Father Rick Bolte's Homily

C: Thirty-Third Sunday of Ordinary Time            2007-11-18

When I went to Covington Latin School, in the days when corporal punishment was still in vogue, we had a teacher who was a former boxer.  Among the students there was lots of fear.  But there were a few students who did not share this fear; they were the members of the school’s golf team.  He was the coach and they had a relationship with him the rest of us did not.

In our short reading from Malachi, we hear that the Day of the Lord is like the heat of an oven that will burn to stubble all the proud and evildoers.  We tend to hear this and react with fear of that day we call “The Day of the Lord,” “The Second Coming,” and “The Endo f the World.”  We often don’t listen long enough to hear the second part of this short reading.  For those who fear (that is “respect”) God’s name, this Day of the Lord will be the sun of justice with healing rays.

We might recall that in the early days of the church one of the biggest issues was Jesus’ delay in coming.  They weren’t afraid of the Day of the Lord but longed for it.  Today’s Gospel speaks of wars, earthquakes, famines, pestilence, and persecution.  But these are not predictors of the Final Day.  Jesus says “do not be terrified” by these things.  When the Gospel of Luke was written, the temple had been destroyed; there had been war and famine, and pestilence.  Peter, Paul, James, and others had been put to death for their faith.  Jesus’ words are meant to be solace for those who fear the world is out of control and maybe Jesus’ promises may not come true.  By Jesus predicting these things, it reassures his followers that this was all foreseen.

Fear is for those who do not have a real relationship with God.  Since they can’t trust God’s love and more likely cling to the things of this world, they try to convince themselves they have done well enough to deserve heaven and worry about loosing what this world offers.  Our “fear of the Lord” is about being afraid of God but respecting the awesome love and goodness of God.  We have nothing to fear from the Day of the Lord but it is for us who truly know God, it is a day of rejoicing!