Homily - Thirty Third Sunday in Ordinary Time   - November 14, 2004

 

 

Bill Bausch tells the story of the man who visited Dublin.  He woke up one of the first mornings of his trip very angry because the people at the desk were supposed to wake him up half an hour earlier and they never did.  “To add insult to injury,” he said, “I was further irritated when the service delivered bacon and eggs, and I had ordered boiled eggs.  And they gave me The Irish Times instead of The Daily Telegraph that I ordered.  So I picked up the phone and I complained to the desk, and the girl, in her typical lovely Irish way, responded, ‘Well now,’ she said, ‘you’re awake, aren’t you?  You’ve got something to eat and something to read while you eat.  I say you’re not badly off.’”

 

 

We listen to the Words of Sacred Scripture for this Thirty Third Sunday in Ordinary Time.  We come to the end of this Liturgical Year – In two weeks we begin our Advent time – our new year of Grace.

 

And as always on this late Sundays in the year we hear talk of the end times. The big word for this talk is “Eschatology”. Eschatology – the study of the last things, namely death, judgment, heaven, hell and the second coming of Christ.  But our talking of these end times is not just futuristic ponderings – frightful talking about the end of the world and all that that entails. Our talk of Eschatology must, because of who we are, be founded on the Christ Event:  the announcement of the coming of the reign of God, the public ministry of Jesus, the death and resurrection of Jesus, and the outpouring of the Spirit.

 

Eschatology is important talk.  Some theologians in the twentieth century have said, for instance that this kind of talk has to permeate our entire faith journey.  In other words its not just about my spirituality now – what is important to me in this moment. My beliefs, how I live them out, must be bigger than me – must reach to the end – must be all about the establishing that city, that place that the Christ inaugurated.

 

But we get easily distracted from this – and maybe we want to.

 

In the middle ages people started getting concerned only about their own quiet and their own salvation and went off to the monastery. In the reformation time the talk of end time concentrated only on praying for already dead and in the time of Enlightenment the thought was strong that the minds of the great and the genius of the moment would create the utopia – we just pray for our souls.

 

The Second Vatican Council says that authentic Christian statements of eschatology commit us with a new energy and a deeper zest for the cultivation of this life in virtue of the Christian promises held out for the future. An eschatology – a concern and dream of the end-time – that does not take seriously our reasonability for this world is not a truly Christian eschatology.

 

The mistakes of the past were to separate the now from the then. But that is not what Jesus would have us do.

 

At the end of this liturgical year we are reminded by Jesus that he came to inaugurate a new way – and that way would be difficult.  But he tells us that he is present in the building of that way.  Our belief must be that our actions now contribute to the reign of God – or why would Jesus taken our path to teach us?

 

Paul in the second reading strongly tells us that we need to be busy about building the reign of God. That is our purpose and our path.

 

And so it seems clear.

 

But again – we get distracted.

 

If you read the papers today you’d easily think that the only important thing to consider this November day is the Scott Peterson trial. Look at the headlines in the papers on the newsstand – Frey Him (of course spelled F.R.E.Y) and all sorts of other almost giddy references to the man’s possible death punishment.  Our obsession with this and other tabloid stories could make us easily forget about what we need to be concerned about if we are working to building the reign.  Our own absorption in the little things that annoy us about others – our own pet peeves – like the Man on the Irish holiday – distract us from the way that the Christ event inaugurated.

 

Of course, the fact is that these distractions save us from the conflict that Jesus experienced and that indeed he promises for us.

 

But where on the front pages of the papers or in our daily concerns is there mention about the millions and millions of people in Africa who suffer starvation, diseases like AIDS, and the ravages of war because of the greed of the powerful. Isn’t attention to their plight what Jesus would have us be concentrated on?

 

And where on the front pages of the papers or in our daily concern is their energy about our earth – the treasure that we’ve been given – the water and the air, the rivers and the sky. We have been told that we are stewards of the treasure. Isn’t attention to this treasure what Jesus would have us be concentrated on?

 

And of course there are the children in our own land who go hungry and homeless,  the elderly who live in fear of disease and the inability to be cared for,  the addict who needs hope, the marginalized of our land who need love.

 

The fact is that these and so many issues that surround us are not agendas for political parties only – or for one side or the other – or for those in charge and powerful.  These are the agenda of the building of the reign of God. These are the agenda of the Christ who can to heal and build and inaugurate a restored world.

 

These are the “stuff” of eschatology – of what it takes to complete the work of creation. And indeed they are overwhelming – if we would do it alone

 

But Jesus tells us that he is with us in the struggle – in the building. “Remember, I myself shall give you a wisdom – not a hair on your head will be destroyed – by your perseverance you will secure your lives.”

 

We come to the end of this liturgical year and get ready again for Advent and the celebration of the Christ birth and eventually his suffering and dying and rising.

The fact is that it is all tied up into one motion of doing God’s work – as taught to us by Jesus – building the reign of God – bringing about the new creation.

 

Its our work – because of our baptism – it is the work of our redemption.