Fr Billy Swan
Dear friends. As we come to the end of the liturgical year, the Gospels become difficult to interpret, even scary. In today’s text from Mark, Jesus predicts a time of distress for the world when the sun will be darkened, the moon going dim and stars falling from heaven. And when these things have happened, then he will come again. But what on earth does he mean?
First, it is important to consider how his audience would have heard these words. For the Jews, the sun, moon and the stars were fixed, never-to-be-moved points of reference for everyone, especially travellers and sea-farers. So when Jesus talks about these un-movables changing and falling, he is warning people that all that they have taken as given before will be upended. He is telling them that new points of reference are about to emerge and a new world order is about to be established. And in this new world order, the fundamental points of reference will no longer be the sun, moon and stars but the words of Jesus himself. He and his kingdom of justice and peace will be the axis around which the world will turn. This is why he says: ‘Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away’.
Turning to modern times, how can we interpret this and what is God saying? The first question we might ask is what are the points of reference in our world today? What are the points of reference in my life and yours? For the world, the economy is a big point of reference for it controls how much money we have. As we saw in the recent US election and the election here, who is in political power is also an important point of reference. After the Second World War, institutions such as the UN were set up as points of reference and agents of a peaceful new order where the terrible events of the war would not be repeated. However, I often worry about how ineffective these institutions have become as we see with the current wars. I also worry how much our lives are being controlled by big tech and vested interests. Are we setting our watches against a clock that doesn't have the right time?
At a personal level, we might ask the question of what are the points of reference in our lives? Around whom or what do our lives turn? Where do we look to for our values and guidance to know what is true and false, what is right and wrong? Is our thinking constantly being shaped by the present culture and all the things that others say and do? Aren’t prevailing opinions the criterion by which we all too often measure ourselves? Do we not perhaps remain, when all is said and done, mired in the superficiality in which people today are generally caught up?
Friends, all these questions have to do with the falling away of reference points that change and a re-set on God and his kingdom that cannot change. Yes, any such transition will be painful but that is what God does – He upends things that are not right in order to make them right. That is what Mary reminds us of in her Magnificat. God ‘scatters the proud of heart and raises up the lowly’.
Today is the 8th ‘World Day of the Poor’. It is a day when we are asked to hear the cry of the poor, including the weeping of children. The current points of reference the world has in place, have failed them. There are signs everywhere that something is wrong – signs like the devastation of climate change, wars, terrible poverty and shocking indifference. That is why God will change the world order to recognize the poor and help them. And in that new kingdom, the points of reference will be God, his Word and his kingdom that will endure forever.
Christ came into this world to establish a new world order. For this he lived, suffered and died. He came to re-order our lives and the world to how it should be. By ourselves, we humans on our own are incapable of doing this. We can’t save ourselves. So as the Church’s year draws to a close, may our reference point always be God, his Word, his kingdom of justice, peace and the poor who will no longer be forgotten in the new world that God is making.
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