Thursday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

 Lectionary: 344

Delay not your conversion to the LORD,
put it not off from day to day.
For suddenly his wrath flames forth;
at the time of vengeance you will be destroyed.
Rely not upon deceitful wealth,
for it will be no help on the day of wrath. 

I find a connection between today's readings from Sirach and Mark in the apocalyptic sense; that is, within an acute awareness of judgment and the end time. 

Salt may be a perfect analogy for the apocalyptic because, like our use of fire, it is both useful and dangerous. It burns fiercely in our eyes and open sores. We're all familiar with salt; it's used in practically every step of food production and consumption, and yet too much can be undesirable at best, and dangerous on occasion. 

As a chaplain in the VA I heard many complaints about tasteless food and the sodium-free diet. They wanted salt but could not have it. Some would risk their lives for its momentary satisfaction. Not many heard my suggestion that they find their pleasure in something else. Salt had always been plentiful and available, and even within reach on their breakfast, lunch, and dinner tables. They could not endure life without its tang. 

Many of us have the same familiarity with our religion, but we forget that familiarity breeds contempt and can be dangerous. Sure, we say, it's necessary but we need not take religion, faith, and God too seriously. Like anything else, they can be put off, delayed, compartmentalized, and finally ignored. Apocalyptic prophets remind us that God has called us out of nothingness for no apparent reason and may forget us as easily as we forget God. 

Or, more dangerously, we suppose with the Greek philosophers that matter has always existed and, at a moment in the distant past, God did nothing more than shape matter into various forms. And because we have not seen miracles in a very long time, he apparently set us aside like a coiled watch, and walked away. Unless we take a serious interest in recreating ourselves we might slowly, inevitably wind down into extinction. 

Deism assures the world of its rightful existence even if God doesn't care, does nothing, turns his attention to other matters, despairs of salvaging us, or has died. In that godless world there is nothing left but Power, and whatever ethical or moral principles we might agree upon. That deistic attitude underlies all STEM culture. 

The doctrine of creation out of nothing teaches us that God's creating authority -- His Word -- still sustains us against the abyss of nothing. He created us in the past and is sustaining in the present and will continue to do so. His eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches over me. 

Opposing that Greek, godless understanding of our beginnings, Saint Peter spoke apocalyptically,

They deliberately ignore the fact that the heavens existed of old and earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God; through these the world that then existed was destroyed, deluged with water. The present heavens and earth have been reserved by the same word for fire, kept for the day of judgment and of destruction of the godless.

 

But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day.

The Lord does not delay his promise, as some regard “delay,” but he is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a mighty roar and the elements will be dissolved by fire, and the earth and everything done on it will be found out. (1 Peter 3:5-10)