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.