Today is the first Sunday of the new liturgical year, that year is B and we will be looking at the Gospel of Mark. Mark is my favorite gospel because it is the shortest. That is not because it can be read in less time, but that it is one the gives you the bare bones of the scene and you have to add the rest of the image. Therefore, in Mark, every word counts.
Today’s gospel should all set the tone for the rest of the year. I am beginning my third liturgical year with you, the first two are really about preparing for the rest of our time together. So today is a good day to look at where we are going this year as the Catholic community on what I will call the Sea St. Peninsula.
In youth ministry, there is a saying: Who is the grown up here? That means the youth minister better be the one who is grown up. I do not like it when people brag of having a youth group run by the world’s oldest teenager. I always say if he is the world’s oldest teenager he better be nineteen-years old about to turn twenty. Those Ferguson businesses burnt to the ground because the national guard was not there, and in that scenario they were the grown up. Do you understand how disturbing that is when without a form of martial law, no one is the grown-up?
Jesus tells us that we are the sentinels, we are the gatekeepers, we are the servants. That means that we are the grown-ups. We are the ones whose job it is by our lives to point to the fact that we are not the end all and be all of existence on this planet. Is not that what Jesus is saying? If We run this planet as if there is no God we will run it into destruction. However, the minute we stop and realize that we are not the gods we say we are, and that there is someone greater than we are who is holding us accountable, then everything changes.
That is why you are here. You have been called to be the ones who show the world that we are not the end all and be all of existence and we are not the ones who have all the answers. God is our King and He is the grown-up here. It is to Him and Him alone we have our loyalty, for He alone has the greatest love for us. Without you, humanity believes that we have accountability to no one.
One of the most powerful pieces of information that I remember is that Dietrich Von Hilldebrand, a German Catholic critic of the NAZIs said that he knew Germany was in trouble when there was a loss of a sense of the eternal. Most in the country were asleep and you see the results. The worldly sentinels there that should have been awake to sound the alert of trouble were deep asleep, they were government, university and media. In this country, we lost a sense of the eternal back in 1980’s. These same groups government, university and media have been asleep for a long, long time. We are the sentinels who are on alert while the world sleeps.
Once there is a loss of a sense of the eternal, we fall into the position of believing we are accountable to no one. This leads our nation down an ominous path of which what we saw in Ferguson, Missouri is just an example. The greatest parable of this reality is The Lord of the Flies, which also played itself out this weekend.
In the Book of Genesis, we also see parallels, there you will see the story of Sodom of Gomorrah. Why were those cities destroyed, it was not because of sinfulness per se, it was because of the lack of righteous people in those cities. They were accountable to no one and fell into total chaos. No one was there to counteract their anarchy.
You are the servants, the gatekeepers, the sentinels. You are those who speak out and warn that we are not the end all and be all of existence. We are accountable to Our Lord, Jesus Christ who seeks our salvation. However, even He can do nothing for us if we choose to reject the notion that we are accountable to Him. In today’s Gospel, Jesus is warning that He will come back and we must be ready.
Jesus may not come back tomorrow and our world may not change overnight, our own personal world does often. How many have had the experience where some intense event happens and our world is changed forever. Maybe it is the sudden death of a loved one, a sudden change of life, like a heart attack or a car accident, or another event that changes our life immediately. It can catch us off guard. However, when we are rooted in Christ, we can survive even such a drastic change. Others are lost in bliss until the life changing events happen and they never recover.
When your world changes, where do you draw your strength? This is what Jesus is saying to us. Draw your strength from the Lord, rest in Him and his power, but also His wisdom and you will survive the radical change including the greatest radical change, your death and rebirth into eternal life. Go on your own and you will be lost, physically, emotionally, ontologically.
Everything we do in this Church as minor as it may seem, is an important message to the world, Jesus is the King, He is our God. He has come to save us from damnation which is when we are lost in eternal, narcissistic chaos. Be ready for his return and live in His sovereignty. Without that message Ferguson, Missouri becomes the norm. A world without Christ fails. Period.
If you can imagine the sentinel on the wall, he represents not only the man on guard, but also the one who knows the blissful life in the city can change in an instant if the team of sentinels is not alert. The enemy will come over the wall and rob and steal. Indeed, one reason the enemy does not come over the wall is because the sentinel is there.
The sentinels in that sense of today are men and women throughout the world sitting in jet fighters ready to scramble at a moments notice.
You are the sentinel in the spiritual sense. You are the ones who remind others the world can change in an instant, but if they trust in the one in whom you trust they will go through it with Christ at their side; if not, they may fall victim to that change.
What you do here is important, how you live your life is important. Be alert and live your Catholic faith powerfully. Be prayerful, study the bible, say grace at meals, be a family that prays. Pope Leo XIII taught the importance of praying the Rosary for the strength of the Church and to go to mass every Sunday. This you do when you are awake. This is how you show the world that you are on alert. Some will get the message. Those who do not will stay asleep until they wake up to their worst nightmare.
Stay awake and practice your Catholic faith to be the sentinel Jesus calls you to be. Let us this year wake up those around us who are asleep in false complacency, drug abuse, worldly ambition and more. We are the sentinels who are on alert while the world sleeps.
God Bless You,
Fr. Robert J Carr
Fr. Carr is an alliance member of the New Song Community (Canção Nova). He is the pastor of Holy Trinity Quincy, MA and is the editor of this blog. He is the author of several books, blogs and hundreds of videos all of which you may find at his website. He also has a regular radio program on WebRadio Canção Nova. Which he podcasts on Mixcloud and here on Catholicismanew.
You can follow him on twitter as @frbobcarr. Thoughts, comments on the homily? Let us know atFacebook