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Homilies - Bishop Brendan Leahy

Year C: Thirty-Third Sunday

 

Year C: Thirty Third Sunday

Southill

I’ve had the good fortune to visit Jerusalem and there you can see what remains of the great Temple that the famous King Herod had built. Huge impressive stone blocks at the basis. It was an enormous impressive building that was one of the wonders of the world. But, as Jesus pointed out his disciples, it was destined to be destroyed. And so it was.

So many things in our lives that we were impressed by or that we think very important can disappear. We might have a job and we lose it. We might have a good relationship but it breaks up. We put energy into a great initiative to do with education or politics or community and it seems to get nowhere. In the past week, we’ve heard of terrible stories of scandals in the Church, in places where we would have expected better. Yes, there can be terrible shock and discouragement when things go different to how we expect. Life is indeed not always beautiful and everything working out. One woman told me how friends of hers who used to go to church regularly have for some time given up because they were scandalised by the revelations.

What Jesus is reminding the disciples today is that what we really need to focus on is God. God is the one Ideal in life that is never destroyed or passes away. We need to make sure that we get that foundation right in our lives or we’ll be going in a wrong direction.

Otherwise, we might start looking for other solutions in life. People often turn to horoscopes to tell them the future or all kinds of spiritual therapies and superstitions. But Jesus is wanting to be clear with us. Don’t let yourselves be deceived. Terrible things and events will happen in life but keep on believing that God has a plan. Keep on persevering in faith even when circumstances might knock you down or leave you disheartened.

Not only that, Jesus says, use every opportunity, even when bad things happen, to give witness to your faith. As Christians we believe that even in dark times, God is working. In a radio interview last week, Bono told of how he has discovered in life that often it is the wounds in life that open up opportunities. He told, for instance, of how his mother died when he was a teenager, but somehow, looking back, he realised that gave him an energy about music as he wanted to express himself and his desire to keep going. He said he has seen that time and again – the wounds, the setbacks, the difficulties, can become the moments when you are getting a good new chance to start again. We could say, to start again to live our faith, to witness to it.  We believe God gives us strength. Our hope is in God alone.

Your endurance will win you your life, says Jesus. Don’t be deceived and think there are easier ways, that superstition or hororscopes or giving up is that solution. Believe in God and, as the First Reading puts it, there’ll be healing available to us in life.