The stars shall fall from the sky!
Today Jesus paints a picture which Scripture scholars describe as "apocolyptic"
It can refer to the near future as well as to the end times. In this case we know that earthshaking terrible times lay close at hand.
In 72 AD the Romans would lay siege to the holy city Jerusalem, lay waste the city, and destroy the holy temple. The destruction was so devastating that only the foundation stones remain today. You have all seen pictures of pilgrims praying at the only wall remaining from the original temple.
So what does the Gospel have to say to us today?
Could global warming be a similiar apocolyptic event in our time?
Scientists have recently discovered that the planet Mars once had flowing rivers and a more temperate climate. Climates can and do change.
The Holy Father calls us to recognise an apolyptic crisis looming in our own time:
Pope Francis:
"The earth, our home is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth. In many parts of the earth the elderly lament that once beautiful landscapes are now covered wth rubbish."
"We are presently witnessing a disturbing warming of the climatic system...A number of scientific studies indicate that most global warming in recent decades is due to the great concentration of greenhouse gases released mainly as a result of human activity."
"The exploitation of the planet has already exceeded acceptable limits and we have still not solved the problem of poverty."
"The climate is a common good belonging to all and meant for all."
"We need to sterengthen the conviction that we are one single human family...."
"We must regain the conviction that we need one another, that we have a shared responsibility for others and for the world...
"We are not faced with two separate crises, one environtmental, and the other social, but rather one complex crisis both social and environmental."
As we approach the end of the church year the readings from Scripture relate to endings.
But we are still in Ordinary time though, and the color of Ordinary time is green!
We need to become more green conscious in response to the Pope's plea for the earth.
Two wonderful resources for this are:
The Union Of Concerned Scientists.
Visit them on the web at:
and
Environmental Defense
Visit them at:
EDF.org
And so we pray:
O God help us to tend the beautiful garden we live in.
Gude us by your Spirit to be proactive for our Earth.
Deliver us from non activity
to action, from apathy to energy,
from despair to hope.
Amen