Homily
33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time C
17 November 2013
Christ the King Topeka
Year of Faith
Readings
Jesus points us this weekend to the immediate apocalypse To the real and ultimate apocalypse. The only apocalypse that really matters. The apocalypse of the heart.
Jesus puts an end to the nonsense. For our own good he says enough. He says rightly that organized religion doesn't have all the answers. Even the glorious Jerusalem temple will be thrown down. He predicts rightly that wars and storms will come and go. Kingdoms will rise and fall. Ideas and religions will emerge and fade away. The world will be turned upside down over and over, but none of this is the end. The algorithms to predict the apocalypse are too complex for anyone to know. Everyone who has tried to predict the end has been wrong. He says rightly not to pay attention to prophets, or rulers, or philosophers or scientists who try to pretend to know more than they really do.
Jesus instead points his disciples to a much more important apocalypse . . the apocalypse of the human heart. The apocalypse that is always here and always now . . the unveiling of our hearts. St. Paul tells us in the second reading to stop getting caught up in gossip, jealousies, and idleness, when we are to be about the work of finding and fulfilling our ultimate mission in life. He tells us to get to work. Jesus tells his disciples plainly to take courage and to enter into martyrdom.
Jesus reminds his disciples that the drama taking place in our hearts and minds is much more important than the drama taking place in the clouds or on the television or in the newspaper. Of course I do not mean to downplay the real storms and dangers people face. There are terrifying wars and natural disasters happening all the time. They are real to real people. Still, we control very little of what comes to us from the outside. To be human is to be vulnerable. Jesus reminds us that the storm and battle we ultimately choose is within . . being played out in our hearts.
Jesus reminds his disciples that the real and ultimate battle never comes from the outside - the real battle, the one that is always there, is an immediate and personal one. To be human Jesus reminds us is precisely to be capable of sacrifice . . even to the point of shedding our blood. This is the apocalypse, or the unveiling of the human heart . . to explore the depths of love. Jesus reminds his disciples that they are capable of nothing less than giving witness, of being a sign of the love and truth that are the ground of existence, and the only things that can endure when the world passes away.
The real apocalypse then, the only that is happening always and everywhere, is the apocalypse happening within us right now. It is the battle for our true identity and the battle of the heart. It is the battle to find a mission, and to give our lives to something and someone bigger than us. It is the obedience born of love, and for the Christian, a precise following of Jesus' command to love others just as he first loves us. This can only mean for the Christian the potential of martyrdom when the world opposes a truth and a love and a person, our Lord Jesus, that we know to be the ground of all existence. To be Christian can only mean entering into the apocalyptic battle of loving and giving witness no matter what opposition might arise, even to the cost of shedding our own blood.
Jesus tells us plainly, and of course always and forever for our own good, that the apocalypse is never in the future. It is always now, or it is never. For one who chooses the apocalypse before the apocalypse chooses them, of course there is no fear of what may come. The way of ultimate love is to choose death long before death chooses us, and to give our lives in witness to a love that is stronger than death. Amen.
33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time C
17 November 2013
Christ the King Topeka
Year of Faith
Readings
Jesus points us this weekend to the immediate apocalypse To the real and ultimate apocalypse. The only apocalypse that really matters. The apocalypse of the heart.
Jesus puts an end to the nonsense. For our own good he says enough. He says rightly that organized religion doesn't have all the answers. Even the glorious Jerusalem temple will be thrown down. He predicts rightly that wars and storms will come and go. Kingdoms will rise and fall. Ideas and religions will emerge and fade away. The world will be turned upside down over and over, but none of this is the end. The algorithms to predict the apocalypse are too complex for anyone to know. Everyone who has tried to predict the end has been wrong. He says rightly not to pay attention to prophets, or rulers, or philosophers or scientists who try to pretend to know more than they really do.
Jesus instead points his disciples to a much more important apocalypse . . the apocalypse of the human heart. The apocalypse that is always here and always now . . the unveiling of our hearts. St. Paul tells us in the second reading to stop getting caught up in gossip, jealousies, and idleness, when we are to be about the work of finding and fulfilling our ultimate mission in life. He tells us to get to work. Jesus tells his disciples plainly to take courage and to enter into martyrdom.
Jesus reminds his disciples that the drama taking place in our hearts and minds is much more important than the drama taking place in the clouds or on the television or in the newspaper. Of course I do not mean to downplay the real storms and dangers people face. There are terrifying wars and natural disasters happening all the time. They are real to real people. Still, we control very little of what comes to us from the outside. To be human is to be vulnerable. Jesus reminds us that the storm and battle we ultimately choose is within . . being played out in our hearts.
Jesus reminds his disciples that the real and ultimate battle never comes from the outside - the real battle, the one that is always there, is an immediate and personal one. To be human Jesus reminds us is precisely to be capable of sacrifice . . even to the point of shedding our blood. This is the apocalypse, or the unveiling of the human heart . . to explore the depths of love. Jesus reminds his disciples that they are capable of nothing less than giving witness, of being a sign of the love and truth that are the ground of existence, and the only things that can endure when the world passes away.
The real apocalypse then, the only that is happening always and everywhere, is the apocalypse happening within us right now. It is the battle for our true identity and the battle of the heart. It is the battle to find a mission, and to give our lives to something and someone bigger than us. It is the obedience born of love, and for the Christian, a precise following of Jesus' command to love others just as he first loves us. This can only mean for the Christian the potential of martyrdom when the world opposes a truth and a love and a person, our Lord Jesus, that we know to be the ground of all existence. To be Christian can only mean entering into the apocalyptic battle of loving and giving witness no matter what opposition might arise, even to the cost of shedding our own blood.
Jesus tells us plainly, and of course always and forever for our own good, that the apocalypse is never in the future. It is always now, or it is never. For one who chooses the apocalypse before the apocalypse chooses them, of course there is no fear of what may come. The way of ultimate love is to choose death long before death chooses us, and to give our lives in witness to a love that is stronger than death. Amen.
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