{"id":2872,"date":"2015-11-22T09:54:30","date_gmt":"2015-11-22T14:54:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/?p=2872"},"modified":"2015-11-29T09:49:53","modified_gmt":"2015-11-29T14:49:53","slug":"a-sign-of-humanity-transformed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/spiritual-reflections\/a-sign-of-humanity-transformed","title":{"rendered":"A sign of humanity transformed"},"content":{"rendered":"

A reflection by Fr. David Warren, S.F.M. on the Feast of Christ the King: Daniel 7.13-14; Revelation 1.5-8; and John 18.33-37<\/em><\/p>\n

My hometown of Peterborough, Ontario, has made the news. On the night of November 14 someone set fire to the local mosque. The mosque was not destroyed, but the fire caused more than $80,000 in damage.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the bad news. The good news is that Christians and Jews in Peterborough have offered their facilities to the Muslim congregation so that they may continue to pray. On top of that, local residents have donated more than $100,000 towards the repair of the mosque.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere sin abounds, grace abounds all the more,\u201d says St. Paul (Romans 5:20).<\/em><\/p>\n

War in Iraq and Syria is creating the greatest refugee crisis since the Second World War. More than 650,000 people are living in refugee camps in Jordan. Nearly 700,000 more\u2014including children\u2014have crossed into Europe so far this year. All are fleeing violence, lawlessness and religious persecution in their homelands.<\/p>\n

The Canadian government plans to accept 25,000 refugees by the end of the year. Some people are afraid that agents of ISIS will pose as refugees in order to come to Canada. (Actually, there are faster and easier ways for ISIS agents to enter Canada than by posing as refugees.) But where fear abounds, generosity abounds all the more.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever dark things are, goodness always re-emerges and spreads.\u201d (Pope Francis, <\/em>The Joy of the Gospel, 276)<\/p>\n

\u201cOften it seems that God does not exist: all around us we see injustice, evil, indifference, and cruelty. But it is also true that in the midst of darkness something new always springs to life. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is not an event of the past; it is a present event. Where Sin and Death seem to reign, signs of the resurrection suddenly spring up. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is an irresistible force.\u201d (The Joy of the Gospel, 276)<\/em><\/p>\n

Christ is king!<\/p>\n

When Jesus says that His kingdom is not of this world, He does not mean that He is king only in our hearts; He means that His kingdom is not based on worldly power and glory.<\/p>\n

Christ is the king of the world and of every dimension of human life, including the social, the economic, the political, the cultural, and even the ecological dimensions. Christ wants to transform every aspect of life. And He will transform every aspect of life by the same power through which He was raised from the dead.<\/p>\n

We are called to be the sign of humanity transformed\u2014to bear witness to a new way of living, a new set of values, a new way of thinking. The lives we live bear witness to the mind and teachings of Jesus.<\/p>\n

In today\u2019s gospel, Jesus says that His mission is to bear witness to the Truth\u2014the truth that God is offering us a new life in His Son. The mission of Jesus is our mission, too. Jesus made Pontius Pilate think about who Jesus is. Our mission is to make people think about the deeper meaning of life. Our mission is to make people have second thoughts.<\/p>\n

Not everyone is going to accept our witness. But that\u2019s no reason to feel resentful. Pilate didn\u2019t accept the witness of Jesus. This made Jesus sorrowful but not resentful.<\/p>\n

Christmas is a great time for some Christians to feel resentful at the world. We\u2019re apt to feel resentful that North American society no longer wants to say \u201cMerry Christmas!\u201d We\u2019re apt to resonate with the sentiments of Mr. Donald Trump, one of the contenders for the Republican nomination, who said recently, \u201cIf I become president, we\u2019re all going to be saying \u2018Merry Christmas\u2019 again. That I can tell you! That I can tell you! Unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is<\/em> hard to believe. But it\u2019s true. North America is less Christian than it used to be. In a few decades we have gone from being a society that was Christian\u2014at least outwardly\u2014to being a secular society. (The process of de-Christianization is even more advanced in Canada than it is in the United States.) We have less influence on public life than we used to have. Some Christians feel threatened by our diminishing influence on public life. And they feel resentful.<\/p>\n

North American society may no longer want to say \u201cMerry Christmas.\u201d But our mission is not to restore a bygone age; our mission is to redeem the present age. <\/em>We redeem the present age when we post signs that Christ is King. We post signs of Christ the King wherever we are\u2014in our homes, in our schools, in our places of work, in our community, and in society at large. We post signs when we welcome the stranger. We post signs when we care about the poor. We post signs when we try to build more just relationships.<\/p>\n

Will we see results in our lifetime? Maybe. Maybe not. But it doesn\u2019t matter whether we see results or not. The results are in God\u2019s hands. Bishop Kenneth Untener composed a well-known prayer that says, \u201cWe are prophets of a future not our own.\u201d We are prophets of a future that is God\u2019s. Our first reading from the Book of Daniel and our second reading assure us that the future is<\/em> in God\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view,\u201d Bishop Untener says. In the long view, Christ is going to win. And, along with Christ, we\u2019re gonna win, too!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A reflection by Fr. David Warren, S.F.M. on the Feast of Christ the King: Daniel 7.13-14; Revelation 1.5-8; and John 18.33-37 My hometown of Peterborough, Ontario, has made the news. On the night of November 14 someone set fire to the local mosque. The mosque was not destroyed, but the fire caused more than $80,000 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2872"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2872"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2924,"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2872\/revisions\/2924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}