Optional Memorial of Saint John Paul II, pope

 Lectionary: 477

When you see a cloud rising in the west you say immediately that it is going to rain–and so it does;
and when you notice that the wind is blowing from the south you say that it is going to be hot–and so it is. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky; why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

Physicists study the damage caused by violent storms and fierce currents in rivers. They set up huge tanks of water and watch how objects are pushed hither and yon by turbulent forces. They would describe that motion with mathematical numbers that are formulated on a micro-scale and then projected onto a macro-scale. But something is lost in the transition and the research continues.  

The fluid may be water, mud, lava, mercury, or the mixed elements of Earth's atmosphere. It may be Earth's magma and its impact on Earth's crust, a force that drives the continents as they smash into one another, bounce, and shear away. Seen over the course of several billion years even solid rock flows like water. 

Economists have looked at the more successful models of fluid motion and wondered if they might predict the stock market with its cycles of boom and bust; inflation, stagflation, and deflation. Human behavior is certainly mercurial; is it also predictable? Someone could make a fortune if they foresaw what the market will do in the next few minutes. Many people have tried and failed and lost; some few have tried, succeeded, and prospered -- until they also failed. 

But even the most fortunate may be only the winners in a blind drawing of fate. Obviously some will win and others will lose; winning doesn't mean this player is especially clever, insightful, or blessed.  

Almost two thousand years ago Jesus mocked the attempts of his contemporaries to "interpret the present time." He saw clearly that "the kingdom of God is at hand!" He predicted not one stone left upon another as Jewish zealots resorted to terrorism. They saw only the domination of Rome and Pharisees fuming about it.   

Very often God's prophets have a keen grasp of the obvious despite the wisdom of the wise and the cleverness of the clever. The stock market is driven by greed and fear while God's people stand back and wonder at its blind impulsiveness. In the immediate days after Nine-eleven it was clear that the United States would go to war against someone -- anyone! -- and the impulse to revenge would founder in the morass of the mid-east. Wiser heads, including Saint John Paul II, joined in the resistance against the rush to war to no avail. 

Saint Francis's disciples recalled some of his foolish decisions and how he atoned for them later. As he reflected on what he'd said and done as he disciplined his followers he sometimes realized he'd overreacted. For instance, when he commanded one friar to preach without his habit, revealing his bare legs to an amused audience, Francis followed him into the pulpit, also stripped, and confessed his sin to the crowd. 

But the Poverello prayed continually, reflecting on the scriptures and the sacred mysteries of our faith; and his impulses were more often guided by the infallible Spirit of God. Preferring silence to speaking and watchfulness to action in the Spirit of Ecclesiastes 3, he wanted only what God wanted, even when that meant hardship, hunger, and deprivation. Following in the footsteps of the Crucified, he found the perfect joy of the Risen Savior.