Investment advisors talk about future proofing, as if the uncertainties of our world were something you could “insulate” yourself against. Yet, today's television and other media bring into our homes the disasters and violence and suffering of the whole world; and people ask: where all this is leading us? We can switch off such sources of information, just as we can ignore the Gospel. But, today’s call is to wake up.
Some people live in fear, not just physical fear of disaster or when serious illness strikes our family. It’s more a fear that life and our lives are pointless – that we won’t reach our goals, that no one will ever love us or acknowledge us or that ultimately we won’t be remembered.
To this we are reminded that those who suffer and die are not forgotten in God’s eyes. The challenge is to see the signs of hope in our world, the efforts to achieve a fairer and more unified world. They are, like budding branches on a tree. In each moment of our lives, in every age, God is always present. The things we've built around us may be temporal, but God is with us for eternity. There may be war and earthquake, but the new birth is coming. There may be some who lead us astray, but God has come down to earth, so that we may be ultimately at home with Him.
(Comments to Tom at tomascox@eircom.net )