Possible Preaching Themes
Possible Scientific Resources
- The power of fire for refining elements and renewing the land (from the first reading);
- Living in the eye of a storm, in the midst of human and natural destruction (from the Gospel).
- The Power of Fire
- The story of humans discovering the transformative power of fire https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2015.0164
- Fire’s refining power in metallurgy https://www.britannica.com/science/metallurgy
- Understanding fire’s impact on our lives and our world: an historical perspective https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/59/7/593/334816
- Fire and our environment https://www.fs.usda.gov/pnw/page/fire-effects-environment
- The nature and impact of Hurricanes
- The science and art of meteorology https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/science-art-meteorology
- The impact of climate change on hurricanes https://www.c2es.org/content/hurricanes-and-climate-change/
- Understanding the structure of hurricanes http://www.hurricanescience.org/science/science/hurricanestructure/
- The positive and negative effects of hurricanes https://environmentgo.com/effects-of-hurricanes/
Homily Outline Combining Resources
Homily outline: Hurricanes and the reign of God
- Situating ourselves in the liturgical year
- The liturgical year is an annual cycle of seasons and feasts.
- It technically begins on the first week of Advent and ends with the Solemnity of Christ the King.
- This Sunday we are close to the ending and beginning of a new year.
- Already the liturgy and its lectionary texts are colored with notions of endings, something we do not have to wait for until next week.
- Moreover, this “ending-beginning” lens does not evaporate after the feast of Christ the King.
- To the contrary, images of endings and beginnings will carry over into the First Sunday of Advent.
- This lack of a clear demarcation between the end of the liturgical year and the beginning of another is symbolic of our own life journey, continuously marked with endings and beginnings.
- A scary Gospel
- In today’s gospel Jesus predicts the destruction of the Jewish Temple with graphic language: “there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down.”
- Beyond the demolition of that beloved sanctuary, Jesus announces widespread unrest and turmoil,
- nations rising against nations
- even the created world wreaking havoc with earthquakes and famine.
Is Jesus just a prophet of doom, is he trying to scare his disciples into believing, or is there some other revelation here?
- Luke’s gospel was written long after the predicted destruction of the Temple occurred at the hands of the Romans in 70 AD.
- This key historical fact helps us understand that this passage is not a prediction of what is to come,
- as much as a reflection on the loss and challenges, destruction, and death that punctuate the lives of every believer.
- Such unsettling imagery is employed for its shock effect: jolting believers into reckoning with God’s reign breaking forth all around us.
- Living in the midst of hurricanes
- While we might hear news about famines or plagues in other parts of the world, these are not our everyday experience.
- The Gospel image of earthquakes might be closer to home, but major earthquakes in the continental U.S. are few and far between; the last was in Northridge California in 1994.
- Hurricanes, however, are a growing threat to major US population centers.
- The effects of hurricanes such as Katrina (2005), Sandy (202) and Harvey (2017) are still being felt;
- the impact of hurricane Ian (2022) will last for decades.
Because they are so powerful, and can cause such destruction and loss of life
- they are a focus of much scientific study.
- Meteorologists observe and track hurricanes from their genesis to their dissipation.They read sea temperatures, wind velocity and other factors to predict their paths.
A hurricane alert system, first created by William Reid, has been in place since 1847 saving thousands of lives and prompting more rigorous standards for construction in hurricane zones.
- People are more prepared. Constructions are stronger, people have time to evacuate, find safety and shelter.
- More recently, the growing intensity and destructive power of hurricanes serves as a broader warning against climate change, and the need to be responsible stewards of creation.
- The hurricanes of our shared and personal lives
- While we all don’t live in hurricane zones, we understand the challenging and destructive winds of change that blow through our society and our lives.
- Sometimes we experience calm – like the eye of a hurricane – but that calm is not insured.
- Today’s liturgy calls us to be attentive to these challenges, but is not a summons to anxiety or fear.
- On the contrary, Jesus presents himself as a sign of hope; he is the calm in the eye of the story:
- providing wisdom in the face of judgment
- love in the face of hatred
- perseverance in the face of persecution
- and protection in the face of adversity.
- Jesus is our bedrock of hope, no matter what is ending and beginning in our lives,
- something that must be cultivated and revealed in his body, the church.
- We are a community of “spiritual meteorologists”:
- assisting sisters and brothers to monitor the storms in their lives
- providing shelter when that is necessary
- pitching in to help rebuild when the inevitability of loss occurs
- and acknowledging the breaking through of God’s reign in the joys and sorrows of our sometimes-turbulent existence.
- Our faith does not promise a life of calm in the hurricane’s eye
- But offers every hope that in mutual care and support we can weather any storm.
Related Homily Outlines
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Preaching with Sciences
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Edward Foley, Capuchin
Duns Scotus Professor Emeritus of Spirituality
Professor of Liturgy and Music (retired)
Catholic Theological Union
Vice-Postulator, Cause of Blessed Solanus