Just a word before we go...Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time...November 13, 2022

Both the first reading from the prophet Malachi and our Gospel today paint a frightening picture of the future.  That we are living in times that are fraught with wars, famines and natural disasters cannot be denied.  We have all experienced the destruction of symbolic edifices that we might have thought immune to the ravages of time or circumstance.  We should be aware at this point in history though, that nothing on this earth possesses such immunity.

How are we to cope with living in these turbulent times?  Do we attribute the troubles of our world to the imminence of the day of the Lord?  If so, how can we dismiss the fact that the world has always had turmoil and violence?   St. Paul tells us that this is not the time to be idle.  It is the time to be grounded in the Lord.   Suffering will come to each of us; what we do with that suffering is a choice.  While we may feel powerless over what the future holds, we retain the God-given gift of choosing our attitude toward our life circumstances, as Viktor Frankl in his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, reminds us.  We need only look to the people of Ukraine for evidence of the power of such choice.  

Living with ambiguity, with an uncertain future, takes courage and creativity, but it can lead to the joy of making one’s story, one’s suffering even, one’s own, instead of allowing ourselves to be victims. Remembering that the Spirit of God remains with us, despite the turmoil around us, can help to reframe our life experiences, to see with a new lens, and give us agency over our lives.