One of the difficult aspects of being a pastor is always having to think in terms of the worst case scenario. The parish decides to plan an event and the people look forward to having a great time, but the pastor also has to think in terms of what might go wrong and things do. It is a difficult way to plan things out. I look at a space and have to think if something might endanger people if a problem is not addressed in every aspect of what we do.
I do not know if all pastors do this, but I believe we do. I learned this practice when we had to prepare for going to sea in the Navy. We had to think of the worst case of scenario to make sure we were prepared.
Today Jesus is telling us to do something similar, to beware of the signs that trouble is brewing. He relates it to the agricultural community which surrounded Him. We all know the signs of an ominous storm coming. I remember when I was living in the desert for a couple weeks, I was in an area that enabled me to see the curvature of the Earth similar to what one sees when in the middle of the ocean. One day a real ominous storm came from the horizon and I knew I had to be prepared for a powerful weather event. Fortunately, we did not have tornadoes, but the warning was there that trouble was coming and it did.
When we look at Jesus warning us of the signs of the times, we need not look to the sky waiting for an asteroid to fall, or look at the news to see what earthquake scientists are predicting. Granted things like that could happen, but they can always happen that is not the sign of trouble.
The true signs to inspect are those that do, in fact, surround us. They are the signs that people are redefining the human being and whole cultures are deciding for themselves what is true and what is not. When people proclaim as truth, what ultimately is not. The greater sign is that many follow these false signals and we are left wondering if anyone can actually see the storms that are coming over the horizon, they appear not to see them.
There are those who are bringing up that the world looks ominously similar to 1936 which, with the Spanish civil war then, set the scene for World War II. I first heard these ideas on the John Batchelor Show here in the US. Many within the Catholic community have warned over and over again that we are walking down to a path in which our faith will be vehemently rejected. Indeed, there is controversy in this country about a television program, yet to debut, that is viciously anti-Catholic in its mocking of the the Virgin Mary and the faith. In Brazil, the world’s largest Catholic country there is a TV network that has produced a commercial promoting legalizing abortion that mocks the Virgin Mary. There many Brazilian Catholics are upset and the Americans Catholics, if they saw it, would be even more upset as well.
However, Jesus calls us to know the signs of the times and how to react with them. We can look at it that way.
I have come to believe that one of the tenets of Atheism has been disproven. World Class atheists including one at a local (Massachusetts) university proclaim that we do not need God to understand right from wrong. However, we have found that there are people with full support of our government and educational community and even the media who are harvesting unborn children and using their body parts for scientific experimentation that is lucratively funded by grant money. I have not heard one of the these world class atheists claiming that is wrong. Their most important moral tenet has been disproved.
Read the signs of the times. The Biblical and non-Biblical history is filled with cultures walking down the paths we are and only through God’s intervention do they remain or still exist. Most have not benefited from this intervention. The signs are there and Jesus is telling us to see them and turn back to him. He is also telling us to beware of those who are blind to them. He wants us to wake them up.
Clearly, as we approach Thanksgiving and then Christmas it is a good time to repent of those things that blind us to the reality so that we too can see what is ahead be prepared and when it is time to sound the alarm to call people to repent while there is still time.
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 on Youtube. He also has a regular radio program on WebRadio Canção Nova. Which he podcasts on Podomatic and here on Catholicismanew. You can follow him on twitter as @frbobcarr and on Google plus as+FrRobertCarr. Thoughts, comments on the homily? Let us know at Facebook