Thirty-third Sunday in
Ordinary Time
It seems from the beginning
of our human existence people have always been trying to predict the end of the
world. We know that there is a movie
coming out from Hollywood called 2012 which is going to be filled with doom and
gloom, how the world is coming to an and.
Many people are predicting the end of the world in 2012 based on things
coming from the Mayan culture down in Mexico.
Even the other morning, yesterday morning I saw a blurb on CNN where
even NASA has gotten involved in trying to put out accurate information about
this world of ours saying, “No, it is not coming to an end in 2012”
You know people can be
filled with so much fear and anxiety.
You always look around us and I garnered a few facts about what is going
on in our world at this time too. It is
kind of doom and gloom when you look at it from one perspective.
Are you aware that one-fifth
of our world’s population lives in absolute poverty. Three billion people lack adequate
nutrition. Every three days more people
die from malnutrition and disease than from the bombing of Hiroshima in World
War II. Every year more people die from
preventable hunger than died in the Holocaust.
One out of every five human beings has no access to safe drinking
water. Amazing. Half of the world’s adult population cannot
even read or write. Do your realize that
over 100 million people have died in wars in this 20th century. We have economic catastrophe. We have people talking about global
warming. And you can sit there and you
can hear all these things and say, “Oh, woe is us. We’re doomed.
Might as well go home and say goodbye to everybody and enjoy this last
day on earth.”
But do you want to live in
fear? Or do you want to live in
hope? That is really what these
Apocolyptic readings are trying to talk about.
They were written at times when people did have that kind of things
happening in the world. They were very
much depressed and filled with anxiety.
The scriptures were written to try to assure them that even in the midst
of these difficult terrible things going on in their lives God would still get
them through it. Not to lose hope.
We know that this world one
day will come to an end. The readings talked
about that. That there will be a new
world. That’s what Jesus holds out to
you and me. Our faith tells us Christ
has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again. There will be a second coming of Jesus. Not for doom and gloom but to lead us to the
glory of eternity. There’s the hope that
we travel with us.
Now isn’t it amazing that
you and I as human beings, as Jesus points out in the gospel, we can look at
nature around us and we know that when the leaves fall off the trees that
autumn is here. We are going to go
through this period, we turn all the flowers down, we cover up your plants, you
bring things in, the green grass will turn to tan. The snow will come and we’ll go into the
winter. You’ll endure the winter, the
harshness of winter, the cold and the snow and the ice. But then we know there will be a spring and
little shoots will come out of the earth and we’ll celebrate new life. And then we’ll get to enjoy our month of
summer in Minnesota. And then we’ll
start all over again.
There’s a tip-off too. We need to have a sense of balance, even a
sense of humor because otherwise we really will shrivel up and die out of
fear. Maybe what Jesus is saying, “If we
can look at nature to understand what is happening are there not other more
important things to open our eyes and our hearts to what’s going on.”
And I think of it in this
way; maybe a sickness that has come into your life, maybe God is trying to tell
you something about how maybe you’re not as strong and independent as you
thought you were. You need someone else
to minister to you, to get you to the doctor, to give you your medicine, to
hold your hand, to comfort you. And a
lot of us have a hard time letting somebody else do that for us and with
us. Maybe God is trying to tell you to
slow down. With all this economic
hardship that is going on maybe, just maybe, we could open our eyes and see
that I don’t need as much stuff as I thought I did. I can live more simply. I can share more of my goodness and my wealth
with other people who have so much less.
Maybe I’ve been too selfish or greedy and I need to look out how I can
help others. Maybe if I open my eyes to
see how someone else around you, a family member, a classmate, a friend, a
coworker, a fellow parishioner is struggling in their life. Do you see the signs perhaps around that
person? Maybe they are going through a
type of depression. Do you see where
they always walk in such a stooped manner.
They won’t look you in the eye.
Maybe they spend too much time in front of the computer because they are
avoiding you. They won’t talk to
you. You ask them what’s going on? “Nothing.”
You ask them, “How are you feeling?”
“Doesn’t matter.” Stay out of my
life. I’m wrapped up inside me and I’m
shriveling.
But maybe we are afraid to
get involved. Someone’s always
angry. Someone is confrontational all
the time. Someone’s losing weight,
anorexia. Those types of things. Or maybe they are going the other way. All they do is eat all the time to overcome
their fears. And what do we do so many
times? We stand back, “Oh I don’t want
to get involved. She might reject me,
tell me, ‘get lost’.”
Just the other day a person
was telling me how something happened in another person’s life over thirty
years ago and they knew about it. And
she said, “I was afraid then, thirty years ago, to help that person.” And then the person died just two weeks
ago. And this woman is filled with grief
and with guilt and remorse because I didn’t do anything when I could have. I was afraid I might be rejected.
In Alcoholics Anonymous what
do they call that? An intervention. Where you come with two or three other people
and you come with that person and you say, “Look what you are doing to your
life. We’re here to help you get life.”
I think those are the end
times. Those are the things in our life
today where you and I can bring life.
Where you and I can bring hope to somebody else. And it crosses all the ages doesn’t it. It isn’t just those who are older than
us. It’s children, it’s teens, it’s 30s
and 40s, and 50s and 60s. It’s all the
age brackets, all the classes, all the cultures because we’re all human
beings.
So maybe, maybe today
instead of worrying, filled with doom and gloom be people of hope. Be people who are willing to risk. When you see some of these things going on in
another person’s life, your spouse, one of your children, good friend. And you see signs and say, “Whoa, something’s
not right here. Lord give me the
strength.” Maybe you get together with
another person and say, “Am I seeing this correctly? Do I see that that person is really
struggling or hurting? How can maybe we
help this person?” Literally save a life
and a family. That we won’t have those
regrets five, ten, twenty years from now, saying, “Oh how I wish I would have.”
What does the lesson from
Ft. Hood just recently tell us? There
were signs there. People who could have
done something didn’t. Oh it’s not that
bad. He’s such a good person. She means well. Oh, maybe we’re just reacting to something
she said or did. No! No! No! Let’s pay more attention. Now people are acting, healing and living.
And let’s be people today
who will go forth from this Eucharist really I think to give hope, to give joy,
to give comfort, willingness to risk.
They may turn us away but don’t ever hold back. See in your goodness and the signs in your
own life. When we see the goodness
inside ourselves that’s when you and I in turn will want to reach out and give
back to other people.
We are here at the Eucharist
again this morning because during this Mass, in such a powerful, beautiful way
you and I are going to put ourselves on this altar with all of our hopes, joys,
fears, doubts, anxieties. And maybe in a
special way as you put yourself on the altar put all the people in your life
too. Your family, your friends, your
relatives, your fellow workers, whoever it might be. Especially maybe you know who are hurting,
that are struggling. Put them on this
altar too. And to know that we can be
and will be transformed. We will be
changed into the body and the blood of Jesus Christ. Then we can go forth from this Eucharist to
bring that hope and that comfort, that consolation, that mercy, that
understanding, that forgiveness, that kindness into somebody else’s life.
And trust me, somehow this
week there will be one person in your life that God is going to ask you to
bring hope to. Take the risk and give
it.