But The Wise Shall Shine Brightly

This is my bulletin article for the 18th of November

 

                  The apocalyptic signs that are presented to us today are a reminder that we need to remain vigilant in our fight against Sin and Evil.  It seems that when we hear about approaching catastrophes and calamities, we begin to reflect on our lives, and even promise to do better.  But this lasts only for a time and then we are on to our next crisis.  But Jesus warns that we must be aware of the signs that are around us, and be willing to make real change and transformation in our lives.

                Just as a test, ask your family and friends what they are doing for the Year of Faith, or how they are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Vatican II.  We are encouraged to watch and to live the sacredness of our lives.  In a few weeks we will have a group of second graders receiving the sacrament of Reconciliation.  It would be sad if the very next time they receive that sacrament is when they are preparing for Confirmation as  High School students.  Or how is it that catholic young people, well beyond the changes in the sacrament of anointing, still ask for "last rites?"

                My great-grandmother came to the U.S. with her family, and a dozen or so relatives,  around 1920.   They had fled the aftermath of the Russian revolution.  They went from New York, to Chicago, and settled in Rockford.  We would hear bits and pieces of the journey they took which was pain filled and fraught with unknowns.  When we went to her house, especially in the summers, Grandma Soroka would sit in her rocking chair praying the entire rosary.  I have to think this is what gave her peace throughout her life - a life of prayer and reflection.

                It is hard to be prepared for the anxieties and concerns of life if we do not have a relationship with Christ Jesus.  More so if our understanding of our faith is one-dimensional, or we do not know or understand, what and why our faith teaches as it does, all the more difficult it is to articulate what we believe in, or to make those moral decisions which intrude upon our lives.  Be assured we will have to make decisions about finances, health, sexuality, commitments, and faithfulness.

                Sin and Evil, which are very real, are the de-creation of our relationship with God and with others.  If God is only a special compartment of our life, a distant uncle who, we go to in need, then we stand like the naked trees of winter, cold and shivering, waiting for the sky to fall.  But if we can begin to realize  that God is always at work around, that we too take an active role in our faith lives, as God labors to bring us into harmony within and around us.  Of course the important reality is whether or not we believe that we belong to God, by God's creation for us from the beginning and leading up to our final ending. 

                God is always ready to make something more of us than we can make of ourselves.  Living with God forever means that we receive and imitate the life of Jesus today.  Our worship is in spirit and in truth as we maintain a life of ongoing transformation and conversion.  Like Jesus we strive to be lifted up out of Sin and Evil, and hold onto the promises of a loving merciful God.  So that our light might shine brightly for all of the world to see.