RENEWsletter for November 15, 2009 - 33rd Ordinary

Dear Friends of Renewal--
It is written, "People don't live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God" (Deuteronomy 8:3, Matthew 4:4, Luke 4:4). The words in this week's readings are good words, though they speak of a time we cannot yet relate to. These are "apocalyptic" words... words that tell of widespread devastation... cosmic upheaval... the end of time and space.

Yet they are reassuring words as well. Take a look at the readings for the 33rd of the Numbered Sundays. You'll find them on the web at http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/111509.shtml, and in your Bible at:

Daniel 12.1-3
Psalm 16.5, 8, 9-10, 11
Hebrews 10.11-14, 18
Mark 13:24-32

The Book of Daniel is one of those Scriptures that comes closest to the type of literature we today call "science fiction". The term "science fiction" is a misnomer and there have been many alternative suggestions for a name for the genre... "alternative future fiction", "speculative fiction", etc. But the First Reading, whether "science", or "alternative", or "speculative", is not "fiction". It's the Word of God.

Daniel was shown a time "unsurpassed in distress since nations began" (Dan. 12.1), a time of universal devastation.

This kind of cataclysm may have happened previously... that is before nations began. The dinosaurs were destroyed by the widespread devastation and cosmic upheaval caused by the collision of an asteroid or giant comet with the earth some 60 million years ago. And today NASA and several observatories are engaged in a search for "Near Earth Objects", objects whose orbits cross that of Earth, posing the threat of a potential collision event. There is a Twitter account called Asteroid Watch that monitors these NEOs. The latest one whizzed by us November 6 and was about 22 feet in diameter. It came within 8700 miles of us.

But, says Daniel, everyone who is found written in the Book, will escape (v. 3).

The psalmist picks up this theme of escaping destruction in the Responsorial Psalm. "You will not abandon my soul to the netherworld, nor let your faithful one undergo corruption" (Ps. 16.10). No, the inheritance of the faithful is a future of joy in the presence of the Lord (v. 11).

That's all well and good for the "faithful", but... gee, we're human, we're sinners, we're unfaithful sometimes... a lot of the time! Don't worry. The Second Reading assures us that performance isn't a requirement. It's the attitude of heart. The desire to please the Lord, itself, pleases the Lord, as Thomas Merton once said. The writer of Hebrews asserts salvation is not our doing, but Christ's doing (Heb. 10.12). His one sacrifice offered for sins took care of the issue. He has made perfect forever those who are consecrated (v. 14)... those who are written in the Book.

The verses that are left out of the reading are especially comforting for us who may live to see the Apocalypse.
15 The holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying:
16 "This is the covenant I will establish with them after those days, says the Lord: 'I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them upon their minds,'"
17 he also says: "Their sins and their evildoing I will remember no more".

Sins that are no longer remembered, that are forgiven, no longer need to be paid for (v. 18).
The Gospel Reading carries Jesus' own words about the End Times. He speaks of cosmic disruption of the natural order: the sun will be darkened, as will the moon. He speaks of widespread devastaton: the stars (asteroids?) will start falling from the sky (Mark 13.24-25). Then the triumphant Jesus will be seen coming in the clouds (v. 26), coming for his people, the faithful, the ones written in the Book and made perfect forever not by their own effort, but by the consecration accomplished by Jesus' death and resurrection ages before.

We are not given to know when this will start occurring. Even Jesus himself was not informed (v. 32). But we can watch the signs. The illustration of the fig tree sprouting leaves when summer is near (v. 28) shows us that we will have a clue when the end times are near. When we "see these things happening" (v. 29), we will know. We have the technology to compute precisely the orbits of celestial bodies. We don't yet have the technology to change the course of several hundred cubic kilometers of rock and ice. The Asteroid Apophis, predicited in 2004 to have a small chance of hitting the Earth in 2029, is about 1,100 feet in diameter. Currently the chances of this rock hitting our planet have been refined to about 1 in 250,000. But should an NEO be discovered with an orbit that intersects Earth, and a size large enough to cause widespread devastation, we will know that the end is near.

The end? No, the beginning! The beginning of eternity in joyful fellowship with the God of all creation. Not something to fear. Something to look forward to. Those words that proceed from the mouth of God, that we live by, will not pass away, even though the heavens and the Earth will (v. 31).

Randy Jones
"Those who cannot see the signs say the world will last forever!"