Homily for 33rd Sunday of 2006
Much of what I want to say tonight is based on what I said at the St John's College closing Mass last Thursday evening. When I was young and still living at home I vividly remember when one of my sisters got married. I had been so used to her coming home from work each evening that I was quite upset when that no longer happened. Now she lived elsewhere. I can only imagine how such departures from the family home affected my parents. Marriage is an ending and a beginning. This week there have been many endings and beginnings. A wedding yesterday and Year 12 graduations during the week. These are no small things in people's lives. They represent a real dislocation as one phase of life ends and another begins.
Jesus is speaking today in the Gospel of Mark (13:24-32) of a great dislocation when Son of Man comes in glory to fulfil God's promises.
One of the greatest dislocations in European history occurred when the Polish astronomer and cleric Copernicus, looked into the sky in the 15th century. What he saw revolutionised Europe. But it is a revolution that has not really ended. Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), as you know caused an uproar when he claimed that the Sun did not revolve around the earth. The earth was not the centre of things. In fact, the earth moved around the Sun once per year. And in addition, revolved on its own axis producing day and night. These observations shook the philosophic and religious world of his day. What he began is what we now would call the scientific world view.
The “world view” of most people, the way they imagined the world, in his day, was that which had been described by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) so wonderfully. His epic poem “The Divine Comedy” captured the whole of medieval theology and cosmology in one great metaphor. Yes I have read all three volumes! And, even though we have had subsequent revolutions in scientific thinking by people like Newton, Einstein, Darwin and others, in the religious imagination, Dante's world view still lingers in people's minds and in much theology. In that world view, human beings are at the centre of the universe. In this theology human life is the purpose of the world. This life is a time of trial before one reaches heaven above the spheres. God's purpose in creation and salvation is focused upon this world.
When Copernicus described what he saw above the earth all that changed Human beings were no longer the centre of things. We had been moved to the periphery. The Sun no long shone just for us. If this is the case, the question arose, where does it put God? The God who had looked over his creation from above the spheres was now “dislocated”. The neat arrangement of spheres of influence with God at the top had been undermined. The ordered progression of human beings either up to heaven through each succeeding sphere to heaven or downwards to hell was no more.
But, as I said, this revolution has not ended even yet. We are all aware of the incredible discoveries of the vastness of space. With each new telescope or satellite that looks out from our world, new dimensions are revealed. The universe is even spoken of as infinite! There are billions upon billions of stars and planets. All these discoveries put us more and more on the fringes of what we see. We are less and less the centre of things. And God is pushed even further away from this universe and from us it seems.
On one hand these discoveries have led many to marvel at the incredible wonder of creation. It has led to a realisation of how small we have imagined God to be in the past if God can create all this. Even many scientists come to this sense of wonder and awe and humility before it all. For those of faith, such wonder can lead to a deeper and richer faith and love.
Our quest for answers about who we are and the universe in which we live has led to enormous advances in our knowledge. It has also led us to even deeper questions. Einstein is reported to have said, “The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is incomprehensible.”
On the other hand, with this sense of wonder there are also some who are so overwhelmed with the sheer size and incomprehensibility of the universe that they come to a different conclusion. They arrive at the point of saying that the universe and our place in it is pointless! It all makes no sense. What is the point of such an enormous universe with all its diversity? Confronted with this mystery that deepens every day and our insignificance in it, the universe seems to have no reason for its existence!
As people of faith, however, we do need to listen to this latter point of view seriously. We need to do this if we are to understand the mentality of our age for which there is nothing fixed. Any opinion is as good as another. All there is is what we can see. In that situation we become just be isolated individuals who are doomed to the task of finding meaning for our lives on our own! Unfortunately, it has proven to be an impossible task for many. It is something which religious societies like Islam react against very strongly as we have seen. We see it in the epidemic of suicide across this land. We see it as we look for answers in an endless pursuit of meaning in anything but what really satisfies.
Where do we go from there? I like the simple answer of the year 8 student on retreat who said, “I just want you to be my friends.” It is to be found right there. It is in all that is good and noble in our relationships, our work and all our plans. It is there that God is to be found. God is not far away. Science has done us a favour in helping us to realise that we cannot confine God within our own words and images. Our God is not a who fills the gaps in our knowledge of things. Our God is not a god of intelligent design who stands apart in some inaccessible place looking down on us with a frown or a smile depending on our behaviour. Our God is “Emanuel”, “God with us”, as we will sing of at Christmas.
The Gospel passage today (Mark 13:24-32) is not describing literally some astronomical events in the future as some would like to read it. Some Christian groups look forward to a destruction of the earth in some cataclysmic event so they revel in the thought of a great war at Armageddon, which will hasten the end time. No wonder that thoughtful people dismiss the whole Gospel when Christians speak like that. Definitely not. Mark, writing in response to the persecution of the infant Christian church is reporting Jesus vision of a hope for those who suffer. Wars, natural disasters, family betrayal, will be overcome when Christ comes. Such events are but the buds on the trees which will blossom when summer comes. When Christ will gather together his elect, the beloved of the Lord.
This Mass, this Eucharist, like every Eucharist, is none other than our acknowledgement that we cannot go it alone. We need each other if we are to face the difficulties of life, its wars and its tragedies. This Mass is professing our faith in God whose love has a deep centre in this world. A Love that will never be found anywhere unless it is found amongst you and me here and now. Let us not be afraid to risk our lives for love. That is what Jesus did and of which the Eucharist is the memorial. This Mass is the message of hope. This Mass is God in Jesus saying to us as it were, I just want you to be my friends. And so we say thank you to the God of Jesus Christ.
Fr Graham