In last Sunday’s Gospel text, we hear how Jesus consoled his disciples. They were to face troubles, we know, and would be persecuted. This was important for them - St. Mark's followers would be the first to read this Gospel, so they were given some encouragement in the face of adversity. This text also says something to us as we face the troubles of our time.
On Wednesday, we reflected on what Jesus said about the world's end: only God knows the time or the hour. Today, we are deeply concerned about the growing critical condition of our planet. This week, COP29 is being held in Baku, Azerbaijan. We know that something serious has to be done to halt the effects of human industry on the planet. If we are honest, the real issue of our concern is the end of our lives. It is ultimately about the inability of the
planet to sustain life and our death. Death disturbs us; it upsets our equilibrium.
Jesus wants to do what he did for his first disciples for us today. He wants us not to let our hearts be troubled. Jesus knows he will be with us amid everything - he told us his words will not pass away. He wants us to have confidence that we are never alone. Ultimately, he wants us to trust that he has won victory over sin and death. And it is
precisely because of this that we can live hope-filled lives even when things around us seem troubled. We can face great difficulties, knowing that we will fall into the hands of a loving God who sent his only Son so that we might be saved.
Jesus does not tell us to deny the troubled times we live in. He invites us to face them with boldness. Perhaps we are being nudged not to deny anything of the dark reality around us—whether
that is our own mortality or the fragility of the planet we live on and its ability to sustain us—but to surrender.
Faced with the troubles of our world and planet, our reflection on the end of the world invites us to surrender to a love that will love us and respond with all the love we can.
Take some time today to express your gratitude to God for the
never-ending love that is yours. Ask the Lord for the grace to surrender to love. Ask the Lord to love in troubled times as much as God loves those around us and our planet. What does God have to say to you in return?
Reflections by Russell Pollitt SJ
