+ Thirty-Third Week in Ordinary Time

Saturday November 13, 2004

“Eternal Consequences”

The rash of “survivor” TV programs over the last few years has attracted, according to the Nielsen ratings, a wide viewer audience. Shows range from trips into remote locations in foreign countries on a diet of worms and insects to Orwellian type group escapades in which participants confined to close quarters over an extended period of time attempt to survive without killing one another. And there are still others that exploit basic human instincts to see how long it takes to succumb to sexual provocation of one kind or another. This type of program has been honored with the title “Reality-TV.”

I’m not sure it is attempting to capture reality or create it! I suspect it’s the latter.

It is astounding what people will do for a monetary award or reward and even more astounding to consider how easily “cultured viewers” can succumb to a crass voyeurism. A far cry from the upward bound programs for young Christian leaders of four decades ago, these insipid episodic encounters tend to present less than the noble ideal toward which cultured Christians or any cultured persons for that matter should strive.

Several years ago a young theologian in a presentation to lay ministers unpacked what he referred to as a “survival kit” for Catholics. The first item that he pulled out of his bag was a Bible. He said to them: “Don’t just read this book but get to know its author real well. It’s full of survival stories for people who are serious about life on this earth and intent of life in the hereafter. Some people read the Bible and come to some rather bizarre conclusions. Many of us study the Bible with the aid of a commentator or commentary which is always preferred but I wonder how well we know its author.

The Scriptures contain many survival stories and what we might call survival prophecies. Malachi “the realist” is author of one of the survival prophecies. His name means messenger. It was his task to describe what the “Day of the Lord” might be like for the just as well as for the unjust. It was his contention that the way believers act has everlasting consequences. The day of the Lord’s coming was a euphemism for the end times for all or the end of life for the individual.

In another section of his prophecy, using metaphor, Malachi enumerated factors that would determine if the day of the Lord would be experienced as a “blazing oven” of retribution or the “healing rays of the rewarding sun. The list includes laxity among the clergy, shallow worship among the congregation, the withholding of tithes, insincere religious practice, and social injustice, the last of which was considered an essential component of sincere faith and worship.

The implications of this list are clearly reflected in the New Testament, especially in Matthew, Chapter 26, in which the measure of final judgement is the manner in which we have treated our neighbor. Jesus insisted that the love of God and love of neighbor cannot be separated. There are no “cheap graces” for those who claim to live in the dominion of God.

Luke’s Gospel connects many of the apocalyptic stories bouncing around the Jewish communities at the time of Jesus and shortly thereafter. Luke combined these stories with the sayings of Jesus and created his own survival stories, an example of which we have just heard.

The temple at the time of Jesus was one of the wonders of the world—a spectacular achievement. Josephus the Jewish historian described it in these words: ”…lacking nothing that could astound either mind or eye. For, being covered on all sides with massive plates of gold, the sun shone upon it with a radiance so fiery that people straining to look at it were compelled to avert their eyes, as from the rays of the sun.” It was almost as if it mirrored the face of God.

I expect for some it came close to being a replacement for God. Had they been written at at the time, the words of the poet John Keats might have been quoted by those who lived within the rays of the temple: “A thing of beauty is a joy forever; its’ loveliness increases. It will never pass into nothingness;” like the Titanic, the ship which even God could not sink!

It was against this background that Jesus’ words are quoted by Luke in today’s gospel passage. It doesn’t take much to appreciate the listener’s shock at Jesus’ prediction. Of course, when Luke wrote these words, the temple had already been destroyed in a savage atttack by Rome. It is said that well over a hundred thousand people were slaughtered in the attack. Luke was making the point that the dominion of God could not be destroyed because God’s dominion was not confined to the temple. It was to be found in the incarnate presence of God in Jesus. “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” He was referring of course to the temple of his body, not the temple of gold and stone. The people did not understand this “reality check” voiced by Jesus.

Those who live in the dominion of God must be prepared to forsake all earthly power and surrender to the power of God. This of course is an overstatement of a point to make the point. Our final destiny will not be determined on the beauty of the “temple” but on the beauty of the living temples not made of stone. St. Paul calls the “Church” the “Body of Christ” made not from brick and mortar but from living stones. We are temples of the Holy Spirit. Moreover, to live in God’s dominion will be costly.

In our wildest imagination, who would have thought that the World Trade Towers could crumble on September 11, 2001? It surely was not the work of God any more than the destruction of Jerusalem was the will of God. God is not a savage warrior but a saving redeemer who builds up what the nations destroy.

Nations still bear arms “for the sake of the Gospel” and I suppose our present warfare can only be justified as blind madness in the face of absolute madness. They who preach the pure Gospel may still be hauled into court “by mother or father, brother or sister,” because they seem at odds with the prevailing political rhetoric. War is the ultimate denial of the realities that sow the seeds of hatred and our young pay the price.

November signals the beginning of the end of the Liturgical year. Advent signals the beginning of a new year of grace. We are challenged to re-think our membership in the dominion of God and re-commit ourselves not to the building of an earthly kingdom but to a building not made of stones by human hands; to a community made of human hearts by God. It’s a costly investment of time and energy but one that has everlasting consequences.

As we continue to struggle with the Gospel of peace, we pray that the God of peace will prevail in the hearts of all people and that the teaching of Jesus will dominate our pursuit of justice.

The words of the English poet, Rupert Brooke, cast current events in a different light:

“We have found safety with all things undying,
The winds and morning, tears of men and mirth,
The deep night, and birds singing, and clouds flying,
And sleep, and freedom, and the autumnal earth.
We have gained a peace unshaken by pain forever.
War knows no power. Safe shall be my coming and going,
Secretly armed against all death’s endeavor:
Safe though all safety’s lost; safe where men fall;
And if these poor limbs die, safest of all.”

To which the biblical commentator, William Barclay, adds: “The man [sic] who walks with Christ may lose his life but he can never lose his soul.”

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