciscan Clareans recognize her as our patron saint of reckless generosity.
She doesn’t give what’s left over; she gives from the center.
This isn’t financial advice — it’s a spiritual x-ray.
Abundance isn’t measured in coins but in courage.
⚡ 5. The Fall of the Temple — End of an Era
“Not one stone will be left upon another.”
Mark’s Gospel was likely written just after the Temple’s destruction in 70 CE — trauma fresh, dust still rising.
For first-century believers, it felt like the end of the world.
Scholars call this the Little Apocalypse — not prediction, but interpretation.
Jesus isn’t forecasting doomsday; he’s teaching how to live when the systems we trusted collapse.
Franciscan Clareans call this holy realism.
Every empire falls — Roman, religious, digital, or personal.
Our task isn’t panic but participation in the new creation rising from the rubble.
🌪️ 6. Signs and Birth Pangs
“Nation will rise against nation… but this is only the beginning of the birth pangs.”
Apocalypse doesn’t mean annihilation; it means revelation (apokalypsis — unveiling).
Something old is dying, and something truer is being born.
Francis and Clare lived their own apocalypse: a church bloated by wealth, a society cracked by war.
They responded not with despair but with midwifery — helping birth a simpler, kinder world.
Franciscan Clareans do likewise.
We don’t await Armageddon; we midwife resurrection in every act of mercy.
🌄 7. The Watchful Heart
“Keep awake!” — Mark 13 : 37
Scholars note that “watch” (grēgoreite) is Mark’s refrain — vigilance not of fear, but of attentiveness.
To stay awake is to refuse numbness.
Franciscan Clareans interpret this spiritually:
Stay awake to beauty.
Stay awake to injustice.
Stay awake to the still, small invitations of grace.
The world sleeps through miracles; disciples keep the night lamp burning.
💫 8. Reflection — Apocalypse as Hope
Mark 12–13 isn’t about the world ending; it’s about empire ending and God beginning again.
For Franciscan Clareans, apocalypse is not doom — it’s divine detox.
Every time greed collapses, compassion gets room to breathe.
Every time the proud fall, the humble inherit the earth anew.
We read the end of the world not as destruction but as deconstruction of delusion.
Love survives every collapse.
Grace rebuilds from every ruin.
🌿 Closing Prayer
Eternal Midwife,
when our temples crumble and our certainties crack,
hold us in laboring hope.
Strip the coins from our altars,
awaken our sleeping hearts,
and teach us to see revelation in the ruins.
Let us live the apocalypse as awakening —
birthing your Kingdom in the dust of every fallen empire.
Amen.
Sister Abigail Hester 
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