What will be our responses as people of faith?

Homily for November 13, 2016 (33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time)
Malachi 3:19-20a; Psalm 98; 2 Thessalonians 3:7-12; Luke 21:5-19

I began writing this homily on Election Night 2016, sitting in my guestroom at St. Philip Neri Friary in Toronto, where I had spent the day facilitating a workshop on Servant Leadership for the Capuchin friars of Central and Western Canada.  I sat with a mixture of relief and dread—relief that a very tawdry, unenlightening and disappointing election cycle was ending and dread at how terribly divided the nation of e pluribus unum appears to be and whether those whom we elected will be prepared or even interested in searching for and serving the common good and resolving some of pressing needs and difficult issues that we face in ways that reflect gospel values.

The apocalyptic visions of Jesus and the prophet Malachi seem quite appropriate for the times in which we live, even though such scripture readings are regularly a feature in our Lectionary at this time of our liturgical year.  Our secular temples are crumbling, and at a time when more and more Americans identify as religiously unaffiliated, agnostic or atheist it sometimes feels like our religious institutions are not far behind.

The fires of anger, anxiety, disappointment, disillusionment and prejudice are flaring. Significant segments of society seem content to demonize and disregard those who do not look, talk or believe like them.   On top of that, wars and other conflicts between peoples as well as natural disasters continue to happen as they always have.

It is a time when we are being profoundly tested, and in the midst of it we can sometimes forget that as a nation we have been tested in even greater ways: 9-11, 1968, the heights of the Cold War, Pearl Harbor, and a civil war the legacy of which continues to haunt us.  It is no less true for the church.

When Luke wrote the passage that is today’s gospel reading near the end of the first century CE, the things that he recalled Jesus foretelling had already come to pass:  the beautiful and ornate temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed by the Romans in reaction to a Jewish rebellion (70 AD), the church was already the victim of what would become centuries of periodic and brutal persecutions, followers of Jesus found themselves expelled from synagogues, families were divided by religion, and yes, there were wars and natural disasters.  Like today, it was a time of uncertainty, anxiety and violence.

What will be our responses as people of faith?  Jesus tells us to trust in him and persevere.  St. Paul encourages us to not give in to the disorder around us or to point fingers at others but rather to look at ourselves and focus on the work that we have been given to do:  building God’s kingdom with love, peace, justice, reconciliation, life, generosity, kindness all the many other precious stones that we have been given.  No matter how we may be tested, even severely, God gives us the means to pass the test (1 Corinthians 10:13).  Pray for our nation and for all who have been elected to serve us. +