Thirty-third Sunday – Ordinary Time Cycle C
Reflecting on Luke 21: 5-19
My friend Joanie was the first of my friends to have a baby, way back in the early 1970s. I still remember how shocked I was that she was ignoring all the signs of the times―the recent famine in Biafra, the war in Vietnam, the oil embargo, the Palestinian terror attack at the Munich Olympics, the eruption of Mt. Etna.
In every age, bring life forward
How could she possibly think about having a family when Jesus’ prophecy about the last days was clearly being acted out on the world stage? Wars, famines, terrorism, volcanos. Surely things could never get worse. Also, hadn’t she read the very same reading assignments I had at school? The world would run out of clean water and air by the time we were in our forties.
But as the years went by, something even more shocking happened. All of my friends started having families! I was stunned at their hopefulness, their faith-driven optimism that God is the God of the living, and their vocation was to bring life forward.
And that’s what finally compelled me to learn how to read Scripture. Of course. Luke’s Gospel today is timeless, and Jesus was absolutely right. In every age there will be all those dreadful things. And in every age, Jesus is Lord of all who hope in him.
Sharing God’s Word at Home:
In what ways do you experience a tension between faith and fear?
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I have come to light a fire on the earth; how I wish it were already burning (Lk.12:49).