Reflection on the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

As I read the readings for today, especially the Gospel’s story of preparing for the end times, I kept looking for a word of hope. It is there if you read between the lines and don’t get lost in the destructive descriptions of apocalyptic literature that turns the world upside down. If you continue to follow along in the readings the promise of new life will happen.

But as you know we cannot read Scripture literally: “The sun will be darkened, no light from the moon, the stars are falling and the heavens shaken!”  – words very far from the reality that God has created for us. The words call us to trust that we can, without reservation, enter a journey whose future turns we cannot see. Hope is the virtue we need to carry on. The opportunities to experience hope are as close to us as we are to each other, God has given us the capacity to pay attention, imagine and to enter into this wonder of life as individuals and as a Community. 

Jesus then tells the disciples the story of a fig tree and its sprouting – a parable of hope: The tree is growing, the leaves are green and lovely and the promise of a Messiah overshadows it all. Even the disciples are impressed. Jesus is telling them that change is coming. Be ready.

Don’t miss the last sentence: “No one knows the day or the hour.” How often have we heard that? Be ready, no surprises, no sleeping on the job, be watchful. Set aside whatever you are doing for the sake of transforming encounters with God. The hopeful followers clung deeply to the words of the prophet Jeremiah: “I know the plans I have in mind for you, plans for peace and not disaster, reserving a future full of hope for you.”

The challenge to be “watchful in hope” says look around for the nearness of God, a nearness which makes possible the acts of justice and the words of healing which give life. Hope is an energy that comes to us from God. It is a transforming force that we do not control. 

Dorothee Soelle writes that, “Jesus and his Jewish followers did not think in linear terms about the future but in relationship to God and to each other. The end they wanted and I believe the end we want, is not the end of history but the end of suffering. The nearness of God is not on our calendars, it is rooted in our present, it is rooted in our hope that helps us find our way when usual lights on our path no longer shine. Where do we go if God is nowhere to be seen?” We must follow God’s invitation to be a home for hope, to discern its work, and to be a people living in the light of expectation.

 Thomas Merton once asked his student a question, “How does an apple ripen?” The student answered, “It just sits in the sun.” Years later the student was thinking about Merton’s question and realized that the apple needs the sun for its daily nourishment. That’s how we mature in the fullness of God’s life. We put ourselves in the position to hear the word of God, to live that word and to have hope in God’s promise that “heaven and earth will pass away but my words … never.” Today’s Eucharist and every Eucharist is a source of hope and strength in living as Jesus has called us to do. It is our nourishment for the life here and to come.

I Am the Way tells us: “As a community, we profess unshakeable reliance upon God and human reliance upon one another.” 

So, let’s get busy sitting in the sun.