World End 

11 19 06

by Fr.Gus Carter

The Gospel we have read this morning is called "The Little Apocalypse." Most Christians are familiar with apocalyptic literature as predicting the end of the world. Such an occurrence involves cosmic upheaval. In our Sacred Scriptures the end of the world means the final coming of the Messiah. This is considered the most important event in the history of humankind. To convey the importance and finality of this coming, the authors of this type of literature used symbolic language that entails all the powers of the heavenly bodies.

Humans are fascinated by the huge energies and vast distances ofthe world around us. Talking of all this ending in a cataclysmic disaster draws our attention. Predicting the end of the world has been occurring among Christians since the time of St. Paul's letter to the Thessalonians. We have what is not'talled the Book of Revelation, once called the Apocalypse by Catholics. This book gives symbolic details of the clash of good and evil and the final triumph of Jesus Christ. We need to remember that the symbolism wishes to bring to our minds the seriousness of Christ's final coming for each of us.

In several passages Mark emphasizes that no one knows when Christ will come in glory. "But of that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." Jesus warns us not to be fooled by those who say the end is near.

St. Francis 'de Sales made a wise observation: "When you die, it is the end of the world for you:' The Gospel constantly tells us to watch, to be alert, for Christ's coming. That watchfulness means obeying the Lord's commands and being sensitive to the people around us, because they are the way we meet Christ on a day to day basis. This kind of watchfulness will make sure that we will be ready, no matter when we are called to be part of Jesus' final Kingdom.

Just briefly we might look at the predictions of the end of the world, Because of the barbarian invasions of Europe, St. Gregory, who lived around the year 600, thought the end was near. We have the millenarianists who thought the year one thousand would be the end. People left their homes and went up mountains to await the end of the world. In the United States around the year

1850 so-called prophets began preaching that the end was near. Various sects prepared, but the end has not come yet. We find a lot of "end of the world" preaching in various places in our time. Some Christians are still easily misled, in spite of Marks warning about no one knowing when the end will be.

Recently I read a remark by St. Augustine that I had not seen before. He said. "I must plan my time and arrange my day for the good of my soul." The watchfulness preached by the Gospel wants us to keep in mind that we have no lasting dwelling in this world. The Church has several ways off reminding us that our destiny does not end in this world. At the coronation of the pope the designated man walks down the aisle of St. Peters carrying a lighted taper. Three times he stops and blows out the flame, saying, "Thus passes the glory of world."

Everything in this world, as we know it, will be wiped out. As the Church year ends, we are reminded that not only our lives but the whole of creation will be transformed by the final coming of Christ. We need to make every effort to remain in his Kingdom forever.

,nflstmas season III me prayer or me Lnurcn lasts more man a momn. LJUflng mat tlme we reaa ften in the prayers of this time: "0 wondrous exchange; God becomes human so that humans laY become Godlike." Most philosophers accept that humans are transcendent beings. We never ome to the end of our capacity to know or to love. This does suggest that the way we are made lakes it possible for us to share divine life and divine love. It is awesome that someone created ould come to share eternal life and eternal love.

iecause of this, the early teachers of the Church called "Fathers" claimed that a single human is lOre important than the entire physical universe. Some individuals rarely reflect on their xistence. There are occasions, though, when they are struck by some wonder of nature. To see Ie multitude of stars in the sky on a clear night away from city lights is a spectacular display. uch an experience caused the Jewish mystic, Abraham Heschel, to say, "I do not believe in rod, I know there is a God." I recall the fascinated excitement in a biology class as we watched ne celled blobs move under the microscope. We had a glimpse of the invisible world beneath s that we are hardly aware of. In nature we become aware of the magnificent power behind all lings. Studying the human body invites many wonderful experiences. Jewish mystical writings, alled Kabbalah, suggest that one of the best ways of encountering the wonders of God is to pay lose attention to our humanity. We can wonder at the mind's ability to reach out into the vast istances of galaxies. We may realize that there is a microscopically infinite world within us. 'hese experiences are to me another sign of human transcendence. The human mind is open to Ie vastness of outer space and able to know of another infinitely small physical universe within s.

1. Augustine, in his "Confessions," marveled at the human memory. He said, "What a huge torage place is the memory with its secret and hard to imagine containers. It keeps all we have one to be recalled and brought out for use when needed, and then puts those memories back :>mehow in their proper places." Thoughts like these caused Augustine to be caught up in ronder at the vast resources and complexities of our Creator.

1. Hilary spoke of the marvels of human speech. We conceive and formulate ideas that we can ut into words. We are able to convey ideas and intentions to others. Hilary prayed he would use lis marvelous gift for the glory of our Maker. I think clearly a marvelous gift to humans is ompassion. The gift of compassion is the ability to enter into the feelings, thoughts and xperiences of another person. St. Luke tells us, "Be compassionate as your heavenly Father is ompassionate." Compassion includes the incentive to help relieve the pain of another person. ve can see how compassion makes us Godlike. We become able to enter the thoughts and ~elings of others so that we can help them. At the same time, when we are compassionate, we ome to understand better what is the really important thing of life. We come to a greater nderstanding of ourselves. No wonder the Buddhists insist that the way to become enlightened ; to live llfe compassionately.

ve believe that the Son of God came into the world to translate the meaning of God into human rords and human actions. Through knowing Jesus, we come to know what God is like. Jesus

explicitly stated, "He who sees me sees the Father." One title to explain Jesus' mission is that he is "the parable of God's acceptance of each human being." Through Jesus we come to know of the Lord's unconditional love for each of us. Equally important, Jesus demonstrates how to lead human life authentically. All these things cause us to celebrate the birth of Christ.

All these things remind us of our personal dignity. We have been created to share the life of God. To do this we have been created the pinnacle of creation. We should have great respect for ourselves and for others. We say sometimes of another person, "He thinks he is God's gift to the world." We can see how this is true of those we love. We must keep in mind that by our acceptance and compassion we help each other to be God's gift to the world.

Our Inner Voice 12 17 06

St. John the Baptist reminds us that the coming of Christ into our lives demands preparation. Most commentator or philosophers of human life claim there is a source within each human that gives guidance and renewal for our lives. This center has been called the soul, the self, the heart of a person. If we follow this inner guide, we are more likely to be prepared for conflict and to be better able to recognize opportunities for our betterment. Paying attention to our inner heart makes us both faithful to ourselves as well as helpful to others. One's sense of vitality and meaning becomes increasingly dependent on attention to the inner voice of one's soul.

We all know that the first step to recognizing the voice of the soul involves slowing down and paying attention to how we feel about our lives. Unfortunately, we do not find taking meaningful pauses in our activity highly valued in the fast-paced American culture. Considering his life in his "Confessions," St. Augustine wrote, "I must plan my time and arrange my day for the good of my soul." If we wish to hear the voice of our own soul, we must plan some time to listen to ourselves. This is done in many ways: some times at an occupation that does not require much thought; walking in a quiet place; closing the door of a room in one's house and inviting thoughts and feelings to arise. Some people find writing as one listens to oneself a helpful way to be in touch with ourselves.

Some people learn to listen to themselves as part of their daily routine. This has been labeled as "working at a contemplative pace." Researchers have discovered that people who work at a contemplative pace actually get more done. Another name for paying attention to ourselves as we do some task is called "being a participant observer." Such individuals become witnesses to their own experience as it happens.

Some time during a time-out period, a person can ask. "What am I finding myself thinking about and feeling today?" We pay attention to whatever comes to mind: preoccupations, fears, hopes, unusual reactions. At this time try to stop solving problems and listen to whatever comes to mind. We listen to ourselves without expectations or criticism of whatever thought or feeling arises. Our first task is to learn how to listen to ourselves and benefit from our experience because we cannot change what we do not understand. One author wrote, "In my experience more satisfying solutions to problems and new directions for living become apparent when we learn how to be honest witnesses to our own life, and develop a sense of trust in the healthy resources for guidance that lie deep within ourselves. (Soul and Self, Paul Fehrenbach)

We aim to be not only healthy participants in our lives, but also to be compassionate observers. We strive to improve the quality of our internal witness. Self-observation is essentially a skill. Anyone can learn it and anyone can learn how to do it better.

The fast pace of life and the insistent demands of much modern living plague many people. It has been described to me as "like always putting out fires." We have all heard about "treadmill living," putting one foot after the other with little sense of meaning or purpose. If we want Christ to come into our lives for the good of our souls, we have to have showdown periods. We must pray for the courage and perseverance to take time for ourselves. I read long ago someone writing, "time for myself becomes time for others." As we let contemplative periods come into our lives, we become more aware of others. We feel that we are not wasting our time helping others.

Epiphany 1 7 07

The story of the Wise Men traveling to find Jesus reminds us that life is often portrayed as a journey. One of the most important things in travel is knowing where you are going and how to get there. People have written about the pain of an aimless life or the empty feeling that life has no meaning. To travel we need some kind of navigation device. Traveling without maps or road signs would be a very frustrating experience. The star leading the Magi becomes a sign of all that leads us to our proper destiny. With the new year beginning people make resolutions about how they want to steer the course of their lives in the coming year. These days would be a good time to examine the maps by which we guide our lives. Another part of navigating is course correction. We check where we are in relation to where we are going. Are we staying on track to where we want to go?

From the news on television it would seem that most New Year's resolutions have to do with losing weight and getting into better physical shape. These are admirable goals and we should take care of our bodies as God's gift to us. However, how many individuals are concerned about their spiritual growth? I would say that most people in this church have a fairly strong desire to grow spiritually. God has placed within each person the desire "to be all that you can be." We believe that God speaks to us through inner feelings, desires, inspirations, uneasiness. What speaks most to us within ourselves is the desire for peace and joy. All this points to the fact that to grow spiritually we must take time to be alone with God and with ourselves. Essential to spiritual growth is reflecting on our lives in the presence of God.

The map by which we should guide our lives is the life of Jesus Christ. One of the main themes of Epiphany is God's desire to save all humankind. This is revealed to the world in Jesus appearance before the Magi. One thought on the Word of God becoming human is: "Humans had become so bad at living as God wanted them to live that he sent his Son so that we could see what true faithfulness looked like."

We believe that each of us, with the help of God's grace, fashions and decides what kind of person we will become by the end of our earthly journey. Heaven is God, and all those who to some degree have become Godlike. God is love and the Lord's forgiving love includes all persons. The challenge to us, who are made in the image and likeness of God, is to be true lovers. We move from being exclusive to being inclusive. Our selfishness makes us want to think only of ourselves. Imitating God is to become concerned about others. We come to realize that we are not purely separate beings. Our welfare includes that of all creation. We learn to become aware not only of our self-interests, but to develop directly the relational and communal side of ourselves. We work within ourselves to move from illusion to truth, from hypocrisy to sincerity, from self-deception to self-honesty.

All of life can be understood as a dialogue of sorts between the interactions of our human response to God's initiating love and grace. Here we encounter the paradox of Christian living. Much that seems negative in spirituality always has a positive side. In giving of ourselves, we receive more in return. The self-emptying required in forgiveness generates true friendship. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned. Sacrifice for Christ leads to self-fulfillment in Christ.

The saints understood hardship, but there was always a good measure of peace and joy in imitating Jesus. The saints' trust in God kept them from collapsing in times oftrouble. The love they generated in the lives of others gave them a sense of the wonder and beauty of living for Christ. Will we take the time to let the Lord speak to us about our lives?