Memorial of Saint Martin of Tours, bishop
It amazes me, despite passages like today's gospel (Luke 17:26-37), how much time people spend trying to predict the exact moment when Jesus will come again. We saw this most recently this year with the Project Caravan group and the followers of Harold Camping. I tend to think that if you wanted to, you could read the Book of Revelation and predict that tomorrow is THE day.
But today's scripture cautions strongly against that. Jesus here describes the end of the world by reflecting on other scriptural passages where the end of the world happened, at least so far as the people in those stories knew. With Noah and the flood, Jesus notes that people were just carrying on as usual. Same thing with Lot and his wife. What signs predicted the end of the world? Not much at all. The end sneaked up on them - life continued on as quite ordinary, until one day things changed in a split second. It will be the same when Jesus comes again, he says. Some will be working, some will be sleeping, some will be preparing a meal. In other words, everyone will be in the midst of their very ordinary lives when the bottom will just drop out and life will never be the same again.
The thing is, isn't Jesus describing something that matches what we ourselves have experienced in our own lives? I remember I was watching my "usual" show when I got the news that my grandfather had died. I was in the middle of cooking a meal when I heard that my dad was in the hospital. I was at work when I learned that a close family friend had passed away. In each of these situations, my world did not continue as it had before. I had been living ordinary life, but now that ordinary life as I knew it had abruptly changed.
What makes the difference, Jesus suggests in the reading, is how we respond to the abrupt changes that face us all through life. When Jesus describes the person on the rooftop whose belongings are in the house, he says that person must not go back to get his belongings. In other words, that person must not go back and try to retrieve the clothes and food and stuff of the old life. That old life will not return.
What is needed, instead, is a realistic response to the present situation. This is partly what I think the author of Wisdom is about in today's first reading (Wisdom 13:1-9). The author writes about people who seek for God and God's wisdoms in the working of the world, but they get so focused and attached to those things that they lose sight of God. Instead, Christians are asked NOT to get too attached, precisely in order to see God better. God will not remain tied down to the things of this world.
When the unexpected presents itself, Jesus asks us to be malleable enough to respond well to each new event, and not to hold on to the old , because hanging on to the old way leads to death. Well, I don't know about you, but the unexpected happens in my life nearly every day! I am called to die to my old life nearly every day, and to become a new person, conformed to Christ nearly every day. So are we all!
I am reminded of my favorite story about St. Martin of Tours. When he saw a beggar in need of a cloak, he cut his own cloak in half and gave one part to the beggar. Note that Martin did not give the whole cloak to the beggar, for that would have meant that now the beggar was warm and he was cold. Rather, each of them had to learn to live with half of a cloak and that bound them together far more, and spread the justice around a bit more. St. Martin responded to the unexpected, in unexpected ways.
As Christians, we do believe Jesus will come again some day, but we also believe we do not know the day or the hour. We prepare for this unknown unexpectedness by learning to respond well to the daily unexpected events of our very ordinary lives. As we face unexpected events today, may we be free enough to let go of the old in favor of seeking Jesus always.
- Jana M. Bennett