I often end the introductory theology course
that I teach at Loyola University
by asking the students
how they would spend their time
if they knew that the world was ending
in twenty-four hours.
A few, in an obvious attempt to curry favor,
say they would pray or go to confession.
But most give more honest answers,
and many of their answers are unsurprising:
spending time with family and friends,
traveling to a place they’ve always wanted to see
or revisiting a place they love,
maxing-out their credit card on a shopping spree
or going skydiving.
that I teach at Loyola University
by asking the students
how they would spend their time
if they knew that the world was ending
in twenty-four hours.
A few, in an obvious attempt to curry favor,
say they would pray or go to confession.
But most give more honest answers,
and many of their answers are unsurprising:
spending time with family and friends,
traveling to a place they’ve always wanted to see
or revisiting a place they love,
maxing-out their credit card on a shopping spree
or going skydiving.
This year, one student said she would forgive
those who had hurt her in her life.
She said that she has been told by others
that while she forgives, in the sense of moving on,
she never forgets who it is who has hurt her
and she cuts them ruthlessly out of her life
so they can never hurt her again.
But, she said, if the world were ending
she thought she could really let all that go.
When I asked her why that was,
she said that she would no longer be afraid
that those who had hurt her in the past
could hurt her again in the future.
Her words sounded a theme
common in my student’s answers:
they don’t do what they really want to do
because they are afraid.
They are afraid
that if they do not follow the safe path
of degrees and careers and societal expectations
then they won’t be able to make their lives secure,
to control what happens to them,
to keep pain and sorrow at bay.
But the prospect of the world’s end,
while in one sense terrifying,
in another sense frees them from fear
because it frees them from the illusion of control;
it frees them to live their remaining hours differently.
In this one student’s case, the difference
is between a simulated, half-hearted forgiveness
that is focused on managing hurt
and a forgiveness that is genuinely freeing
both for the one who forgives
and for the one who is forgiven.
I thought of her words as I reflected
on today’s story of Joseph.
The angel in Joseph’s dream does not simply
offer Joseph an explanation of Mary’s pregnancy
that exonerates her of wrongdoing.
Rather, the angel tells Joseph, “Do not be afraid
to take Mary your wife into your home.”
Do not be afraid of what the future holds.
Do not be afraid to plumb the depths of mercy.
Do not be afraid,
because the world’s time has grown short,
and the world you know is about to end.
Not, of course, in a chronological sense.
After all, here we are over 2000 years later.
But the world we seek to manage and control
even as it runs ruthlessly toward death,
is about to be brought to an end
by the birth of Emmanuel—
God who is with us.
The angel announces
not simply the birth of a child
but the birth of a new world
and the death of an old one.
In the face of that world’s end,
rather than putting Mary aside,
Joseph puts aside his fear
and his desire for control
and in mercy welcomes Mary.
St. John Chrysostom says
that when Joseph does this,
“It is like the sun not yet arisen,
but from afar more than half the world
is already illuminated by its light.”
The light of mercy that will flood the world
with the birth of Emmanuel
is already appearing in Joseph’s act
of grace and mercy.
rather than putting Mary aside,
Joseph puts aside his fear
and his desire for control
and in mercy welcomes Mary.
St. John Chrysostom says
that when Joseph does this,
“It is like the sun not yet arisen,
but from afar more than half the world
is already illuminated by its light.”
The light of mercy that will flood the world
with the birth of Emmanuel
is already appearing in Joseph’s act
of grace and mercy.
And for us who live
on the near side of that birth,
how much more ought we to live
lives of fearless mercy?
St. Paul tells us that
“whoever is in Christ is a new creation:
the old things have passed away;
behold, new things have come.”
To believe that Jesus Christ is Emmanuel,
is to believe that the light of God is even now
pouring into the darkness of our fears,
and bringing the world ruled by fear to an end.
To believe that God was in Christ
reconciling the world to himself
is to be freed from the task
of making our lives secure,
for it is to believe that even now,
within the dying shell of the old world
a new world is ceaselessly being born,
a world of grace and mercy.
on the near side of that birth,
how much more ought we to live
lives of fearless mercy?
St. Paul tells us that
“whoever is in Christ is a new creation:
the old things have passed away;
behold, new things have come.”
To believe that Jesus Christ is Emmanuel,
is to believe that the light of God is even now
pouring into the darkness of our fears,
and bringing the world ruled by fear to an end.
To believe that God was in Christ
reconciling the world to himself
is to be freed from the task
of making our lives secure,
for it is to believe that even now,
within the dying shell of the old world
a new world is ceaselessly being born,
a world of grace and mercy.
So I ask you, what would you do
if you knew the world was ending
in twenty-four hours?
Would you not do that thing
that is most important?
Would you not spend that time
on acts that can endure beyond this world,
on acts of grace and mercy?
And what is keeping you
from doing those things now,
on this day?
For the world of our fears is ending,
and God is calling us to step into
the world of Emmanuel,
the world of the God who is with us.
Let us pray that God,
who calls us to mercy,
will have mercy on us all.
if you knew the world was ending
in twenty-four hours?
Would you not do that thing
that is most important?
Would you not spend that time
on acts that can endure beyond this world,
on acts of grace and mercy?
And what is keeping you
from doing those things now,
on this day?
For the world of our fears is ending,
and God is calling us to step into
the world of Emmanuel,
the world of the God who is with us.
Let us pray that God,
who calls us to mercy,
will have mercy on us all.
