Homily for November 25th, 2014: Luke 21:5-11.
Our gospel
reading today is about what is called the “End Time.” This Temple which you are
looking at, Jesus tells his hearers, will not always be here. It will all be
torn down one day. Shocked, the hearers want to know when this will happen.
What sign will there be that the end is coming?
People have been asking that question
ever since. Jesus never answered it. As I told you two weeks ago, there is a
passage in Matthew’s gospel where Jesus says that even he has no timetable. “As
for the exact day or hour, no one knows it, neither the angels in heaven nor
the Son, but the Father only” (Mt. 24:36).
One piece of
information Jesus does give. The end of all things, and Jesus’ return in glory,
will be preceded by disturbing signs. Jesus mentions some of them in today’s
gospel: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There
will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place; and
awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky.” Jesus is using poetic,
dramatic language to describe a world in ferment, and coming apart at the
scenes. Who can doubt that we are living in just such a world today?
Should these
signs make us fearful and anxious? Not if we are living for the Lord God, and
for others. Let me tell you about a man who did that. His name was Basil Hume,
a Benedictine monk of Ampleforth Abbey in the north of England. The 3
English monks who founded St. Louis Abbey and the Priory School
on Mason Road
came from there over 50 years ago. Basil Hume was their Abbot when Pope Paul VI
reached over the heads of all the English bishops to make him Archbishop of Westminster
and later a cardinal. In June 1999, when he knew he was dying of cancer,
Cardinal Basil wrote these words:
“We each have a story, or
part of one at any rate, about which we have never been able to speak to
anyone. Fear of being misunderstood. Inability to understand. Ignorance of the
darker side of our hidden lives, or even shame, make it very difficult for many
people. Our true story is not told, or, only half of it is. What a relief it
will be to whisper freely and fully into the merciful and compassionate ear of
God. That is what God has always wanted. He waits for us to come home. He
receives us, his prodigal children, with a loving embrace. In that embrace we
start to tell him our story. I now have no fear of death. I look forward to
this friend leading me to a world where I shall know God and be known by Him as
His beloved son.”
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