What Time It Is – 27 November 2022

Today, war, famine, disease and inhumanity trample human dignity in many parts of the world. Hope is often in short supply. Today, we wait for Christ to be born again in our hearts so that we might rise up to listen to others, to hold our hands so that others might hold on to something, to be the sign of hope and the face of Christ to all we meet. –– Mary Katharine Deeley

Matthew 24:36–44

I feel . . . fear when I read Jesus’ words to his disciples about that unexpected hour when the Son of Man will come like a thief in the night. Two will be in the field; one will be left and one will be taken. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be left and one will be taken. There is no moral content here. Jesus does not tell us one field hand is more faithful than another; he doesn’t hint that one woman is more worthy than the other. On the contrary, it is almost as if the decision about who is taken and who is left is somehow arbitrary, and certainly beyond the control of these simple people.

We are not even told which is to be preferred, to be taken or to be left. Are the faithful taken to the bosom of Abraham and the wicked left to the fate of the damned? Or are the wicked taken away to eternal damnation, while the faithful are left to receive the new heaven and new earth? And the suddenness of it all, too. There is no warning. . . That is frightening down to the very core of your being.

Maybe that was what Jesus was hoping to evoke in his followers. They didn’t have electricity, so he couldn’t hope for a power failure. However, we all have our own power failures from time to time. We all understand that fear of being left, or of being taken. But if we come face to face with our fear, if we walk into that valley of darkness holding tightly to the hand of One who loves us more deeply and more completely than we can even imagine, then even in that unexpected hour we can glimpse a grace that is illumined by the faint glow of eternity. Maybe that is what Jesus meant when he warned, “Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.” –– John H. Barden

Romans 13:11–14

Paul told the people that :salvation is nearer now than when we first believed,” both an exhortation to continue in faith and a reminder that God’s promises, fulfilled in Jesus, were being carried out at every moment. –– Mary Katharine Deeley

Isaiah 2:1–5

The prophet Isaiah gives us a vision of the world transformed. The Israelites had suffered the loss of their homeland and much of their lives as a community of faith. When people are hurt to the core of their being, when they have lost a part of themselves because of fear, greed, power, or anger (whether it's theirs or someone else's), they need to hear . . . God's dream, God's hope, for us. –– Mary Katharine Deeley

Homily Service 43, no. 4 (2010): 144–155.