Theme:   Our God is with us thru all our trials in life.  

Vaclav Havel, a Czechoslovakian poet, once wrote: "Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism.   It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.   (Disturbing the Peace, ch 5)

I think I would use the word "faith" rather than "hope", but his message is still inspiring.   Vaclav wasn't a man who didn't have suffering in his life when he wrote about hope.   In fact he had been persecuted by the communists and only much later freed.   Even though he suffered, he still found the presence of God in his life.   He knew that God was with him even in prison.  

God is with us, even when life is or seems to be falling apart. In the movie "Entertaining Angels", about the life of Dorothy Day, she comes to a point in her ministry to the poor where she is fed up, and she can no longer turn to anyone else.   So she comes into a church and screams at God, "Where are you? Where are you?"   Eventually, she comes to sense the presence of God as she is praying and the presence of God in the poor whom she is serving.

However, knowing God is with us can also be as unobtrusive as seeing God during a hectic day whether it is in a child's smile, a sunset, or taking time to place ourselves in God's presence.   Before taking an exam in the seminary, I would pray.   I felt near to the presence of God which helped calm me and helped me answer the exam better.   Even when the exam didn't go so well, being near the presence of God also put the exam into perspective.

The readings speak of the unmistakable belief in God's presence in the midst of suffering.   In Mark, the previous section before this reading describes how the temple, the central focus of worship for the Jewish community, will be destroyed.   Imagine how you would feel if this church burnt to the ground with absolutely nothing salvageable.   Now multiply that feeling by two or three and that is how the Jews and the early followers of Jesus would be feeling at the loss of the Temple.

If that wasn't bad enough, Jesus in this passage is saying that the sun will be darkened, the moon not give its light, the stars fall from the sky and the powers of the heavens be shaken.   Basically, all creation, all that one could rely upon, is GONE!   Yet, Mark goes on to write, "And then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in the clouds' with great power and glory".   God is there when everything one could rely on is gone.

The first reading also mentions God's presence when everything is disastrous.   The Book of Daniel is written to the Jewish community two centuries before Christ.   The Jews were living in a time when the Greeks had taken over Israel and were trying to get them to adopt Greek lifestyle and religion.   The Jews were being killed for practicing their faith.   Yet the author is stating his belief that not only will justice triumph, but even those who have died will rise again.   God is still with his people.

It takes faith to believe in a compassionate God, a God who is with us and who loves us, when all is going wrong.   It takes faith to believe God still loves us, even when we sin.   Do we believe that God has been with us in the past, is with us now, and will be with us until the end of time?  

These readings discuss the end times.   Whenever the Bible discusses the end times, it is not trying to decide when exactly Christ is coming again.   Many people have predicted the coming of Christ again throughout history - such as during the turn of the first and second millennium, many times during the 18 and 1900s, yet since Christ hasn't come again, all of them have failed.   "But as of that day or hour, no one knows".  

The bottom line in discussing the end times is that Christ will come again.   It is not a question of if, but when.   Maranatha, Come Lord Jesus.  

The coming of Christ again in power and glory is one of the reasons why the Catholic Conference of Illinois have issued a letter condemning the Left behind series.   You might have seen these books in the religious section of bookstores - they are very popular, but also very wrong in their outlook.  

Mark just stated that Christ will come with great power and glory.   Yet the Left Behind series portrays Christ coming once secretly to take away all "true believers" (hence the name "left behind" for those who remain) and then a final time with great power and glory to judge the living and the dead.   There is no scriptural support for this belief.

The Left Behind series is also anti-Catholic, as it has the pope being used by the antichrist for his own personal agenda.

The Left Behind series also has a poor view of suffering - God wants to spare the "true believers" from the suffering to come by taking them away.   However, this doesn't make sense considering God did not spare his only Son for us.

Finally, the God of the "Left Behind" series is mean.   God is so impatient to take away the "true believers" after 2000 years, that he won't even allow the "true believers" the time to land the planes they are flying or cars they are driving, causing many accidents and killing people.   God also takes away all the children, leaving the parents to grieve.   However, the God of the "Left Behind" series can be appeased by doing good works so you can "earn" your salvation.

This is not the God we worship.   This is not the God of Scripture.   This is not the God we have experienced in Baptism where we are forgiven of our sins and brought into the Church

In Penance where we are forgiven of our sins and reconciled to the Church

In Eucharist where we receive the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ

In Confirmation where God strengthens us

In Anointing where God heals us

In Marriage and Holy Orders where God gives us the grace to carry out our vocation in life.

Our God is a God who is with us in good times and bad.   Our God is a God who is with us yesterday, today, and tomorrow.   Our God is a God who is with us no matter what we do.   Our God is a God who will make sure that none of us are left behind.

[For those of you who are pulling this off the Internet, an additional thought against the Left Behind series which I did not think of fitting into the reflection talk was that it is very individualistic.   Assume the Rapture theory was correct, but instead of Christ immediately taking you away, you got the choice whether to stay or go.   What would you do?   Would you want to go to heaven or stay to help those who are "left behind"?]