It is immensely challenging to try to face the readings over the last two weeks of the liturgical year, because they are all focused on the end times, focused on things we cannot see. We cannot know when. We cannot know how. We cannot know where. Thrown before us is a mystery that we need to allow to unfold, and while it’s unfolding, we need to remain focused on what it is we’re about, which is revealing the love of Christ to the world, manifesting that love in our own lives, in our own relationships, in our own connections.
Everything else is out of our control.
Two people are in bed; one will be taken, and one will be left – but which one? We have no control over that. One woman is taken while grinding grain, the other is left – but which one? We have no power over that. It’s when we believe that we do have power, when we believe that we can control, that we begin to lose sight of the path that we need to be on. Love isn’t a matter of controlling anyone; that’s an error people often make. Love is a surrender, an opening, and when’s it’s God’s, it’s unconditional, which is what we strive for.
As for the last line of the gospel, where the body lies, there the vultures gather. How many can pull up a visual on that one? We see it as being a violent and ugly scene, but the truth is that the vultures are gathering to feed on what they need. They are carrion birds; that’s what they do. Where they gather, they gather to sustain themselves, and they gather around whatever is available.
Where? Where, Lord? Wherever you gather to sustain yourselves on my love for you, that’s where.
--Fr. Patrick Michaels,
Homily, November 15, 2024
Image source: Voltaire Hector, Grinding Grains, available for purchase at: https://stokeshaitianart.com/product/untitled-painting-349/
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