How long is a generation? Twenty-five years? Fifty years? We talk of Generation X and Generation Z as both beginning in the latter half of the twentieth century, so it's clearly not much more than fifty years.
If this is true then how do we account for Our Lord's words when He says, "Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place."? Of course, He is talking of all the frightening things that will happen before the Son of Man comes in glory. If that's true, wouldn't they have happened by now?
[PAUSE]
There are prominent biblical scholars who say that because Jesus says this, He is not the promised Messiah but just a prophet waiting for the end. They say He is not the Son of Man who is to come in glory. Do not listen to them! St John the Evangelist bears wireless to Jesus saying that He will be recognised as the Son of Man when He is crucified.
Our Lord is saying quite clearly that He will come again before the end of the generation. And, yet again, we can ask ourselves, "if this is true have we missed it?"
[PAUSE]
Remember how tempting it is to worry that it's been too long and we should have seen something by now. This is a temptation of the Devil to make us downcast and despair. All through our lives, the Devil does his best to get us to focus on the earth and forget about Heaven. All the more reason for us to lift up our heads and look up! We need to wake up out of our despair at the brokenness of the World and see the coming dawn.
Yes, we're still here and the generation has not passed away. This is because there is another meaning to the word.
A mother and a father generate a family - that's what the word means, thus a generation belongs to a family. When the family is old enough, it becomes a race of people. The generation that Jesus is speaking of is the family of Abraham: the family that Abraham generates that will be as numerous as the dust of the Earth.
And so, we see that Our Lord is saying that the family of Abraham will not pass away before His return. This is good news for our Jewish brothers and sisters! The Messiah is waiting for them! But don't forget that we Christians are also of the generation of Abraham grafted in to the family as St Paul says.
[PAUSE]
When the Lord comes again, the children of Israel and the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church will be there waiting for Him. It is our duty and our joy to lift up our heads into the dark of the night to wait for His coming dawn. We have not missed it, for Man has not changed since the moment of his generation. There is still sin and there is still repentance. There is still hatred and there is still love. There is still pain and there is still an end to pain. The world may appear to be falling to all manner of war, famine, pestilence and death but Christ is still present to His People and Christ is still coming in glory: this generation has not passed away for we are that generation. This is our joy but it is our duty.
[PAUSE]
We have to show this world that the events of two thousand years in our past are still very much in our present and future. Our Faith is so old and we have been waiting a long, long time. But we are still here. The Gospel hasn't changed so we don't need to try change it for today. The grace of the sacraments hasn't changed so we don't need to try and change the way we administer them. God has not changed so we don't need to update the way we approach Him for this generation has not changed nor passed away. A church that rejects the old will never see the new.
[PAUSE]
So here we stand again at another one of two thousand Advent Sundays. And still we raise our heads from a dying world towards God's light. And still we say, "Come, Lord Jesus!" And then we have hope.
No comments:
Post a Comment