<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a week of great frustration and suffering, especially for the people of Boston.\u00a0 A terrible, senseless, evil act of violence aimed specifically at indiscriminately hurting innocent people was carried out by two young, misguided, men.\u00a0 The events closed down a major city for almost 2 days; and now, over a hundred people are recovering in a place just like this, a hospital, some of them wondering what life will be like without an arm or leg.\u00a0 The rest of us can only stand by feeling helpless and frustrated.<\/p>\n
I suspect that visitors to this hospital and even some of the staff feel much the same way about a loved one suffering here or a patient they are caring for- frustrated and helpless, and maybe even a little angry that God would allow such things to happen.<\/p>\n
In the second reading, John has a vision.\u00a0 It\u2019s a vision in which he sees all of those who are saved, and it is a great multitude that no one could count.\u00a0 That seems rather uplifting- that so many will be saved.\u00a0 But recall these words from the reading:\u00a0 \u201cThese are the ones that have survived the time of great distress.\u201d\u00a0 And so, all of those who are saved had to survive a period of great distress- all of them.\u00a0 It\u2019s critical that we keep that in mind as we go through life.\u00a0 Into every life a little rain must fall.\u00a0 And in some cases, a lot of rain falls, doesn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n
In today\u2019s world, our technology and medical progress have seemingly made it possible for people to live comfortable and pain free lives.\u00a0 But this is really just an illusion, isn\u2019t it., Because none of us will live forever, and none of us can be comfortable for our whole life in this world no matter how rich and gifted we are.<\/p>\n
Michael Jackson comes to mind as a talented person who could \u201cbuy\u201d any type of happiness;\u00a0 But it was all an illusion; deep inside he was hurting.\u00a0 It is just unrealistic to expect our lives to be comfortable and pain free.<\/p>\n
A person who embraces unrealistic expectations, will have to face the consequences.\u00a0 It\u2019s as simple as that.\u00a0 And while the consequences for that person may be his own pain and suffering, all too often his consequences are our consequences as well, like in the Boston marathon bombings.<\/p>\n
In the first reading, the Jews are a perfect example of what I\u2019m talking about.\u00a0 They expected a worldly messiah, someone who would rise up as an earthly king and rescue them from the oppressive Romans.\u00a0 All of this talk by Paul and Barnabas about Jesus being the Messiah- a man who was crucified, the worst humiliation and suffering imaginable in his time, such talk angered them and caused them to \u201cstir up persecution\u201d of Paul and the Christians.\u00a0 So, the consequences of their unrealistic expectations were that they alienated themselves from the saving message of Christ; and they stirred up of persecution of innocent Christians.<\/p>\n
You and I face a real challenge in this changing world.\u00a0 We must not expect too much from it.\u00a0 We cannot expect to be free of all pain and suffering; and at the same time, we cannot let it paralyze us.<\/p>\n
All of us are subject to a test- a test that purifies us and validates our faith and conviction.\u00a0 And how do we survive that test?\u00a0 Hope- Christian hope is the answer, in which we look forward to the future and move on. And that hope is very well summed up in the Gospel.\u00a0 If we belong to Christ, then we follow him.\u00a0 He has guaranteed us everlasting life- that is our hope.\u00a0 And it is not a vague, uncertain hope.\u00a0 Rather, it is a sure thing- for as Jesus says, those who believe in him and follow him cannot be taken out of his hands.\u00a0 But like sheep, we need to trust that God\u2019s way, Jesus\u2019 way, is the answer.\u00a0 That means we listen to the voice of the shepherd and above all, trust in Jesus like the sheep trust their shepherd.\u00a0 We don\u2019t always have to understand.\u00a0 But we do need to trust.\u00a0 And then, we need to cheerfully move on and project that hope.\u00a0 That\u2019s what others who are experiencing the pain need the most.\u00a0 It gives them Christian hope as well, no matter how bad things get in our world; because ultimately God will wipe away every tear from our eyes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fourth Sunday of Easter Acts 13: 14, 43-52; Rev 7: 9, 14b-17; John 10: 27-30 Dc. Larry Brockman It\u2019s been a week of great frustration and suffering, especially for the people of Boston.\u00a0 A terrible, senseless, evil act of violence aimed specifically at indiscriminately hurting innocent people was carried out by two young, misguided, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[155],"tags":[211,198,210],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=334"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":336,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334\/revisions\/336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}