Word to the Wise
Friday, November 29, 2013 - Friday in the 34th Week in Ordinary Time
[Dan 7:2-14 and Luke 21:29-33]Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
It is a common consolation to say in the midst of all kinds of disaster: "It's not the end of the world, you know!" Sometimes, that advice is hard to take when a principal source of meaning and action is destroyed and one is left with the task of recreating one's "world!" This was certainly the case with the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. Luke composed his gospel less than 20 years after that event, and the future seemed rather uncertain. However, he recalled Jesus' prophecies about these events and Jesus' promise that the Holy Spirit would make sure that his "words will not pass away."
In recent years, we have learned the hard way that the expression, "to big to fail," is simply untrue. Jesus' tells us that "heaven and earth" will pass away but not his words! It is faith in those words that will maintain us in all kinds of natural or manmade disasters. An earthquake or a wrecking ball may destroy anything we can make, but they cannot unmake Jesus' words or our faith. It is in that sense that we know that our "world" will stand long after "heaven and earth" have passed away. AMEN