St. Dominic Catholic Church

2002 Merton Ave | Los Angeles, CA 90041 | (323) 254-2519

Homilies


33rd Sunday Ordinary Time B

Johannes Stöffler, a respected German mathematician and astrologer, predicted that a great flood would cover the world on February 25, 1524.

On that day all of the known planets would be in alignment under the zodiac constellation of Pisces, the fish.

Hundreds of pamphlets announcing the coming flood generated a panic.

By mid-January 20,000 people had left their homes for higher ground.

The German noble Count von Iggleheim built a three-story ark for his family.

When the morning of the 25thof February began with a light rain, the crowd that had gathered outside von Iggleheim’s ark became hysterical.

They stormed the ark, trampling the Count to death in the process.

Obviously the world did not end in a flood that day.

It was, however, the end of the world for the Count.

 

The passage we heard in Mark’s Gospel comes from a longer passage in which Jesus foretells the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans.

They chose not to believe in Jesus, the prince of peace, and within 40 years - a generation - a misguided Jewish revolt against the Romans ended in disaster.

The city was besieged and eventually overrun.

The magnificent second temple that had stood for 500 years was utterly destroyed.

The citizens of Jerusalem were either killed or sold into slavery.

 

Jesus uses imagery similar to the prophets Isaiah, Joel and Ezekiel, for whom darkened stars and shrouded sun and moon symbolized the calamities that come to those who reject God.

The part of the prophecy we hear also alludes to the return of Jesus in judgment at an unknown time in the future.

Notice – an unknowntime.  

Predictions about the precise date are always wrong, so pay no attention to them.

But pay attention to the prophecy.

Because what happened to Jerusalem can happen to us.

Part of the reason Jerusalem fell was because its Jewish defenders were divided against each other; so divided, in fact, that they ended up burning their own food supplies.

This is not a good idea during a siege.

 

It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see how perilously close our own nation is to self-destruction.

Secularism, moral relativism, nationalism and xenophobia have unmoored us from God and are setting us against each other.

 

And why not apply this apocalyptic vision to ourselves?

God made us for Himself; we were made for a relationship with Him.

That relationship is expressed in constant prayer – asking for guidance, offering thanks, admitting our weakness and sin, offering petitions for others, praising God for the beauty of creation and the wonder of our own being.

Our relationship with God is nurtured by the sacraments in which we receive healing, forgiveness, God’s love.

In Mass God speaks to us in the scriptures and Jesus himself is with us and gives himself to us as food on our pilgrim journey.

The fact that all of this is so easily given makes it easy to take for granted.

It is easy to drift away from God.

Our prayers aren’t answered the way we want, so we stop praying, or, worse, seek help from a faith healer (a mga albularyo) or fortune-teller (mga manghuhula).

We place our hope in money, or a new car to impress our neighbors.

We want the thrill of a Laker or Dodger victory, or a windfall at the casino.

We begin to depend upon our “common sense”, which is formed by secular values.

Pride creates ruptures in our relationships.

We fall into gossip, we are easily insulted and hold grudges. 

We become bitter, anxious, and isolated – living in a world where even the LA sun is darkened and the stars invisible.

 

Like new leaves on the fig tree signals the beginning of summer, these are signs that our relationship with God is weak or dying.

Just as the people of Jerusalem experienced a calamity, we are headed for personal disaster if we drift away from God.

Because all of us eventually will face the tribulation that is our own death.

And if in our lifetime our choices said we didn’t want or need God, then death will simply set those choices in concrete.

 

Each day gives us new opportunities to reach out to our Father in heaven, to seek Jesus His Son, to ask the Holy Spirit to guide our prayer and our choices.

Faith, which is a relationship, takes effort and commitment, like any relationship.

It requires us to change our priorities todayto include prayer, scripture reading, and continual reflection on our choices.

We should feel the same kind of urgency as the count Von Iggleheim who believed that a flood was coming.

We should take Jesus as seriously as the 20,000 Germans who left home for higher ground.

Because with each passing day, our own death is one day closer.

And on that day, whom we loved and what we valued in this life will be revealed and determine our eternity.