Quinquagesima Sunday 7.2.16 Suspense
Suspense – not knowing what is going to happen next. We enjoy it if it is a film but not so much in real life.
Most films have a happy ending. We are not so sure with some of the problems we confront.
God can see past, present and future all at once, but for us the future is very hazy.
So He takes pity on us in our anxiety, and assures us that we will be alright if only we trust in Him.
He does not tell us everything, just enough to get by.
For instance, in Acts 1,7-8 He says, Do not worry about dates and times but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you…
There are countless biblical stories of people being given a little information, and expected to take the rest of the message on trust.
To Abraham you will have a son (already improbable); and then, a little later: kill the son as a sacrifice. Yet the prophecy is fulfilled.
The Annunciation. And you will have a son. How can this be since I am a virgin?
And today’s Gospel: The Son of Man is going to be killed and then rise again. How often does that happen?
Yet all these things happen, despite seeming improbable or impossible.
God is refining us, like gold in the fire, so that we come to a point of trust in Him; where we would believe anything He said, without argument, doubt, or even hesitation.
We don’t know a lot of the details but we know this much: that God is in command, and that is enough.
If we trust Him we do not care that there are things we do not understand. He is the most reliable reality in our life. Nothing or no one could give that much security.
Strangely, we cling to our own experiences and calculations, and we say that such things cannot happen, because we in our tiny world have not seen it.
eg resurrection cannot happen, because I have not seen it!
We dare to put God on trial and say, You don’t exist; or You don’t keep Your promises.
Every single miracle someone will say, It can't happen. A man can't be God. A dead man cannot rise. A virgin cannot have a child. God would not become man. You can't get water out of a rock; nor bread from the sky. Nor divide a river to walk through.
These are all things which did happen.
We have a big record of past stories that had surprise endings.
They all point to the same thing; that God keeps His word.
We still have some things to happen - such as the Second Coming of Christ, and the general Judgment; and other things like the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart
These things are as certain as the things which have already happened.
We have made it difficult for ourselves because of our sin. We have made the obvious obscure.
So we are training ourselves to see things in a different way, and so to come to that happy ending.
We can control at least our own destiny, and we help the overall story when we do that.
We hold on to that trust in God like it was the last piece of wood on the high seas, and we will come through however rough the ride can be.
Not every prophecy or prediction we hear is necessarily from God. We have to sift the wheat from the chaff. But we do not exclude the miraculous simply because it is miraculous. With God all things are possible.
No matter what, we will be there at our post, all the time.
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