REFLECTION Sunday´s Gospel

33rd Sunday of Year C

(14 Nov 2010)

Fr James McTavish, FMVD

Keep smiling!

We are coming to the end of the Liturgical year. Next Sunday is the celebration of Christ the King, then we will be entering Advent already. The readings today call us to perseverance, to keep on smiling in the difficulties and not to give up. To keep running the race until the finish line. Once in a school race I was leading the 100 metres sprint. Just before the finish line I raised my arms in a precocious celebration of triumph. Imagine my humiliation when a slower rival lunged for the finish line and narrowly edged me out of first place. The Gospel today reminds us “By your perseverance you will secure your lives" (see Luke 21, 5-19). Perseverance is essential in our Christian lives. One enemy of patient endurance is impatience. Pride makes one impatient whereas humility helps us to persevere until the end. Let us beg for the grace to be humble, to keep our head down especially in the middle of the battle.

The readings today invite us to be watchful and vigilant. Jesus talks of the signs of the end of the world because some people were taken by the beauty of the temple. He tells them that the temple will be destroyed and so they ask him when. Jesus response invites us to vigilance and reminds us that as Pope John Paul II said while commenting on today’s gospel “when our road seems hard and laborious, when fear and anxiety seem to prevail, it is especially then that the Word of God should be our light and strong support.” God speaks to us on our journey through his Word, which is a lamp for our path and a lamp for our feet. How wonderful if the Word could be our strength for the journey as Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus exclaimed “No sooner do I glance at the Gospel, but immediately I breathe in the fragrance of the life of Jesus and I know where to run.”

Drawing strength from the fragrance of the Word allows us to persevere in the struggles. They are like sacred smelling salts to revive the soul. Perhaps you have seen a person who has been overcome being revived by placing smelling salts under the nose. At times we need this spiritual reviving also to being us back to life. To not lose our smile in the challenges. Mother Theresa gave the following advice in difficult moments: “Whether Jesus wants to give or take...or when your nothingness frightens you, give him a big smile!” There is an action song we teach in our activities and it is entitled “With Christ in my vessel I can smile at the storm”. One day this week when I was feeling stressed I received a text message asking me if I was still smiling and at that precise moment I was not and it reminded me not to forget to smile! How about you? Are you still able to give Jesus a big smile in the difficulties?

It is interesting in the Gospel today the purpose of all the calamities and disasters described. What do they all lead to? To the opportunity for us all to give witness to our faith! Jesus says that all these trials and struggles “will lead to your giving testimony.” How wonderful to view the unexpected struggles, both external and internal, as moments to give testimony, to show our love, and most of all to persevere. St Augustine wrote in his Confessions “Is not human life on earth a time of testing? Who would choose troubles and hardships? You command us to endure them, but not to love them. No-one loves what he has to endure, even if he loves the endurance, for although he may rejoice in his power to endure, he would prefer to have nothing that demands endurance. In adverse circumstances I long for prosperity, and in times of prosperity I dread adversity.” The lives of the Saints are really testimonies of endurance, of perseverance until the very end. St Teresa of Avila said “dream that the more you struggle, the more you prove the love that you bear your God.” She realized that impatience makes us suffer all the more and as an antidote advised that we “watch carefully, for everything passes quickly, even though our impatience makes doubtful what is certain, and turns a very short time into a long one.”

Jesus reassures us in the Gospel not to worry too much about our defence as he will give us the necessary wisdom, and even if we are put to death by our ‘loved ones’ (as sometimes those closest to us inflict the most painful blows!) and hated by all because of the name of Jesus: “You will be hated by all because of my name, but not a hair on your head will be destroyed. By your perseverance you will save your lives."

Let us pray like many of the Saints for the gift of Holy perseverance. Actually perseverance is part of the virtue of fortitude. Fortitude is not only necessary to begin an action with courage but to sustain it, until the end. Often to endure and purse a difficult path, seeing it through to the end is more difficult than just initiating it! Of course we need each other to persevere. It reminds me of the three men stranded in the desert. They come across a genie in the lamp who grants them one wish each. The first wished to go home to his air-con, his family and a cold ice-tea. Pow! And he was gone. The second wished to be on a beach with a cool breeze blowing and an ice cold orange juice in his hand talking to his wife. Pow! And he was gone. The third was reflecting. He was not married, no family. His companions would be busy now with their families. “Now I feel a bit lonely, how I wish my companions were bhere again”. Pow! They came back. We need each other, and especially to persevere. May our good Lord, our best friend and faithful companion strengthen us in the hour of battle and help us to persevere until the end. And in the heat of the struggle don’t forget to look at Jesus and give him a big smile! Amen.