This past summer, we had a few thunder and lightning storms that were so scary for my kids, the whole family ended up crowding together in one room. We sang songs, told stories, had snacks, and occasionally looked out the window to see what was going on.

 

I am reminded of those stormy moments when I read today's scriptures, which are likewise about the scary, and how to deal with it!
The first reading is from the prophet Joel (1:13-15, 2:1-2) and like many other prophets, Joel is proclaiming the day that the Lord will come to the earth, bringing justice.   Many scriptures speak of God's love, but God's love for his people does not always look like what we expect. The psalm for today (9:2-3, 6, 16, 8-9) helps remind us how love can and must go hand in hand with justice.  God does wondrous deeds, God protects his people - but sometimes for justice to be done and for God to be able to protect the people, there is some kind of punishment for those who have done wrong.  God's love and God's actions sometimes look and feel scary because God is not human. In the passage from Joel, he proclaims that God wants his people to return to him, to love him too.  And importantly, Joel gives the people a way to follow God - declare a day of fasting, gather together with the elders -  the Israelites only have to do as Joel says.

Then in the gospel reading (Luke 11:15-26), Jesus is shown casting out demons and talking about how to deal with evil.  He tells scary stories of people who thought they were safe and then find that the very protection they had, the very armor they wore is now used against them by their enemies.  He tells stories of demons multiplying into too many to deal with.   Demons are not things we think about in the 21st century much - we relegate them to times and places when people were less reasonable.  But as with the demons in the story, we, too, know well how evil things can multiply beyond our control  - and especially how easy it is to let negative events and thoughts impact our views of the rest of the world.

 

For myself, I think of how simply reading or hearing a story in the paper can affect my sense of other people, including my ability to love them well. My disappointments or problems at work can easily come home with me and affect how my family and friends react to me.  My husband and daughters could have had fabulous days on the days I come home from work upset, but those days are ruined if I turn my hurt and anger toward them.  And then, we all grump around the house feeling out of sorts, lonely, angry and afraid.  If we are unable to stop the snowballing anger and resentment, it can even spread out to other days, and leak out onto our friends and other family members.

The point of today's scriptures is exactly to show the problems with the scariness of evil: it drives us apart from each other, it isolates us, it makes us selfish and angry, and so on.  That is why both the Old Testament and Gospel readings from today admonish people to counter evil WITH other people.  "Gather together," proclaims Joel.  "Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters," says Jesus.  

After all, isn't it the case that the best way to deal with the scary is to gather together like we did during those thunderstorms?  In fact, isn't that one of the (many) things we do when we gather together at Mass? Church doesn't keep the scary out - we all bring our own scary pasts and scary concerns with us. But what do we do at Mass, but hold on to each other, sing songs, tell The Story of Jesus, and eat a meal together? That's not all of what Mass is about, for sure, but surely one of the things we're about as Christians is helping each other not get too mesmerized by the scary stuff of the world, and remember that Jesus is light.

 

Today, let us pray for all those we know who are in especially scary situations, and seek ways to offer our help, as merciful disciples.

 

- Jana M. Bennett