Summary of a Fr. Gerry Creedon homily from November 18, 2007
"Stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is near at hand." Luke 21:28
The Scriptures today anticipate the feast of Christ the King. They focus on the end times, when "there will not be left a stone upon a stone." At the end of all, when the world is wrapped up, we will be held accountable before the Coming of the King. "But for you who fear my name, there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays." It may be a little harder for us to get our minds around the end of all, than our own personal end.
I recall when my father died suddenly at the relatively young age of 73. My mother felt the bottom had fallen out of her world. For months she was paralyzed by grief. Gradually, she emerged a changed person. My father was gregarious and outgoing by nature. My mother preferred the shadows. She learned to reach out to others and offer hospitality even to strangers. My mother was always inclined to confront issues, and that caused divisions. My father often took the role of reconciler. Without him, my mother assumed the role of reconciler and peace-maker in the family. Out of our endings come new beginnings.
Recently a sister and her husband received news that he had a terminal cancer. My brother-in-law has far outlived his prognosis. Last week my sister talked with me about a visit they made to the Amish Country north of Toronto. Over lunch, sharing a moment of intimacy, she realized with poignancy that this might be the last time they made this visit. In the awareness that each month and each week and each hour is precious, their affection for one another becomes more apparent. For retentive Irish males, that is transformation.
As a church, we are called to account in the light of the coming of the Kingdom. We reassess where we spend our time, our skills and our resources.
I am reminded of the poem: "When I consider how my life is spent, Ere half my days in this dark world and wide Stand with me useless, Though my soul more bent to serve therewith my Maker, lest he returning chide.."
As the leaves of Autumn swirl around us let us not lose a moment that the Lord God has given us. May we live more fully and more intensely. Let us enthusiastically spend our resources and our lives for the promotion of His Reign.
P.S. The second reading from St. Paul contains the challenge; "Nor did we eat food received free from anyone...work quietly and eat your own food." Despite that instruction at Thanksgiving, we offer 25 turkeys free of charge to needy families. Yet we acknowledge the wisdom in Paul's words. While we feed the hungry, we need to work for the day when we end hunger. In the Outlook section of today's Post you will find a provocative article "Canned Compassion". It puts Thessalonians into contemporary language. The writer argues that food banks will never end hunger. If all the energy that volunteers put into emergency assistance were redirected to policy changes, such as ordinances for a living wage, we would end poverty, and the poor would have the income needed to feed themselves. That is exactly the goal of our second collection to support the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. While we offer donations to "stuff the turkey," we also advance the cause of self help.