This is the time of the liturgical year when the mass readings focus on the end times in preparation for the end of this liturgical year and the beginning of the next one on the First Sunday of Advent. The Alleluia Verse offers a good perspective on today’s readings. “Alleluia Stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand.” Luke wrote his Gospel around the year 60, some thirty years after Jesus was crucified. The difficult times he talks about had already happened. He writes them in his gospel to encourage others, including us. As we read these passages and look at history, as well as our own days now, we see he was spot on. We are living in difficult times. Jesus’ message and way of living were difficult and unpopular while he lived, and they certainly are unpopular in our own day. The majority report sees this Gospel passage (Luke 21:5-19) as a reminder of this.
With respect what the Gospel says about world events, the minority report is how any of us hear the Gospel speaking to us in our own everyday living. To some with other points of view, this might seem a bit on the weird side, but it is a person’s experience, in this case, mine. While we might be disturbed about world or national events, few of us are directly impacted by them. We are more concerned about our own living circumstances, because this is what we really know. Redemption is living in our difficult times, accepting them, and looking for the light that is there. I seek “Enough light to see a divine sense in this mad world, and enough faith to follow the light” (“Clowns of God”, by Morris West). Also, in the First Reading from Malachi, “But for you who fear my name, there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays”. So my today always is a good place to begin again, asking for the light. Here and now is real. What was and what is to come are not real. I encounter Abba in what is real if I am open to it. I might not like what is going on in my life circumstances, (and I really don’t) but they are my reality, which means they are where I find Abba. So, a worthwhile question is always, Abba, what are you saying to me here?
Redemption happens because Jesus lived his Abba’s love among us, and invites me to share in it as I live each day. It is not an event that happened a long time ago, but a living relationship that continues with me/each of us every day. Jesus Christ made it possible for us to grow to the fullness for which we are created. It is an ongoing process if I choose to consent to it. It is not something that is forced upon me. My response to this happens in the choices I make, and it is a way of understanding salvation. I don’t have to worry about living the Gospel on a grand scale, the world scene, the majority report. I am asked to live the Gospel in the minority report, with the folks I encounter every day. Be there for and with others. Maybe going to the drug store because my neighbor needs some TUMS.
This is how the Gospel happens — redemption, salvation. Redemption is from Jesus Christ, who makes possible my everyday journey of salvation. My salvation happens with others, such as my neighbor who needed the Tums. In a sense this resembles combat, where my well-being depends on my guys, as their well-being depends on me, or young courageous Dust-off pilots flying into hot LZs to evacuate the wounded. Taking care of each other, being there for and with each other. Everyone in my life at any time has the same right to expect the Gospel from me, but hopefully in a less dramatic manner. In cooperation with grace, this is how I work out my salvation. On patrol, with Jesus walking point point and I’m walking slack, trying to be aware of my surroundings and the signs of the times. He knows where the trip wires are and I certainly don’t. This is true for all of us, with perhaps different terminology. A lot of this good is happening without religious ideas or terminology. Abba is not limited to our terms and ideas.
These days my everyday living includes an increasing relationship with nitroglycerin pills. It moves me to another awareness of salvation and redemption, whether or not I want to look at it. This experience leads me to an awareness of other people who are experiencing cardiac difficulties or other dire situations. It has changed my relationship with folks who have life changing medical situations. I’m coming to insights of their situations from inside my own. To me this is a gift of Abba. About an hour ago I had another unpleasant “reminder’ of my ongoing salvation which involved nitro. The uncomfortable minutes between taking the nitro and feeling its effects offer interesting and occasionally deep thoughts and insights, as well as peace, because there’s absolutely nothing I can do about whether they work or not. In a sense life with its finality is becoming ever more real, and worth pondering, Wouldn’t change a thing.
“By your perseverance you will secure your lives.” I have a sense that I’m being asked to work harder, to be more alert to my surroundings, open and available, more radically depending on Abba’s grace and less concerned about my comfort and convenience, and trying to be open to the Spirit, asking that as I make my many choices every day I be able to choose whatever better leads to Abba’s deepening life in me. Today unexpectedly has already started moving in this direction. So much of my salvation seems to be just being there for folks I meet every day, the ones I know, and the ones I don’t know but may, in Abba’s providence, run into at any time. To quote Meister Eckhart, “When I seek God with something I have in mind, the best I get is the something I had in mind”. I need to be ready to be surprised. So when I ask for the light I have to be careful that I have not already decided what I want to find. This would not be a good thing.good.
I have a sense that Abba is asking me to let go of something, but of what I don’t know. Maybe being a bit freer with my time, slow down a bit as I walk around, not being in such a hurry. Again walking on patrol, with Jesus walking point and me walking slack. Don’t know why I just wrote all this. It’s been an interesting morning. Wouldn’t change a thing. Just sayin . . .