Not long after I was ordained there was a program on TV, a chat show, which had four young priests talking about their experience of priesthood and the Church today. I was one of the priests. If I had known more about the program I probably wouldn’t have gone on, as it was the kind of program where they would address all the most controversial issues and could really throw you to the lions. However, we spent an afternoon with a professional communications man before-hand, and that made all the difference. As a result, it turned out to be a very positive presentation of the Church.
After the program was aired, I was really struck by the response that I got from people. Many of those who wrote to me or phoned me, were priests and they nearly all had the same thing to say: they were delighted to hear people being so positive about the Church. They were greatly encouraged. It gave them hope. It made me realize just how much people are looking for hope, how much we need hope. We need a reason to get up in the morning. We need a reason to keep going when we are suffering and our reason is that we believe in God and in what God has promised us. We seem to live in a world of despair, where all we hear is bad news, how many people have been killed, where the latest war is… Is it any wonder so many young people have committed suicide? They have no hope, they think there is nothing to live for and they despair.
Looking around us at this time, it would be easy to think that God has lost the battle and that Satan has won. Evil has been victorious and God has been defeated. Could this be possible? Of course not. God cannot be defeated, ever and we must realize this is true. Even if we can’t understand why there is so much evil around us at this time, be sure of this, God is still very much in control.
One way that we can be sure of this is through the Scriptures, the Bible. The Word of God is truth, not just nice ideas, because it comes from God. It is God speaking directly to us, in our present day situation. In many places in the Bible, it says that God will not be defeated. In the beginning of St. John’s Gospel it says, ‘The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not/cannot overcome it.’ (John 1:6)
The first reading of the mass today is a reading of great hope. It is a reading that is often read at funerals. It is God’s promise to us his people, that He has great things in store for us, beginning in this life, but fulfilled in the next and that is what gives us hope. ‘The Lord will prepare a banquet for his people’, party, a feast. That is God’s promise to us. So even if we don’t see that in this life, it still awaits us, which gives us the strength to keep going.
You might say that it’s fine to quote the Bible, but how does that apply to us in the ordinary things that we do each day? We don’t seem to see any of these promises. It doesn’t mean that everything is suddenly alright, and all our problems are gone, but it does help us to see things differently. I’m sure that during the First World War and the second, that people asked where God was. The same is true of every war for those who are caught up in it.
The Apostles were unstoppable because they had learned to rely completely on God and not on their own strength. If they continually focused on the world around them, which had just as many problems, they probably wouldn’t have gotten very far. But their focus was completely on God and that is why their work was so fruitful. They didn’t dwell on the chaos around them. We are being invited to do the same. There was only twelve of them to start with and yet look what happened.
Our hope is in God and that’s why even if someone is suffering terribly, or sick and even if they die, we don’t despair, because we know that God has not abandoned us. We believe that we will see them again, because this is God’s promise to us. We have hope because we believe.
In the Gospel we are presented with another parable. God is inviting everyone to his kingdom, worthy or not. Although everyone was invited, regardless of their social background, one man gets in without a wedding garment. The wedding garment would have been provided, so it means that he was casual, indifferent. He made no effort. That is also a reminder that we cannot be casual about being accepted into God’s kingdom, presuming that it doesn’t make any difference how we live.
In the book of Revelation (Apocalypse), the Spirit says to the Church in Loadicea: 'I know your works; you are neither cold nor not. I wish that you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth' (Rev 3:15-16). The is no room for indifference when it comes to the things of God. We can never be casual. We are either with Jesus or not.
A few days ago I read something that one of the big music celebrities said, which was blasphemous. She said that she could do whatever she wants (and she was talking about sexual immorality), because Jesus would forgive her anyway. She was boasting about it and it was blasphemy. It is not what the word of God says. In the prophet Isaiah, the Lord says, ‘Woe to the obstinate children, says the Lord, to those who carry out plans that are not mine… adding sin to sin…’ (Is 30:1). God will not be mocked. He knows our hearts and there is nothing we need be afraid of, so long as we are trying to live as He asks, but God will not be mocked. Think of the man who came into the wedding feast with indifference, not bothering to make an effort. He was thrown out.
During times of chaos, such as the times we are in right now, it is all the more important to focus on God, not on the storm going on around us. Otherwise it is easy to be over-come with fear. The Lord is with us no matter what happens and that is our hope.
‘The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it’ (John 1:6)
No comments:
Post a Comment