33rd
Sunday-Year C
Mal 3:19-20a
Christianity
is not an escape from the world, but a vocation to make it better.
Beloved
in Christ, when you live in a cold weather as we experience in winter you look
forward to and appreciate a day or even an hour of sunshine. When the
temperature is below freezing in winter and you hear the weather forecast that
there is going to be a day of sunshine, what happens to your heart? If you are
like me, then your heart jumps! You become joyful and breathe a sigh of relief in
anticipation of that sunshine.
Our
first reading from the prophet Malachi reminds us that no matter how cold life
gets, there is going to be a day of sunshine, a day when good will overcome
evil, when the troubles in life will cease and our joy will be complete. The reference to the sun and its joyful rays
in that reading is a prophecy about Jesus Christ. The reading also tells us that we Christians
are called to be witnesses of this
good news, people who testify with both their words and actions that this
message is true. In fact the Hebrew name “Malachi” means a “ my messenger, a
witness”, a person who has experienced something and so can talk about it in a
way that helps others to understand that experience. At the time of his prophecy,
the people of Israel had fallen back into their usual temptation of “God will
do it all, the temple will be safe, God bless their lives, and our actions did
not really matter.” The prophet reminded them that this is false! The joy that
God promises will come true not only when they believe; but also when their own
words and actions show that they really want good to overcome evil.
In
the second reading, St Paul reminds us that the restoration of the world depends
not only on God but also on our cooperation with God. At the time St. Paul
wrote this letter, some people in the Church at Thessalonica had given up on the
world and were looking for an escape. They were thinking the world was going to
end. They sold their houses and property and stopped working. St Paul tells them
that God is not calling them to escape the world but to work towards its
transformation through the grace of God.
Our
Lord Jesus in the gospel tells us that when evil and sin increase in the world
our God is counting on us, Christians, to speak and live in a way that will let
good overcome evil. He said the day of the Lord, the second coming of the Lord
will be a celebration of the good work that we have allowed God to accomplish
through us. We are the “Malachi” of our day. We are called to show by our words
and actions that good can and will overcome evil.
Beloved,
we have just finished a rather difficult election season. You and I know that
so much happened during the elections. Some are happy with the outcome and some
are not! Our country is divided. You may be tempted like the Israelites in the
first reading to say, “Oh God will fix it, what I do does not matter!” Or like
the people of Thessalonica, you may just tune off as a way of escaping from the
difficult task of uniting our country and revealing that love of God, that
sunshine that we are all searching for. But beloved, the readings today remind
us that God is counting on all of us to speak and act in a way that will teach
others that unity, joy, peace, and love can overcome evil and division. May Christ
give us the grace to be witnesses to this truth, that the way we speak and act
about the outcome of the elections will make us models that others can follow
so that we can all be a light that will lead our country and the world to that
Sunshine, that joy we are looking for.
May it be so!
Add a comment