From the fig tree learn this lesson – its tender branches and its fresh leaves tell us summer is near. For us falling leaves and bare branches sign us that winter is on its way. Get out our woollies.
What are the signs in our times that warn us of future troubles? The increase number of hurricanes, the loss of shore lines, prolonged dry hot seasons and forest fires, melting glaciers, polluted oceans, these are all signs that things are changing in the world in which we live. What is the lesson these signs want us to learn? Could it be; smarten up? You are in trouble?
The world summit in Glasgow on climate change is an important event. Concerned young people from around the world gave and heard speeches about possible disasters that will impact their futures. World leaders gave great promises to change our dependency on fossil fuel and made promises of economic help to poor countries.
Everyone had to admit we are running out of time to really and drastically change the ways we live on planet Earth. But let’s face it; there hasn’t been that much change, drastic change in our life styles of consumerism and wastefulness, and our dependency on fossil fuel, since the Paris Agreement in 2019
I could scare you to death with all kinds of statistical woes but all you have to do is read the newspapers to find out how bad things are. Are we really serious about the drastic changes in our lifestyles required of us if we are to survive? Are we trying to live simply on Earth that others may simply live? Or are we leaving it for the next generation to clean up the mess we leave them, are we kicking the can down the road?
There is another way we can hear today’s gloomy gospel, that is to hear Mark speaking to every generation, including our own. Each of us will have our own ‘end time’ namely our own death and our generation pass away, like those before us… Can we hear Mark not so much warning us about the future end of the world but rather telling us how to live this day, this moment, this life? Right here, right now is our time to bear fruit, right here, right now, in our time, Mark is telling us to live today as if it were our last day, loving as we’ve been loved, forgiving as we’ve been forgiven, and healing as we’ve been healed. It’s all about right here, right now.
Jesus once said to people who worried about the future problems, ‘sufficient for the day is the evil there of’. For us here and now can we hear, sufficient for the day are the possibilities there of? The possibility to be more accepting of men and women different from ourselves, the possibility to be there for friend or stranger, the possibility to act kindly, live justly and walk humbly before our God. The rest is in the hands of God
This Homily entry was posted on Sunday, November 14th, 2021.
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