Readings: Daniel 12.1-3 / Psalm 16 (R/1) / Hebrews 10.11-14,18 / Mark: 13.24-32
I don’t
know about you
but reading
in our scriptural texts today
about
distress and tribulation,
about the
dead rising, about the darkened sun and moon,
and stars
falling from the sky
frightens
me.
These
frighten me
because
they speak about the end of the world
and about
the inescapable reality
that I--and
those I love--will die.
That death
will come no matter how much we try
to keep
death at bay by exercising,
by eating
right, by getting regular checkups.
They
frighten me a little more
because
they remind me
that my
life will be judged at this end time.
That I will
stand before God
who will
weigh
my acts of selfishly loving myself
and of
loving charitably God and neighbor.
Today’s
readings are indeed sobering.
Some of us
may hear in them an invitation to take stock
of how
we’ve lived this past year
and of new
resolutions we should make for a better new year.
For others,
like myself, they disturb us enough to ask
“So, what’s the good news today?”
Mark does
remind us that the good news is this:
Jesus, the
Son of God and the Son of Man,
will come
at our end times.
He will
come to gather us, who he has already saved,
into fullness
of life with God the Father.
But Mark
also narrates Jesus teaching his disciples
this
hopeful truth in the face of these end times:
God is
already present, among and with them,
laboring
for them and for their happiness.
Jesus
teaches them to see and know
this truth
by learning from the fig tree.
To observe
its branches becoming tender;
to note its
leaves sprouting.
These are
signs of summer coming and winter left far behind.
These are
signs of life, not death.
These are signs in the small details of life.
These are signs in the small details of life.
“When you
see these things happening,“ Jesus says,
“know he is
near, at the gates”
And who is he who is near
but the One who says,
"I will be with you always."
but the One who says,
"I will be with you always."
If God is
to be found, then, in the small details of life,
It will be
in such small, even insignificant, details, as
-- the
ordinariness of a stranger who charitably
gives up his seat for a pregnant woman on the train;
-- the
everydayness of your wife or your mother whose love
feeds you a home cooked meal;
-- the
simplicity of a friend whose concern
assures another in pain with her embrace.
What Jesus
is teaching his disciples, and you and I today,
is that
when we really pay attention to the details of our lives,
there we
can find and learn and know
that God, who has saved us in Jesus,
is nowhere
else but with us.
A couple of
years ago,
I walked with an elderly
widower in spiritual direction.
His wife
had just died.
He sought
to find God
who seem
far away and absent in his loss.
One
Saturday afternoon,
he was preparing a fruit salad
for a
neighborhood luncheon.
He cut up
watermelon and cantaloupe.
He threw
them into his favourite blue glass bowl.
He added
strawberries and blueberries,
some pineapple and mandarins.
As he
sprinkled some sugar and nutmeg
and tossed
the fruit in a dash of Kahlua,
he sensed
God standing next to him.
Very real;
very present.
The moment
was surprising yet assuring.
He looked
up; the room was suffused with mid-day light.
Life
suddenly felt good and bright.
He paused
and smiled.
Then, he continued living, tossing the fruit.
His is a
story of God in the small details of our lives.
Think of
similar details
you’ve
experienced,
when your
world seemed to have crashed and
burned
and God
visited you, saved you,
labored for
your wellbeing and happiness.
Perhaps,
this was when
-- your
spouse said, “It’s ok, honey, I love you still.”
-- a
colleague held your hand and whispered, “All will be well.”
-- your doctor said, “your checkup's fine; you’re in good shape.”
Indeed,
paying attention to such details
can help us
recognize that God
who is
faithful to us in small things
will always
be faithful in the big things
of our
lives.
I’d like to
believe, then, that when we pay attention
to God in
the details of our living,
we will
become wise, as we heard in our first reading.
Wise about
God’s ways to live life well
and to face the
future confidently.
And wise enough also to lead others to justice.
Then, even
as the world darkens
and
everything we know seems to fall apart,
we can go
forth confidently,
shinning
brightly like the stars,
shinning
for others
and
revealing to them the good news
that our
God is indeed a God-who-is-with-us always,
loving us
into fullness of life.
preached at Blessed Mother Teresa Parish, Dorchester, Boston
photo: staircase at bellarmine house (cohasset,massachusetts, oct 2011) by adsj
photo: staircase at bellarmine house (cohasset,massachusetts, oct 2011) by adsj
Add a comment