Is This The End?

 

I’ve had a number of people tell me that they felt that these might be the end days.  My usual response is that “I thought only the Father knew the day and the hour.”  And, privately, I thought of all the suffering people I know.  There does seem to be no solution, at least no satisfying one, and no end to the suffering in the world.  We can’t fix our lives, and we are not as happy as we once were, and pray to be again.  So, we can’t imagine any solution, but God’s bringing about the end.

I’m reminded of the story of the starfish on the beach.  Thousands of them washed onto the sand, and a little boy was tossing some back into the sea.  A nearby man said: “What are you doing that for?  You can’t make any difference with all these dying fish.”  And the boy picked up another starfish and tossed into the waves.  “I made a difference for that one,” he said.

Jesus came into a world that had forgotten God.  His followers were tortured and killed --- and still are today --- for trying to save one soul.  And the world changed, one soul at a time, but it was not without witness; it was not without suffering.  Is this the end?  Perhaps if the Father wills it, but we are here to save souls, one at a time, and perhaps most foremost, our own.

Suffering, trust, love in action.  It’s the history of Christianity, the heart of Christ, ongoing to the end, and beyond.

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The men’s group have started reading the book titled: Eucharist, by Bishop Robert Barron.  His introductory chapter includes the story told in the movie Babette’s Feast.  I greatly liked that particular movie and, if I had ever known, I had forgotten that it was a parable of the Eucharist.  It is a simple story of a great woman who gave up her greatness to live among, befriend, and serve the poor, and then at the end showed her greatness for all to see in her final action, in an amazing meal, in which she gave her all for them.  It is a great introduction to Bishop Barron’s book.  It has me hungering for more.