When the Soviet Union fell, I remember an article on Vatican Radio that told the story of a group of parishioners who went over to the wall at their Church that had been stripped of its Catholic identity. But they pulled off the wallpaper and revealed all the fine art present there before it was ordered destroyed.

 

You see, the parishioners had tremendous hope in God, more hope than they could have had in the permanence of the Soviet Union and knew there was a time that they would see their church again. So the secretly covered everything to make it look like the old art was destroyed. It was just hidden. They were true people of hope.

 

This is what we see Jesus teaching in today’s Gospel: If we are going to live the gospel, the sign of our faith is that we are people of hope.

 

In order to be people of hope, we need to have our priorities straight. So the parable is about prioritizing what is important in your life and then acting on it.

 

He is calling us to rely completely on God to get rid of those material things or worldly honors that are just distractions to what is most important, our relationship with God and then to let our light shine before the world. St. Augustine taught our good works are the lights that shine for the world.

 

This is who we are, we are the people of hope in Christ. It is the core of what we are, people who recognize that if we have Christ, then there is no worry about anything else. He teaches us to be disciplined to learn this so that we can trust in him fully. We can then do his work, for we learn to fear nothing in our service to Him and to value nothing more than our place in His kingdom. We allow him to educate us through his Church and his saints. We embrace the life he gave us and let him use the experiences of our life to form us.

 

No matter what happens, we know that our treasure is in Heaven and the Lord is leading us there. We need only seek to turn from sin every day and grow closer to Him by doing his will. No matter what happens in our life, that is the most important.

 

However remember what I said, we are people of hope.

 

Have you looked around about lately? You will see some trepidation in our world. I am reminded about a movie that came out in the seventies that told the story of the Orson Welles’ broadcast of War of the Worlds, which you may remember had some people believing that we had been invaded by martians. According to the writer of the movie, the reason people believed Orson Welles’ radio play was they were already on edge because of concerns in the world.

 

I think, we have a similar atmosphere now. People are deeply concerned about the future of our country. Generally, what I am hearing is that people do not want either candidate and they have trepidation of the future of the country regardless of who wins. I am obviously not allowed to say who I am thinking of voting for, however, speaking other languages I know that there is trepidation and concern over the results of similar situations in other countries and concern those situations will happen here.

 

Of course, understand the media may be fabricating some of this for their own reason. I say this because according to media reports about Brazil you’d never understand what kind of a beautiful country it is and you  would assume they all live in trees. I am sure the same dynamic is playing itself in the election.

 

Yet, listening to the words of Jesus, we remember that our hope is in Him and his promises. No matter what happens with the election, no matter what happens in the world, Jesus teaches that none of that matters unless your hopes are there. However, if your hopes are on Christ then ultimately, it is time to stop  being afraid and to trust in the Lord and all he is doing in our lives.

 

This can be difficult, because situations come up that can be scary to some and terrifying to others, but where is your hope and trust? Is it in the Lord or is it in the world. If it is in the world, then you are standing on an unstable platform, if it is in on the Lord, then even if everything changes, no one can take Christ and his stability from you, no one.

 

St Paul teaches that nothing can separate us from the love of God, so there is your trust.

 

This is the time for us to look at our priorities because people look to us as their hope and God has appointed you as their hope by your baptism.

 

Billy Graham is one of many people world wide who proclaim that there are great changes possible to happen in our world and that all the signs are there, I hear the same from sources in different parts of the world. In a time of change people are filled with fear and anxiety, but Christ has called you to be lights that shine in  the darkness and to show people the path to hope who is Christ himself.

 

As he teaches, it is time to prioritize our life, always be ready to encounter Christ and to grow in our vocation of hope and light to those around us.

 

We listen to Christ today and we seek to do this will and by doing so, we give people the path to stability that they are not finding in  the world.

 

St. John Bosco taught to be ready to meet Christ always . Get rid of anything in your life that will lead you away from Christ, give away anything that you will never need again. Give alms which covers a multitude of sins and go to confession. Always be ready to meet Christ, say the saints, and do that by making your discipleship your highest priority. Turn from sin, embrace Christ, develop habits and ways of living that teach you to grow Him, by prayer, spiritual reading and living your faith and be a light to those in the darkness of trepidation.  

God Bless you,

Fr. Robert J Carr

Fr. Carr is member of the Segundo Elo  of the Canção Nova Community. He is the pastor of Holy Trinity Quincy, MAand is the editor of this blog. He is the author of several books, blogs and hundreds of videos all of which you may find on Youtube.  You can follow him on twitter as @frbobcarr and on Google plus as+FrRobertCarr. Thoughts, comments on the homily? Let us know at Facebook