Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help
Psalms 42 & 43
take courage, all you people of the land, says the LORD; work, for I am with you, says the LORD of hosts
Hagai 2:4b
I know your works; you have a name of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death
Revelations 3: 1b-2a
For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes… they will hand you over to be tortured and will put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of my name. Then many will fall away, and they will betray one another and hate one another…the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world, as a testimony to all the nations; and then the end will come.
Matthew 24: 7-14
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The love of many will grow cold… we may wonder, how could it not grow cold with so much torture and hate, pain, death, betrayal, injustice… the end of time. How is this good news?
The people of El Salvador lived through such dark times as these during their Civil War in the 1980s. Yesterday I went to visit the site of the martyrdom of the 6 Jesuit priests and 2 women in 1989… in their beds, eating breakfast, or cowering in fear, they were slaughtered, by soldiers under the order of their “democratic” government… with arms that were given to them by the US Government. Many leaders of the church, priests, nuns, bishops, laypeople were tortured and martyred for speaking out against the repression. In such dark times as these, the love of many grew cold. And yet the massacre of the Jesuits spurred an investigation by the US Congress, which helped to shed light on the atrocities, which helped lead to the peace accords of 1992. In a country that is today plagued by violence and crime, by poverty and fear, I have met so many people full of love and hope and generosity. For even out of the darkest of times, there is light, a light that cannot be taken away.
Every fourth Sunday we take our confession stones, and we ask God that our hearts of stone may be turned into hearts of flesh. Renewal! That when our love turns cold, we can choose to turn it back to God, to hope in God, take courage in God. For God is with us. We turn back to God, so that we may have the name of being alive. “For I am with you, says the Lord of Hosts!”