33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time are:

1. Malachi 3: 19-20a
   
2. Psalms 98: 5-6, 7-8, 9
   
3. 2nd Thessalonians 3: 7-12
   
4. Luke 21: 5-19

• What continues, what doesn't
  
• When we suffer loss, whether it's a loved one, a ministry that we have devoted ourselves to for years, someone special in our lives moves on, we wonder whether there is any part of what is gone that we can still benefit from.  By contrast, evil, in all of its manifestations, always comes to a complete end.  Just maybe not soon enough for us.
  
• What is an evil that you wish could end today?
• Are there evils that in one way or another contribute to that?
• Are any of those root causes anything that you can do about?
• If not you, then who?  If not now, when?
  

• Ruling the world with justice
  
• Politics is the second oldest profession.  That doesn't say much for prostitution.  Just rule seems like a distant possibility, a fantasy even for some.
• Why is just rule so difficult?
• When was the last time that you prayed for a politician?
• How can we contribute more as a community to just rule?
• Do you have to be an activist to effect change?
  

• Earning your bread
  
• All work is essentially creative, bringing to life something new, building a new tomorrow that was only an idea before.  As such, all of us are called to work in this life, to join our hands with God's in the ongoing work of emerging creation.  It doesn't really matter whether you get paid for it.
• How has your work made the world a better place?
• Do you have any regrets about how you spent your career?
• How did you get into that work in the first place?
• How has that work changed you?
  

• What matters
  
• Long Beach State lately banished the statue of the 49er to an obscure part of campus because he had become an embarrassment.  The 1849 gold rush brought fortune seekers to California in droves, and they stopped at nothing to wrest the precious gold from the land, often trampling the ecology and the indigenous peoples.
• A monument doesn't have to be a statue.  It could be an institution, a way of doing things, even a person.  In each case, it stands for something that endures, or that we hope will endure.
• What are some monuments in your life?
• If one or another of them disappeared, what would that do to you?
• How would you mourn their loss?
• Do they really have eternal value, or is it something that the monument points to that has eternal value?
  

• Preparation for Reconciliation
  

1. Where is God offering me the courage to combat an evil?
   
2. How can these two hands of mine bring some measure of justice to the world I live in?
3. In what sense is my work sacred/holy?
   
4. Do I worship anything that is not enduring, not eternal?

When it ends

We like to think that things that matter, the really important, the good

Will last forever.

And when it doesn't we wonder -

Was it as good, life-giving, holy as I thought?

Was it just time to move on?

Had I gotten too attached, and God granted me freedom?

Mourning a loss is therapeutic,

Reflecting on the good times, being thankful for the blessings,

Stoking the embers of hope that tomorrow has blessings all its own,

Waiting for me to step into them.

But still, you have to wonder -

Do things have to change so much, so often, so violently at times?

Why couldn't God just leave well enough alone,

And grant some comfort once in awhile?

Is that asking too much?

 

Shalom!