33rd Sunday HOPE!

A brief history lesson.  In the 70’s, the 1970’s not the 1870’s, the United States experienced the Oil Embargo, and then later began to worry about the world supply of Oil. It would run out in the next century!!!!!!!! That was the panic. A movement began to begin to conserve, to find alternative sources and to use what we had more efficiently. Today, look at the expansion of solar, electric vehicles, of way more efficient machinery.

Also in the late 70’s into the 80’s, ACID RAIN and our polluted lands. Our clothes would burn off our bodies, forests were dying. LA air was horrible, the panic! A movement began to care for our planet, to reduce air pollution, to clean up the environment. Today, look at the progress we have made.

Today, Global Climate Change, White Supremacists and the rise of Nationalism, rise of Russia, rise of terrorism…Always something that can scare us.

The best words my spiritual director ever gave to me: “DON’T PANIC”  When we do not panic, we can think it through and take action.  When we take action, we can remediate and heal. We have control and are not controlled.

Personally, this is great advice for us.  Because, aside from world wide events...what really gets us and to us, and really effects us are those events that directly involve us: broken hearts, serious illnesses, bad grades, death, depression...

We will all have those moments when it seems that our world crumbles down around us, that we feel so isolated, so alone, that not even our families care nor friends…  What do we do?

We hold onto HOPE!  This is our Gospel, this is the Good News!  Never are we abandoned. Never are we alone. Never does and never will God abandon us.

Ponder this Gospel. Jesus speaks of horrible events; events that when Luke wrote this Gospel had already happened. Yet, this is not about seeing or predicting a specific future.   This is about Jesus speaking to our human condition and the reality of sin that exists in the world; this is Jesus speaking to the the hurt that it can cause us, and the hurt we can cause.

This is Jesus speaking to those with hearts broken by betrayal.

This is Jesus speaking to people rejected by families.

This is Jesus speaking to people rejected by society.

Have HOPE! You are Loved. You are a child of God, there is always a way through.

But, this is not a magic act.  This is reality. Jesus has already prepared for us, and we must take action on that preparation.  Jesus has prepared us by teaching us forgiveness, teaching us compassion and humility; he has prepared us by showing us the value of generosity.  We are prepared because of love.  Therefore, when our lives seem a mess, DON’T PANIC, but take action on what Christ has given to us.  Hold onto that we are ALWAYS THE CHILDREN OF GOD.  Choose to be those children of God, and work to forgive, work on compassion…  Take back control and find that HOPE.

It is amazing the transformations I have witnessed through the Gospel of Hope.  Marriages on the brink of destruction have come back, because of Hope.  Broken Hearts from break ups have gone on to find the love of their lives: because of that Hope.  People with so much hate in their lives have found peace and acceptance of others, because of Hope.

And how people find that hope is not magical either.  Someone helped them to see, to find it. Someone prepared in Christ has helped others to see HOPE and take action.  

See, this is our mission as Jesus’ disciples, as Christians.  We prepare ourselves in Christ, not just to prepare ourselves against the heartache of life, but more importantly so that we can go to those who are heartbroken, and bring them the Good News of Hope.

Think about Catholic Relief Services and Catholic Charities and all the work we do through these Catholic organizations, to help those heartbroken by poverty and disasters.   Think of the many Religious Women and Men who listen to the brokenhearted and help them to see beyond their pain.

And this is the mission of us all!   All of us who are baptized, our true power is that we are immersed in Jesus Christ and his teachings, and his death and resurrection, and we go to anyone who is heartbroken, and we listen. We hold them. We walk with them. We love them.  Hope, it is the summit of our Eucharistic Celebration. 

The high point of the mass is when the Consecrated Host and Wine, now the very real body and blood of Jesus are raised High, and We Say through him, With Him and in Him, to you almighty Father, in the Unity of the Holy Spirit. All Glory is yours forever and ever. To Which we all respond with the great AMEN!

See, we raise HOPE.   Because although killed through human sinfulness, God’s love for us will never die. Jesus rose. Hope.  We are a people of the Eucharist, because we are ultimately people of Hope. 

And we must live out that Hope, for this world.  We must transform this world into the Kingdom of Heaven, in which Hope, Love and Justice reign.  This is the Action of all of us.  And we will take Action, we will Hope in the very real and concrete lives we live.  And we will prepare ourselves in Christ…???