What's the use

One of the many disturbing things about the events of September 11, 2001, was that such mighty things – the twin towers of the World Trade Center, among the tallest buildings in the world and in the most powerful nation on the planet – could so quickly collapse into a pile of rubble and death.

Many of us live our lives in false sense of security, imagining that the things we see and have always seen around us will last forever.

They never do.

Today’s readings likewise may disturb us.

Lo, the day is coming,
blazing like an oven,
when all the proud and all evildoers
will be stubble,
and the day that is coming
will set them on fire,
leaving them neither root nor branch,
says the LORD of hosts.
Malachi 3:19

All that you see here—
the days will come
when there will not be left
a stone upon another stone
that will not be thrown down….
There will be powerful earthquakes,
famines, and plagues from place to place;
and awesome sights and mighty signs
will come from the sky.
Before all this happens, however,
they will seize and persecute you,
they will hand you over
to the synagogues and to prisons,
and they will have you led
before kings and governors
because of my name….
You will even be handed over
by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends,
and they will put some of you to death.
You will be hated by all
because of my name…
Luke 21:6,11-12,16-17

From time to time, we may be blessed with peace and prosperity (or we may not), yet such blessings are but temporary in this world. God does not promise unending stability in this life. Indeed, too often we fool ourselves into thinking that we can achieve and enjoy the good life here in this world and fail to prepare ourselves for the world to come.

We must be good stewards of what God has given us in this world, but we dare never forget that we are but pilgrims in this world, passing through the “here and now” in preparation for infinite eternity.

The only real stability we can have, the only thing to which we can confidently cling through all the ups and downs of life, through its disasters and disappointments, through our successes and even our repeated failures is our relationship with Christ. It is our relationship with Christ that will bring us through all this life may throw at us and will, according to his own plan and his own time, bring us beyond this world into the happiness that will never end.

So now, if we enjoy success, we must use it to draw closer to Christ; if we suffer, we must use it to draw closer to Christ; if we feel empty, we must use it to draw closer to Christ.

We must take everything in life that we have (and everything in life that we may lose) as an opportunity to do God’s will and to draw closer to Christ in the wonders of his grace that will never end.