Jesus continues his admonitions about readiness for the future. The key is to watch out for the telling signs. Just as with the fig tree or any tree, the emerging buds of green indicate that summer is on the way. When the things Jesus has been mentioning are seen to happen, terrible as some of them seem to be, they are in fact the sign of summer. "The Kingdom of God is near." The Kingdom is present wherever the values of the Gospel are being lived but this is an ongoing process which will continue to the end of time. When Jesus says that "this present generation" will not have passed away until all this takes place, it is not to say that Jesus' final coming will happen in the lifetime of His hearers, but rather that, with his own suffering and death, the new and eternal dispensation which he inaugurates with the Kingdom will be under way. Ironically, the fulfilment of Jesus' prophecy is inaugurated by the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the Temple. It inaugurates a new presence of God in the world, a presence in "spirit and in truth." Lastly, the world in which we live will one day disappear, but the words of Jesus, words of Truth and Life will be forever valid, because they represent a vision of life and those timeless values to which every single human being is innately called. As we come to the end of the Church year it is a time for us to make our decision whether we want to belong to the kingdom that Jesus is inaugurating and not only to belong but also to make its spread our life's work. Then, no matter when he comes to call us, we are ready.