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The Grapes of Wrath

Grapes

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.


Video games today are characterized by photorealism. Travel is quick and relatively painless. As for smart phones: One finds pictures on the Internet of all the things that used to require their own device, and now fit on that device in your pocket: Radios and CD players, cameras, DVD players, TVs, calculators, flash lights, etc.

We may truly marvel at these things and think that humanity has really arrived.

So it was for the Jews of Jesus’ day who felt like their nation had really arrived, as they contemplated the rich, beautiful adornments of the temple. But Jesus warned them that of that temple, stone would not be left upon stone.

Such admonitions could cause us to wonder: When will the next shoe drop? Dystopian post-apocalyptic stories are popular today, partly because there is a latent fear in many of our disproportionate reliance on our ultra-sophisticated technological advances.

But Jesus assures us that while, yes, conflicts will arise and bad things will happen, we need not fear total collapse until the true end–the time appointed by God.

Today’s first reading foretells what will occur when that end comes. It talks about the son of man reaping earth’s harvest with a sharp sickle, and an angel reaping the ripe grapes from the earth. This actually sounds somewhat positive until, in the last line, we learn that these grapes are cast into the winepress of God’s fury!

It is important to work for justice on the earth, to ensure that our systems of government are not oppressive, and even to strive for technological advances that can make people’s lives easier. Imagine, for example, an invention that ensured provision of fresh water to every human on the planet.

But we need not expect the earth to turn into a utopia, a near-ideal place to live, as the result of efforts for justice. Scripture is clear that the world has rebelled against God, and its state of rebellion will endure. At the end of time, the fruits the world produces as a whole will not be pleasing to God. And so, while striving for justice on this earth, we must above all strive to help others convert to Christ for the sake of their eternal welfare, after their earthly life.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Think about where your hopes lie. Do you hope in some way for an earthly utopia? Maybe you’ll finally find paradise on your next vacation… Maybe in retirement… Ask Jesus to help you understand if your earthly hopes for happiness are unrealistic and perhaps unbalanced, and to help you place your hope in His destiny for you in eternity.

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Wisdom and Folly

Oil lamp

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.


Today’s readings, in a sense, are all about the radical difference between the view of things from the perspective of eternity, vs. the view of them from the perspective of earthly time.

Both the first reading from St. Paul, which is one of those great, moving, passionate Pauline declarations, and the gospel from today juxtapose foolishness and wisdom: The paradoxical foolishness of the earthly and temporal view, and the deep wisdom of the eternal view.

We can share St. Paul’s passion. Consider the time we are living in. The world is obsessed with “clanging cymbals,” “noisy gongs” (cf. 1 Cor. 13). People are running to and fro in fear of this and that, condemning on social media those whose views on rapidly passing realities is not their own, with a bitterness that implies that the definitive welfare of humankind depends on unanimity on these matters.

Noise, clamor, fear, angst, hand-wringing–these are the fruits of the wisdom of the world, which St. Paul describes in the first reading. For it is the wisdom of the world that seeks an earthly utopia, achieved through power and domination. And because earthly utopia, such a tempting objective, is perennially elusive, its advocates remain perennially bitter.

The crucifixion of Christ could not appear more foolish against the backdrop of this earth-centric view. It is the opposite of all that is needed to build the earthly utopia: Weakness, powerlessness, rejection, failure. And how Paul loves it, for all that; how beautifully he identifies its deeper wisdom.

For, if power and domination are the currency of the earthly utopia, love and self-giving are the currency of eternal life and happiness. Countless willing Christian martyrs, joyful and happy to sacrifice their lives for the eternal salvation of others in imitation of their Lord, put an exclamation point on the mute eloquence of a God who takes on flesh only to sacrifice Himself for the prize of eternal happiness for souls. Paul himself was ultimately one of these.

The superficiality of the foolish virgins in the today’s gospel mirrors the flesh-deep, utopian “wisdom” of the world. They brought their lamps, but no oil. Like the seed in the parable of the sower that fell on ground with no depth (cf. Mt. 13), they could not stick with it for the long haul. So it is with superficial Christians, who buy into a feel-good religion aimed only at a happy community of friends who like each other and do nice things, rather than fully and deeply buying into the wisdom of the crucified Christ.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Rather than taking the wisdom of the cross for granted, ask Jesus why–really, why–He opted for this path rather than bringing the earthly domination of God through the most obvious means: earthly power. Then, consider the concrete areas in which you yourself are perturbed by the way the powers of the world lean away from the Gospel. How does the crucified Christ answer these perturbations? Ask Him how you can conform your life more fully to the wisdom of the cross.

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