Made for Love

As we draw near to Advent the Gospel readings move into Jesus’ last visit to Jerusalem before his death and resurrection. Each of Matthew, Mark, and Luke have a version of what we hear from Luke today. It is an apocalyptic passage, foretelling great trials and great destruction. Quite possibly, the first hearers of the passage related it to the destruction of the Temple in the year 70.  Many in the early Christian communities also expected Christ to return soon. 

That Second Coming hasn’t happened yet, but trials and destruction are with us in abundance. And Jesus encourages his followers to patience, perseverance, and endurance. 

Rather than wondering when the Lord will return, as some do, we might take that advice to heart.  The Australian scripture scholar, Michael Trainor, links this advice to that earlier part of Luke’s gospel, in chapter 12, where among other things Jesus tells his disciples not to worry about what they are going to eat or wear. Think, he said, of the flowers, more beautiful than any king’s robes, and remember ‘if that is how God clothes a flower which is growing wild today and is thrown into the furnace tomorrow, how much more will he look after you’.

In today’s reading Jesus also warns against being led astray by false messiahs. Here we might remember his instruction, elsewhere, that his followers are not to be like the kings of this world, lording it over their subjects, but are to exercise the leadership of service.

So the patience, perseverance, and endurance which are advised today are about trusting in God’s goodness. But they are also about persevering in doing what is right (as St Paul also says). Pope Francis, in Laudato Si’, wrote of how we are damaging our common home, through pollution, the loss of biodiversity, and climate damage. 

Against that litany of damage, which requires urgent attention, Francis also reminded us that we are capable of the best, ‘for we were made for love’, and he urged us to ‘regain the conviction that we need one another, that we have a shared responsibility for others and the world, and that being good and decent are worth it’.  Following St Therese of Lisieux, he ‘invited us to practise the little way of love, not to miss out on a kind word, a smile or any small gesture which sows peace and friendship’. 

Jim McAloon