Friday, XXIX Week of Ordinary Time
(Luke 12:54-59)
Everyone has heard of climate change. For the last thirty years the average temperatures around the world have increased. Meteorologists have linked these increases to fiercer tropical storms and longer draughts. The temperature increases certainly have brought about the melting of the polar ice caps altering the habitats of both artic animals and humans. Most people believe that we humans have triggered the increases by burning too much gasoline in cars and coal in electric power generators. However, a few scientists argue that the earth’s atmosphere heats up naturally every few hundred years or so but then cools down again.
What would Jesus do about climate change if he were here in flesh and blood? He perhaps would comment as he does in the gospel reading today. He would chastise the people for being keen preceptors of climate but blind to their own faults. He would urge us to consider seriously our sins and to change our ways. He would warn us that if we don’t seek God’s forgiveness now, it will soon be too late.
When Jesus mentions the case of an opponent turning a person over to a magistrate, he means that unless we make amends with God now, God will turn us over to Jesus who is to judge the world at the end of time. We are only fooling ourselves if we think that Jesus cannot be severe with us. We remember the parable about the five foolish virgins who were not around when the bridegroom came back and were wailing outside the wedding banquet. Jesus regularly warns us in the gospels that the something similar could happen to us.
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