THIRTY-THIRD SUNDAY OF THE YEAR "C"

Cycle “C”: Luke 21, 5-19

“And when you hear of wars and revolutions, do not be frightened, for this is something that must happen.....”

There are times when a country had no alternative but to fight. Evil as war is, the alternative could be worse. World War II, for example: there was only one way to stop Hitler and it had to be taken. We all know that only sacrifice made our freedom possible. In one conflict after another, young lives have continued to be lost. Korea, Vietnam, Bosnia, Kashmir, Iraq, to name a few. And the terrifying sweep of HIV/Aids throughout the world has brought a new awareness of how fragile human life is. What kind of world are we leaving our children?

The condition of the world challenges Christians and all decent people to care for the wounded and the orphan, to resist the spread of infection and violence and to adjust to the needs of the new times. Things will never be the same again. A moment of insight, a moment sometimes of fear, followed by a determination to do something in faith in order to make a difference in these times. We must never blink from the reality that faces us.

The poet T.S. Elliot once said, “Humankind cannot bear too much reality.” Frequently we shut out what we don’t want to see. Look at the last events of Jesus’ life. He and disciples have been travelling south from their home territory of Galilee towards the holy city of Jerusalem where they would celebrate the Passover. As they went Jesus began to give his disciples warning that things were coming to a head and they were heading for danger and even death. The disciples shut out what they did not want to hear. They move from false confidence into a hopeless despair. 

But let us focus on Jesus. I’d like you to note that Jesus’ preaching is quite balanced. On the one hand, he paints a very disturbing picture of times of suffering. On the other hand, he makes it clear that his people will not be led astray, and that he himself will be present in the heat of the moment to give them the words they need. This, he says, “will be your opportunity to bear witness.” The famous Lutheran pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was executed in a Nazi concentration camp, once said in a sermon, “The Holy Spirit does not strike sparks in a vacuum, but in the hard needful decisions of the moment.”

The Church professes that Christ “will come in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.” But for certain reasons this great truth seems not to have any impact on us. The first reason is that in 2000 years we have lost the immediate sense of Christ’s second coming. Secondly, there have been so many false predictions of the end of the world that there’s no point in thinking about it. Thirdly, since we are so busy with the many things the world offers, Christ’s coming is not very real for us. We are untouched and probably unconcerned.

Occasionally, however, we hear something that makes us wonder. Let me tell you one particular story.

Early in March 1996, Islamic fundamentalist rebels raided a Cistercian monastery high up on the Atlas Mountains in Algeria in North Africa. The rebels took seven of the monks hostage. The monks were aged between 82 and 45 years, all French nationals who had spent their lives praying, working and helping their poor Muslim neighbours around their monastery of Our Lady of the Atlas Mountains. With the monks as hostages, the fundamentalist group demanded and release of Muslim prisoners jailed in France. The French government did not meet their demands. On Tuesday 21^st. May 1996, the rebels issued a terse and chilling statement: “We have cut the throats of the seven monks............

their executions took place this morning.”

Now the interesting part of the story. One of the monks executed was Dom Christian de Cherge, Prior of the Monastery of Our Lady of the Atlas Mountains. Already a year before he was abducted, he had sensed the danger of the situation in which he was living in Algeria. So Dom Christian wrote a letter, a sort of last will and testament. After his execution, the letter was sent to his family in France. They opened it on Pentecost Sunday 1996. It was a very moving letter, particularly the final sentences. In those last sentences Dom Christian addressed directly the man who would kill him. He wrote:

“And you also, the friend of my final moment who would not be aware of what you are doing. Yes, for you too I say, ‘thank you’ and adieu, and commend you to the God whose face I see in yours. And may we find each other.......in Paradise, if it pleases God, the Father of us both. Amen.”

Now what sort of extraordinary generosity allows a man to write like that.....to call his murderer the “friend of my final moment”, and to see the face of God even in the man who kills him ? Quite simply, I think it comes from a life spent thinking about and praying about the generosity of the Master whom he served. From that, Dom Christian and his fellow monks gained the courage and the freedom to follow the pattern set by Jesus...a pattern foreseen by the Master in today’s Gospel: “They will seize you, persecute you, hand you over...and some of you will be put to death.” That pattern may not exactly be part of our following the Master, but we are called to imitate his generosity. What are you asked to endure in order to win your life ?

The date of the end of the world is not known. But it is certain that the day of our death is the end of this world of each one of us; and doesn’t time pass quickly ? Jesus  warns us not to be deceived by false prophets of doom. Promoting fear, uncertainty, and despair is a sure sign that the message is not from God. The end of the world may be marked by disasters, but more especially marked by the revelation of God’s love. God is literally dying for us to love him.

Since God is the owner of the created world and his greatest desire is for us to love Him and our neighbour, there can be no greater work for us this side of the grave, no greater contribution to the survival of the species than that of loving God and serving the neighbour.

PRAYER: (Ulrich Schaffer)

One day, Lord, I will be with you.

I will stand in your presence,

tired of wandering,

weary of the inconsequential.

Then I want to bathe in innocence

and experience the freedom of the children of God.

I will lay aside my failures

like old clothing.

Then I will know what holiness is:

to be chosen,

to be near you,

and to survive the fire of your purity.