As we come to the end of Ordinary time in the church
year and approach Advent and the preparation of the Birth of Jesus on Christmas
Day, we see in our readings talk of the end times and the final judgement of
God.
In our first reading from Daniel we hear of Daniel’s
visions of large beasts, all scary each in its own way. One is described as
“terrifying, horrible, and of extraordinary strength…” (Daniel 7:7) This reading concludes
with a description of what sounds like to be Jesus Christ, “One like a son of man coming, on the clouds of heaven.” (Daniel 7:13) It goes on to say that “His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not be taken away, his kingdom shall not be destroyed.” (Daniel 7:14)
Then our gospel finishes with our Lord saying, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” (Luke 21:33) The Lord is
constantly present to us in all the events of our life, both in the good times
and the bad times. We may despair that the Lord is not present when we are
going through tough times. We may not feel His presence in those times when we
are struggling with personnel problems and issues in our lives. We may feel
scared and alone during these issues in our lives. But the Lord is ever present
to us.
Like the fig tree Jesus is talking about in todays
gospel, before the buds burst open, we think that the tree is dead. Also, like
in our life when we have problems, we assume God is not present. But then the
buds burst open and there’s life. We feel God’s presence and we receive peace
and comfort when we find resolution to our problems. We need to be people of
faith, hope and charity. By trusting
that the Lord will be present in all instances of our life, it is then we can
know and understand that He is ever present.
Let us thank God for the great gift of faith that we
have been given, the sacraments we have been given, and the faith community we
have to support each other in our journey in our relationship with God.
Lord Jesus, help us to be faithful when there seems to
be no reason to do so. Amen.
Deacon Tom, I really like your application of JESUS' reference to the fig tree to the problems in our lives. I know God is always present & I see Him helping me in many small ways at this time in my life, but I also know that sometimes there are situations in which God seems to be taking His time & waiting for "the eleventh hour" when we would prefer that He would resolve our problem quickly.
ReplyDeleteSo I might compare my situation of needing to sell my Mom's house quickly but having to deal with an uncooperative, non-paying tenant who has yet to allow her apartment to be shown to a potential buyer & whom I have had to make the heartbreaking decision to evict after many years of my Mom & I striving to be understand, patient & compassionate, to a fig tree that has a myriad of leaves (i.e., many small ways God is providing for me) but no blossoms & no figs. I have a limited time frame in which to sell Mom's house & pay back the reverse mortgage (I just applied for a December 15--March 15 extension) or else Mom's house will go into foreclosure. I finally consented to the eviction process which will give the tenant 90 days. So this might turn out to be an "eleventh hour" situation, when I would prefer for God to change the heart of the tenant & let the house be sold quickly! And as a Christian & a Secular Franciscan I never wanted to have to evict anyone & even put up with 6 months of no rent & would have been willing to put up with this longer & endure financial hardship until the ability to sell the house was threatened.
The LORD often works in ways other than we would like & His timing is different from ours. It definitely takes faith & patience to believe that He has His own purposes for the way He is doing things, that in His way there are lessons He is teaching us & blessings He has given us, to be thankful for the grace of the present while we wait & that the "blossoms" & "figs" will appear at the right time for our ultimate good.