Homily Notes 33rd Week of Ordinary Time 2018
33rd Week of Ordinary Time/ “Triumph of Goodness”
Was Jesus a pessimist? We could surely ask that when we read the Gospel today. He speaks in Apocalyptic terms. His words are kind of scary. Jesus, of course, is not a pessimist. He is an optimist. Maybe we misunderstand him because we misunderstand what apocalyptic teaching is all about.
We who live on the earth always live in difficult times. How many tragedies have we observed just in the past few months? Just think of natural disasters we have seen. At the present time we have wild fires in California. The people living through them describe fires that roared through their neighborhoods in moments. Homes were burned to the ground. Cars literally melted as people tried to drive away. About 100 people have been declared dead. 1,000 people are still unaccounted for. We are left to wonder why this happened?
We remember the hurricanes that hit in several states. The Carolinas endured days of torrential rain. Flood waters ravaged homes. Pollution was washed into streams. After that, Hurricane Michael blasted through the Florida panhandle. The winds it generated flattened a whole town as well as many other homes all along the coast. The storm surge was tremendous.
We saw the pictures of these horrendous events. We then hear the words of Jesus describing the natural disasters that will come upon the earth. We wonder are we heading towards the end of the world? But Jesus reminds us that “no one knows the day or the hour.”
But Jesus also proclaims a mixed message in the gospel. On the one hand there is his frightening predictions. On the other there is reassurance. One symbol he uses is the fig tree. In chapter 11 vs. 12 of the Gospel of Mark we read about Jesus walking past a fig tree on his way into the temple. Jesus goes up to the tree looking for fruit. He finds none. He curses the fig tree. A few verses later when his disciples walk by the tree on the way out of the temple. The tree has withered. The subtle message is, that worship of the temple has not produced much that is positive. The temple will be destroyed, which indeed happens. All of this seems so dark and foreboding.
But then we Jesus points to the fig tree again later, in the Gospel that we read today. He does not point to it as a symbol of doom. Jesus points to it as a symbol of hope. Sap rises in the tree in the spring. New shoots come forth. New life will come out of devastation. Perhaps his disciple needed to go back and look at the fig tree again, to see its rebirth. Jesus says be alert to the hopeful signs around you.
We could say, “What is hopeful about all the suffering people are going through?” We could ask, “Have we looked for encouraging signs?” A doctor told a story on the radio of fleeing the wild fires in California. When she got stuck in a traffic jam because of the all the cars leaving. Cars that were melting around her she got out of her car. She ran along the road until she was met by a fireman. He came out of the smoke and the ash. He led her to his truck, but they were still trapped. Suddenly, an earth mover came on the road pushing cars aside, so the fire truck could make its way to safety. The woman said the man in the bull dozer was a hero. After her wrenching experience the doctor went to the emergency room to treat the patients pouring through the doors.
Another story has been shared about a makeshift community set up in a K-mart parking lot. People from the same burned out neighborhoods gathered in makeshift town sharing resources. One woman said just the fact that she had familiar faces all around her reassured her. Everyone in that makeshift city has rediscovered the importance of community.
Apocalyptic literature is not, in the end, about evil doers coming to a terrible end. No, it is about Gods exaltation of goodness; the fireman who saves a family, the heavy equipment operator who takes his life in his hands to help others to safety, a community of people who support each other through a disaster.
The apocalyptic point of view says the worst of times will give way to the best of times. The apocalyptic mindset is attuned to the goodness of the Spirit working amid chaos.
Jesus was an optimist. He was an optimist that was nailed to a cross. His world collapsed, but he had hope through it all. He hoped in the goodness of humanity. He believed in the inevitability of a new and better world. Our challenge is to try to live with that same hope.
Please note, this is a rought draft, grammar may not be perfect.