• Malachi 3:19-20. The day is coming, blazing like an oven, but for you who fear my name, there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays.
• 2 Thessalonians 3:7-12. Paul worked day and night, laboring to the point of exhaustion. All Christians should earn the food they eat by working quietly.
• Luke 21:5-19. The temple will be destroyed… signs and wonders in the heavens… persecution… yet do not worry about your defense. It will be given you what to say. By patient endurance you will save your lives.

Thoughts for your Consideration: By John Gonzalez

I am not sure why it surprises me when I get depressed after glossing over the newspaper headlines or listening to the opinionated pundits that inundate radio and TV. Comedian John Stewart recently told many activists “These are hard times, but they are not the end times.” His calming message during the recent “Rally to Restore Sanity” was a welcomed message for those of us who are struggling to turn the tide of American fundamentalism and political extremism. In these times of fear and disillusionment his words seem to be out there in the wilderness while the message of fear and distress continues to saturate our primary media outlets. What are we to do in times like these?

The Gospel readings for this week tell us that we are to be patient in times like these. Furthermore Jesus and Paul tell us that we should adopt a pragmatic perseverance during this era of deception. Malachi and Jesus tell us that the Kingdom of God will indeed come into this world, and when it does supreme justice and equality will triumph. Many believe that signs of war and famine will be a prelude to the end but in the Gospel Jesus tells us “do not be terrified; for such things must happen first, but it will not immediately be the end.” Instead we are told that many will deceive us by taking advantage of these times with their own plans based on either their own self-righteous pride or an evil and self-interested agenda. We are not allowed to be deceived by these simple political or social solutions. We are instead told to persevere in following Christ and to exemplify the healing love and immeasurable compassion that Christ exhibited to all members of the human family.

This may sound like a very nice and gentle approach, but keep in mind that through this approach Jesus won persecution and death by the Cross. In the Gospel Jesus warns us that in following his example and by not allowing ourselves to be deceived by extremism we too will face persecution. Sadly, for many of us, this persecution will not come from any obvious enemy but from family and friends. By living and preaching a message of forgiveness and compassion it will not be foreign extremists that we will have to fear but our own countrymen who will feel that we have betrayed them in reaching out to others the message of God’s great love.

For the most part St. Paul and the Apostles were persecuted not from foreign invaders or occupiers but from their own Jewish community. In a time of great distress the Jewish community sided with the extreme factions of their community, the Zealots and the Sicarii. In the end they rallied the Jewish community to rebel violently against the Romans. This was the warning that Jesus gave his disciples, to not join these extreme factions. History has gone on to prove that Jesus was right. The Zealots achieved nothing but the complete destruction of Jerusalem. The Christians followed a different path, and although they suffered great persecution at first, their perseverance eventually won them the amazing conversion of the Greco-Roman world.

The example of St. Paul the Apostle in the second reading is based on honesty, integrity and hard work. Our way is to live by example. Through integrity and honesty in how we live our lives with fidelity to the Gospel message of universal love and compassion we will be transforming agents of God’s love to this world that is driven by fear and anguish. Many will complain about us and we will suffer insults and persecutions but as Jesus tells us “By your perseverance you will secure your lives.”

Thoughts for your consideration: By Stephen Dunn, CP

Modern people seem to have a difficult time with the fantastic imagery of apocalyptic scenes such as these readings present; “a time of anguish, such as has never occurred since nations first came into existence”; “after the time of suffering, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light…” But actually, we are surrounded by a whole genre of contemporary literature we call “sci-fi”, so why should that be?  Of course we don’t associate the Scriptures with fiction, maybe that’s the issue.  On the other hand, sci-fi arose in order to imagine something we sensed or feared was going to be true (disaster plots) or hoped could be true (utopian plots).  In either case there is a link from the fantastic future back to the menacing or hopeful present.

It might be helpful to put two images side by side.  The first would be “Dr. Strangelove” the disaster plot describing potential nuclear world-wide disaster (apocalypse) unleashed by a rogue, indeed mad, military general – a story line which had strong crediblility during the years of the cold war.  The second is the event we’ve been celebrating recently, the collapse of the Berlin Wall – redemptive for us, apocalyptic for the Soviet Union.  We never imagined that it might happen as it did. Rather, we got confronted by a real event that was hardly imaginable. Not capable of being forecast, it participates in the uncertainty of “day and hour” of apocalyptic images.

The liturgical readings are affirming this unique  “Berlin Wall” reading of apocalyptic signs.  Forces are in play assuring an end to the evil we suffer. The “end time” is in-the-making and we are free to embrace those forces.  We Christians have identified them as the on-going work of the Spirit of Christ in our midst; the power of the Resurrection.  Like the forces that brought down the Berlin wall, they go unnoticed by the negative structures of our society.  They are nourished in good will rather than bad… discovered more in song and art and religion than guns and coercion and violence.  In the image of Jesus’ parable, we are asked to learn the lesson of the fig tree: like the signs it gives of summer approaching, even the worst negative things we can imagine will still signal the ultimate bringing down of the “wall” of evil.

Someone has noted, however, that, unlike the situation in Jesus’ time, our imaginations are tormented, not by the cosmic cataclysms that in that day were felt to need divine agency to occur: “the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light and the stars will be falling from heaven,” but the apocalyptic scenarios we ourselves have put in play. Only now do we realize that cosmic dynamics are being triggered by human actions.  They are quickly taking over.  What we had the power to start we will not have the power to stop.

Just one example: the biosphere of the Earth has developed, over the last 65 million years into a flourishing of life forms biologists have called the Cenozoic Era.  It is over … as a result of our own doing.  In the opinion of leading biologists, we are creating the sixth mass extinction of life that the Earth has endured.   Human activity has produced a genuine “end time”. It is a sobering thought as the nations of the Earth prepare to convene in Copenhagen to discuss climate change.  Thomas Berry has said that our hope for the future is to strive toward an “Ecozoic” Era to succeed the Cenozoic: an age of “mutually enhancing relationship” between the Earth and its humans.  In a way it is making new use of the parable of the fig tree.  When we see all the signs of cataclysm we should remind ourselves to look for the “signs of summer”… of new life, and seek to preserve the tender branches so that they can put forth their leaves.

Like the forces that brought down the Berlin wall, the forces of reverence for all creation are alive in our midst, although unrecognized within our prevailing world view.  The Spirit, giver of life, is our guarantee of hopefulness.  We do not know the “day or the hour” when creation will come to its fulfillment, but we know we are called to participate in the Spirit’s on-going creation of a “new heaven and a new earth”.