Isaiah
2:1-5, Matthew 24:36-44.
Dear
Friends!
To
strengthen and deepen my spirituality I undertake two pilgrimages every year.
They evoke in my soul, layers of meaning. They do not require vigorous walks,
long distance travel to sacred places. However in these expeditions I devote time
on reflections and prayer. I engage in social action and service. In the season
of Lent I focus on the way of the cross. I meditate on the redeeming acts of
Jesus the Christ. Today I commemorate the season of advent as I embark on this
pilgrimage again. It is a four week journey. I extend my invitation to you to
join in it. It is a fun filled adventure when you really want to meet someone
who promised to us long ago before the departure “I will be back again soon”? Just as all generations of Christians did in the past, I invite you to wait
with longing hearts; dream dreams, pray prayers sing songs and light candles.
In recent times, Sir Elton Jones has helped me to understand the meaning of the
candle light and its flame in a song he composed and sang for Princes Diana. In
a candle the wax and the wick are closely glued together. And as the wax melts
the flame shines. Princess Dianna was an ambassador of the world peace and her
death was untimely. So sang Elton Jones:
“GOOD BYE ENGLAND’S ROSE, MAY YOU EVER GROW
IN OUR HEARTS.YOU WERE THE GRACE THAT PLACED ITSELF WHERE LIVES WERE TORN
APART.AND IT SEEMS TO ME YOU LIVED YOUR LIFE LIKE A CANDLE IN THE WIND.NEVER
FADING WITH THE SUNSET WHEN THE RAIN SET IN. AND YOUR FOOTSTEPS WILL ALWAYS
FALL HERE ALONG ENGLAND’S GREENEST HILL.”
With our candle
lighting let us offer to God the prayers of praise and supplication. Let us wish
our world goodness and gentleness, courage and compassion patience and contentment.
Just a few days ago when I heard in one of the TV channels the prediction of a
nationwide snow storm and of thousands of flights to be cancelled, I was saddened
for I knew it would disrupt the holiday plans of millions of people in this
country. However the day before Thanksgiving the weather conditions improved.
People travelled and we celebrated Thanksgiving. Just a few weeks ago the typhoon
in the Philippines killed about five thousand people and made several thousands
homeless. For the last several years we have been listening to news about
global warming, possible extinction of several species of mammals and birds
from the face of this earth. We are also told there will be more natural
disasters of hurricanes floods cyclones and tsunamis. Then we manufacture our
own warring spirit among ourselves, as well as hatred and hostilities. Why then
we wonder when people feel anxious and angry, helpless and hopeless? Here is
one of President Ronald Reagan’s favorite stories. Waking up to her 12th
birthday, a young farm girl got up before dawn and ran to the barn. She had
asked her parents for a pony and was hoping that it would be there. She flung
open the barn door, but in the dim light, could see no pony -- Only mounds of
horse manure. Being an optimist she declared, “With all this manure around,
there must be a pony in there somewhere.” Friends! Have we given up on hope? If
I do not have any hope in my future as well as in the future of this world, my
life then will not have any meaning at all even in the present.
The predictions of Prophet Isaiah who said to
the people of Israel about 3000 years ago are still relevant. The world needs
peace. “They will hammer their swords into ploughs and their spears into
pruning knives and nations will never go into war again”.
When
will this happen? How long do we need to recognize that all lives are precious?
Do we fool ourselves by saying that nobody gets killed in a war? In the land of
the free and the home of the brave there are 7 million people incarcerated or in
prison or in jail today. A decade ago the number was 5 million and two decades
ago it was 3 million. The prison industry is the growing enterprise in our
country today. Gandhi said many years ago” An eye for an eye makes the whole
world blind” Just as in Isaiah’s time we need the plough today to till the
ground and to feed the starving masses. Just as Isaiah’s time we need the
pruning knives for the grape cultivation and to use in the vineyards. The sword
and the spear are designed to slash and to stab and thrust and to kill. They
are weapons of destruction. We are concerned about weapons of mass destructions
hidden in countries. How about the countries that produce such weapons for
profit motifs? Injustice anywhere kills justice everywhere.
Matthew writes in our gospel today keep
awake for the son of man will come in an unexpected hour. The English novelist
Somerset Maugham once wrote ”the most difficult things that a person has to
endure in life are try to sleep but sleep not, to try to please but please not
and try to wait for the one who comes not. Are we waiting for the arrival of a
great mystery in our midst at any moment? I do but the details of it I don’t
know. Who, When, where, and how. However in fervent faith and with great
expectation I offer this prayer: “CHRIST
HAS DIED, CHRIST IS RISEN AND CHRIST WILL COME AGAIN”.
Here is a cartoon I saw recently perhaps
it will explain plainly of the unexpected hour of the coming of the son of man.
In the first panel of the cartoon a college student is kneeling before an altar.
There is a cross in the background and a stained glass window behind it. As the
young man prayed a little balloon read out: LORD HELP US FEED THE STARVING
MASSES OF THE WORLD.FEED THE HUNGRY.
In
the second panel the same scene with a different caption: O LORD WE PRAY FOR
THE END OF THE WAR IN THE WORLD.LORD GIVE US PEACE. The third panel the subject
is still more intense and the young man is still praying: LORD BRING PEACE
AMONG THE RACES AND MAKE US TO LIVE AS BROTHERS AND SISTERS WITH EACH OTHER. Then
the fourth panel: a shock, the picture has radically changed, a lightening has
struck the alter area, the bricks and the artifacts from the alter have fallen
down and the young man is in the midst of the rubble with an expression of astonishment
on his face and the caption reads: ”DO IT YOURSELF YOU CLOD”. What are we
waiting for?
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