Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 158

"In those days after that tribulation
the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light,
and the stars will be falling from the sky,
and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.
"And then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in the clouds'
with great power and glory,
and then he will send out the angels
and gather his elect from the four winds,
from the end of the earth to the end of the sky.

As the priest chaplain in a VA hospital, I am sometimes asked if I think the end of the world is near. "Certainly," I say, "the world as we know it has ended." 

The nations, their leaders, multinational corporations, and the Earth's innumerable religions are navigating in darkness without a global positioning system. If the world's peoples were ever ready for the coming of the Son of Man in the clouds this would be the moment. By ready I mean helpless, frightened, clueless, and desperate.

We can reasonably expect that the current Covid 19 pandemic with its variants will pass; we can hope that the world and its leaders will have learned something from the experience; but expectation and hope are quite different things. Expectation arises from ordinary reasoning; hope must be born of belief in God and the grace that moves us to care for and work with each other. 

We can expect that we will continue to adapt to climate change, and we can expect that there will always be much resistance to the necessary adaptations. Some will agree that changes must be made, "but not yet!" 

Many will find ways to defend their particular status quo while demanding that everyone else makes the necessary sacrifices. We can hope the wealthiest change their ways; we can expect they will not.

Our Christian faith, grounded in Jewish tradition and scripture, assures us that God is with us even as it affirms our helplessness. We cannot expect to navigate the shoals in darkness without the lighthouse of the Church. From its position on the Rock of Christ we can track the reefs, ridges, keys, and currents that would founder our ship. 

We can expect the continuing contempt of unbelievers who cite a long history of our sins, quarrels, misdeeds, and mistakes. Their facts are confusing; our faith is not. 

We can expect some of our own children and loved ones, hearing the siren calls of madness, to abandon our faith. We can hope and pray they do not. 

If I ever thought that life would get easier with the passage of time, I regret that thought. Hospitalized Veterans of World War II, Korea, and Vietnam teach me that. But I share with them the confident faith that Jesus walks with us.

 

Amen, I say to you,

this generation will not pass away

until all these things have taken place. 

Heaven and earth will pass away,

but my words will not pass away.