When you least expect it

Sunday 10 August 2025 

(Year C: 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time)

AN OVERVIEW OF THIS SUNDAY’S READINGS*

Wisdom 18:6-9

Psalm 33

Hebrews 11:1-2,8-19

Luke 12:32-48

Something that makes life interesting if not excruciating is uncertainty.  Nobody can predict for sure what tomorrow will bring.  Suppose someone had predicted, for example, 40 years ago that:

• The Berlin Wall would be gone in a little over four years (and pretty much ‘without a shot’ being fired);
• The world trade system, 40 years later, would be in disarray as the White House slaps on tariffs at will and tears up previous agreements;
• The Republic of Ireland would be among the richest in the world within a generation (as measured by GDP which is a problem);
• Ireland would transition from being an economic basket case marred by outward migration to a place of choice and a relatively attractive place to live and work;
• Some of the main protagonists in the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland would be sharing Government in a place called Stormont (with the British Union Flag still flying there at least some days of the year);
• Within thirty years a referendum to grant to right to marry to homosexual couples in the Republic of Ireland would be overwhelmingly passed to be followed by an overwhelming majority of 2:1 in another referendum only two years later to usher in abortion on demand in over 98% of cases of healthy mothers and health babies;
• The lid has been lifted on the many stories of institutional neglect and abuse;
• The credibility of the Church has been severely undermined not least because of the cover-ups and the exposed hypocrisy;
• Within a generation we would be able to see, listen to, and talk with our friends and loved ones on the other side of the globe by means of a little gadget in our pocket called a ‘smartphone’….

Well, that person might be characterised as mad or delusional!

A mixed bag of transformations have happened, one might say.  

Yet, the unimaginable happened while those things we most feared did not (at least from the vantage of the mid-1980s).  There was a sense on the part of many about the very real possibility of a nuclear holocaust before the end of the last century or the possibility at least some years prior to that in the 1970s of an escalation in the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland to an all-out civil war across the whole island. And then again, fears of a nuclear holocaust are back even if the chances are viewed as very limited.  But, who is to say?

So it is in life. That which we fear and worry about the most very often does not happen or materialise. That which we never thought of or imagined happens. Life is full of surprises – joyful, pleasant, horrible and all else in between.  We cannot control the flow of world events let alone how are lives are impacted and shaped by circumstances beyond our reach. Neither can we entirely control what is happening around us in our families, personal relationships and neighbourhoods. However, we can do something about our response to unexpected developments. We can also think and act and speak in such a manner that paves the way for different outcomes or possibilities, if not now, then in the future. We can also trust in a higher love and purpose.

My favourite working definition of faith leaps out of the page in today's second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews:

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 

The thrust of this week’s long passage from chapter 12 of the Gospel of Luke is the use of parables and conversations to emphasise three things:

• Peace of mind
• Trust
• Readiness

We can be certain of at least three things in life:

• Getting older
• Getting sick
• Dying

Charming!  To the one who has no expectations beyond the seen world of this life it is a question of ‘living life to the full’ while one has it. Nothing wrong with that.  However, there is a more to life than the standard lifecycle of development and mile-stoning from cradle to grave. There is a silent current running through our lives making sense of it and gently nudging us forward and landing us in surprises and challenges we probably never thought of in the past. Look at it this way – whatever is worrying me will either happen or it will not happen. If there is something you can do to avert it then do it. If not why worry? It might not even happen. But if it does we have faith to cling on to that all is for the better in the long-run and God-who-is-love will see to it that ‘all shall be well and all manners of things shall be well’ (as the famous English mystic, Julian of Norwich, wrote in the 14th century (in Chapter XXVII of Revelations of Divine Love).

So, this gospel of Luke invites us to:

• Be patient
• To wait
• To trust
• To be ready
• To keep on going as we wait and seek

We only have so much time in this short life.  This truth becomes more and more apparent as the years and the decades roll by for us who are of an age. But, age is in some ways illusory and so is time. 

Much has been given to us (verse 48) and much is rightly expected of us.  May we be open books and the change we wish to see no matter what stage of the journey we are on. 

Nowadays people do time management courses.  In other words they take up time to study how better to use it. The odd thing about the incarnation is that God chose his son to spend around 33 years of life in a backwater of the Roman Empire among a specially chosen people. However, of these 33 years some 30 years were spent in relative anonymity and obscurity while 3 years were spent preaching, healing, declaring and assembling.  And then the whole matter was resolved in three days after which the rest is living history. So there we have a lesson in time management!  If we stick with our core, essential and life-affirming goals every day and keep these rocks in the jar then the sands of other things may be poured in if there is space.

Another way of looking at this is to relate the act of being ready and vigilant to being totally given in the present moment. Think of a child playing on the beach this somewhere this August as she creatively makes castles and homes. She is completely absorbed in the pleasure of task. Past is not relevant. The future is not there. Just now.  That child is you, me, us at some point in our own journey perhaps many decades ago.  Now we see the child as an adult – racked by the past and the future and everything besides. Unable to focus properly, to listen, to receive, to give. Pinned on a cross with the past to the left side and the future to the right.

building castles of hope

But, in Luke 12 Jesus shows us the way to restore a presence in the now.  To live the present moment is to live in that moment in freedom and G.R.A.C.E. – Grounded, 

• Relaxed 
• Attentive 
• Calm 
• Enthusiastic. 

Self-mastery is the fruit of living thus.  But, worry can never be exorcised – at least not entirely.  Only trust in a better future, in a noble purpose and in a higher being can carry us along. In this way, the past is healed, restored and transformed in the here and now.  The future is created only in the present moment. The present moment is the sacrament of God’s loving presence. No need to travel far, to undertake onerous spiritual exercises, to engage in many prayers, to strive and strive again. Rather, see, taste, breathe, hear, touch the present moment.  There God meets us – really. If you are fortunate by reason of means and health to enjoy a vacation at this time of year then enjoy it and build your sand castles of hope! 

A reflection

I will accept the sufferings that this day will bring me as stepping stones to the final trial, that is, my final agony and struggle. I will look at them as exercises to develop patience, perseverance, trust in God, and a passion for the cross, which ultimately will carry me to glory.  Chiara Lubich

Footnotes * 

These readings are taken from the Sunday lectionary used in most Catholic churches. The source is BibleGateway.com: A searchable online Bible in over 150 versions and 50 languages (using the New Revised Standard Version - anglicised catholic edition).