34th Week of Ordinary Time – Luke 21:5-11
“The days will come”. . . . Today Jesus tells his disciples that one day the temple will come down! Naturally his disciples want Jesus to predict the future: they hope Jesus to tell them exactly when the temple will be destroyed. They also want Jesus to give them a sign to look for so they will be prepared for this event.
Jesus does not answer their questions directly. Rather, He tells his disciples to watch for signs such as natural disasters, earthquakes, tsunamis, wars, uprisings. I assume that His prediction may have stirred up quite a bit of anxiety in his disciples. However, immediately following these statements, Jesus tells his disciples they should not be frightened.
Do you remember the anxiety and fear that was rampant after the September 11th attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.? Do you remember where you were and what you were doing on the day Al Qaeda terrorists hijacked planes and coordinated suicide attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon? Take a moment and remember that day. Where were you? How did you hear this news? What was your response to all that was happening?
Events such as this tragedy also may be a reminder to us that “we know neither the day nor the hour” of our death! None of us have any guarantee of tomorrow. We truly only have today and perhaps only this moment! These types of events make us fearful (and understandably so)! However, these events also have the potential to motivate us to intentionally live each day well.
The reality is that none of us know the specific time of our death. However we do know that every day we are given a gift: the gift of 24 hours! How will you and how will I spend our gift, our time, today? Who will we spend our time with? Is God part of our answer?
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