21 October 2016
Friday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
A Jesuit theologian and philosopher Bernard Lonergan once wrote, “faith has the power of undoing decline. Decline disrupts a culture with conflicting ideologies. It inflicts on individuals the social, economic and psychological pressures that for human frailty amount to determinism. It multiplies and heaps up the abuses and absurdities that breed resentment, hatred, anger, violence. It is not propaganda and it is not argument but religious faith that will liberate human reasonableness from its ideological prisons. It is not the promises of men but religious hope that can enable men to resist the vast pressures of social decay.”
In today’s reading from Luke’s Gospel, Jesus challenges us to be awakened in our hearts to see more clearly. Jesus said, “You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky; why do you not know how to interpret the present time?” It’s not easy to interpret the present time especially when there are so many situations in our world that are difficult and challenging. From the worst refugee crisis since World War II to the decaying of democratic culture in the West, this world is enduring much suffering. Let us talk to Jesus now and ask him what would it be like to open the eyes of our hearts to the greatest challenges the world currently faces.