Have you ever bought live lobsters
and cooked them at home? If you have,
and probably even if you haven’t, you know that you start with the lobster in
cold water and slowly and steadily the water heats up and the poor lobster
probably doesn’t even know he’s boiling until it’s too late and he’s turned all
red. Lobsters, you see, are not very
good at reading the signs of the times.
But
reading the signs of the times is exactly what Jesus is calling us to do in
this morning’s Gospel from St. Luke. Be
alert to what is going on around you, He tells us. Certainly be alert to what is happening in
our culture, in our society. It is kind
of scary to think about, huh? The culture,
our society, our nation even, often can seem
to be slowly and steadily heading toward ruin.
I was reading a presidential poll the other day that asked the poll participants
their religion – a full 21% said they have no religion at all! And I imagine that percentage is growing, not
retreating. Not yet at least.
Well,
we must stay alert and be attentive to the signs of our times. And we must do what we can to be the presence
of Jesus Christ in the world – in the workplace, in our schools, in our
political discourse. We are called to a
New Evangelization – to bring to a world desperately in need of salvation the presence
of its Savior, Jesus Christ. We must do
what we can. And trust that God is in
charge.
But
there’s another way of looking at this Gospel.
And that involves our own spiritual lives. Jesus is calling us, I think, to be alert to
the signs of the times in our own lives.
How is our progress in our spiritual journey? Where are we slipping and falling? Are we letting sin take root in our lives and
slowly and steadily turn up the heat?
How alert are we to the signs in our own souls. Thankfully, with God’s grace we have more
control over our spiritual progress than we do over our national culture. We can be attentive to the movements of the
Spirit in our life, be attentive to how God is calling us. And we have prayer, spiritual reading and the
gift of the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist and Reconciliation, to keep us
on track.
For
our own spiritual lives are important not only for our own individual
salvation, not only so that you and I may one day see the face of God as our
psalm beautifully describes our eternal destiny. No, how we live our lives is important for
our Church, and for our society. The
New Evangelization starts right here, in our own hearts, in our own lives. The first step in the New Evangelization is
the evangelization of our very selves.
Only then can we go forth to effectively present to the world the
presence of Our Blessed Lord, Jesus Christ.
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