The Word Of Peace
Homiletic Reflections On Peacemaking

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti

32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

This month on CBS a two night mini-series entitled, "Titanic" will be aired. The extraordinary tragedy of the Titanic had many dimensions to it. One was that this largest luxury ocean liner was supposed to be "unsinkable". Another dimension of the tragedy was what may appear to be a non-chalant attitude on the part of the captain to a number of Iceberg warnings. But one of the more important dimensions of this tragedy was the fact that no one expected it! People were going about the task of enjoying the cruise as we would expect them to! But suddenly their lives were turned upside down. At that moment their mortality became real, tangible and quite near!

Life itself is like this. We seem to be cruising along, rather non-chalantly, when suddenly and sometimes violently, our lives are turned upside down. Suddenly those trivial things of life that consumed much of our energy are no longer of concern.

Jesus' parable is jarring in its insistence that we be vigilant and prepared for the sudden arrival of God's reign--already being felt in the ministry and person of Jesus ! The choice for the Kingdom must come now --it is urgent. This is an important aspect of Jesus' message. The urgency of the moment, to choose to live one's life in faithfulness to this

Kingdom must begin today, Because we may not get another day in which to make the choice!!!

Our life's choices to be honest, loving, compassionate, courageous and healing, in essence, is to choose to live like Jesus. This shapes the kind of person one is becoming. St. Paul reminds us that the resurrection hope of Christians compels them to live like Jesus, despite the sacrifice, the risk and the cost ! He reminds us that in Jesus' resurrection we are called to glory with him, if only we have the wisdom to live and die like him! Paul's concern is that we accept this call today, now!

In our day to day lives such wisdom allows us to savor the things and people we so often miss because of our busyness. This wisdom of making our lives count allows us to be free from our semi-neurotic compulsions and obsessions, our anxiety about trivial and sometimes large things in life, and allows us to experience the moment! Perhaps in doing this we come experience joy, peace, meaning and buoyancy in life. We come to live fully in present, fully in God's presence and in the presence of others' with an eye to God's present and coming rule. We then may take the time to tell the people we love, that we love them!  We then may take the time to do what we know is the right thing to do, because we want our lives to count for something good. In responding to Jesus, we want our lives to look like his ! Then when we knock on the door, he will recognize us and we him!

The 19th century philos. Dr. Johnson once remarked: " No person is better focused than one who known he/she hangs in the morning ". Our lives can be focused in this way too . The rapidly approaching Reign of God can summon us to make our lives count, but so can death. Our Mortality can be a source of profound pain and sorrow, but it can also be a door to freedom and responsibility. Knowing we have only so much time forces us to consider how we should live. For Christians, in the light of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we can live and die like Jesus, because the Father tells this counts!

In the movie " Star Trek Generations" the Captain of the Enterprise remarks to his executive officer: " Someone once told me that time was a predator that stalked us all our lives. " But I believe that time is a companion that accompanies us on the journey. It reminds us to cherish every moment, because they'll never come again. What we leave behind is not as important as how we lived."

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti, D. Min.
Uploaded January 14, 2000