Next Sunday begins the last week of our Liturgical Year and we will commemorate, from the old Latin word that translates as ‘remember together’, Christ the King – but more about that festive and comforting reminder next week. This Sunday’s Gospel passage seems far from hope and consolation on the face of it. What do we read?
We hear the voices of people gazing with wonder at Herod’s Temple – the seat of their faith where tradition, hope, solace, and Divine power all converge in magnificence unlike that seen anywhere else in the known world. Almost perhaps, like we Americans peering up at the soaring Twin Towers in New York before that awful day when they collapsed in a pile of ruble and thousands of human corpses – one minute people in a thriving economy going about their daily tasks on an ordinary Tuesday morning, the next minute morphing into a swirl of fear and despair that forever changed the world and our understanding of it.
We didn’t receive a warning, or did we? Jesus’ incarnation signaled the beginning of the end times. The Lord explicitly announces that in our passage, “"Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place; and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky”, he warns. And he continues, “You will even be handed over by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends, and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name, but not a hair on your head will be destroyed.” It’s painful to contemplate but it will happen. We can join the crowd in asking, “When will this happen???” We too plead for an answer because uncertainty terrifies us. But let’s pause for a minute.
Do we ever consider that it is in some ways a blessing that we don’t know what lies ahead? Think about it. I don’t know about you, but had I known in my early 20s what lay ahead for me and those I love or would come to love in the next 50 years I might have in the impulsiveness common to that age when our brains have yet to complete development opted to not live. That fear and frustration intolerance is one reason suicide, after accidents, is the leading cause of death in late teens and young adults. Had I exercised the ‘free choice’ and ‘personal autonomy’ that are so valued today, dare we say worshipped, I would have evaded a lot of pain and distress but also would not have found a lifelong love, fathered children, seen my grandchildren, enjoyed and savored the world around me even down to a brisk walk on these early winter days capped off by fresh cups of coffee, and all the rest of the extraordinarily incomparable joys that have far surpassed the challenges and distressing events. That is part of the lesson our Gospel offers.
Yes, we are to be watchful, alert, penitent, and working to deepen our spiritual life because the world will end – either in some cataclysmic violence that we will witness and experience or at our personal earthly death like all those who’ve gone before us. We are in the final days. Those wars, persecutions, and disasters the Lord foretold? History is full of them – they and those to come are all part of the process. But let’s not overlook the comfort Jesus gives us when he says, “… but not a hair on your head will be destroyed. By your perseverance you will secure your lives." Earthly death, no matter how or when it comes, is the end. Faith coupled with sure and certain hope tells us it is a transition to something far better. I’m grateful for the last 50 years or so because it is those very trials, and distressing events that have deepened by vision and understanding so that I appreciate what the Lord promises. And while we remain in the world, there is much to enjoy and many to love. That is worth some thought.
(email [email protected] to have weekly reflections sent to your inbox)
