by Sister Gretchen Johnston
“The day is coming!” “There will be signs!” “Be vigilant!”
I confess when I hear statements like this, especially every year, I become increasingly skeptical. I know there is a purpose for these statements, but being vigilant all the time is wearying.
Have you ever seen people walking around with signs that say something like “The end is near” and “Repent, or you’ll end up in hell” or “God hates sinners!” To me, that is no end of annoying, especially when they are in a crowded place and I am focused on something else.
Why is it annoying? I always feel it is judgmental, that I am being judged in some way. The readings for today feel just like that, that I am being judged for something that I should know what it is. I haven’t thought about the coming of Christ every single moment.
There is judgment, yes, but notice how I have become the judge. I am judging myself guilty of not thinking about the coming of Christ, the just one.
There must be a middle ground here! I physically cannot think about the future coming of the Messiah every single moment. Neither do I think I should pray for this. But equally, I cannot lull myself into autopilot and just coast along and pay attention to everything but Christ. Pray, yes. But what should I pray for?
I think the answer can be found in our Benedictine charism, to seek God. Where can I find God in everyday life? I had a mentally challenged homeless person come up to me once and tell me about the image of Jesus that she saw in a piece of toast. I thanked her for telling me and tried to move on, but she wouldn’t let me go until I acknowledged that it was holy. I also told her that, rather than holding onto it, that God had given it to her as a reminder but it was meant to be eaten as food. She didn’t feel like it was the right thing for her to eat, so she decided to give it to someone else on the street.
It’s easy to laugh uneasily at this story, but she did have the right idea. That piece of toast was to her holy, and to be given to another as a sign of God’s love. God was there with that woman, encompassing not only the piece of toast but also her heart.
I think this grace is what to pray for. In the Gospel today, Jesus is quoted as saying “Pray that you may have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man.” The strength to seek God everywhere, even in a homeless person and a piece of toast.
The strength to seek God in what is imminent, right here, right now. God is in the person who makes mistakes. God is in the second, third, and all the chances you give that person. God is in the person who sings off-key or marches out of step. God is in the patient understanding you give to that person. God is in the unconformity of another. If the unconformity is not appropriate, then when we speak about it it must be acknowledged that God is in that person too. That God-spark must not be extinguished, even as we ask that person to do a task differently.
The more we do this, the closer we will be to inhabiting the secure city of God spoken about in the first reading. City, I believe, in this context, is not a geographical area but a state of being.
This doesn’t solve the problem of the people walking around with signs saying “The end is near!” They are pointing, albeit in a very judgmental and manipulative way, to this reality of the kingdom of God being present right here, right now. The only thing they have wrong is one word: instead of saying “The end is near,” they should say “the beginning is near.”
