Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost, Tone 7. Holy Martyrs Acepsimas the Bishop (378), Joseph the Priest and Aithalis the Deacon (379). Dedication of the Church of the Holy Great Martyr George in Lydda, where His Precious Body is Entombed.
Ephesians 2:14-22. Luke 8:41-56.
Read Ephesians 2:14-22
It’s not just at the end of the world when people hoping for “peace and security” find “sudden destruction come upon them”. We all need hope whenever we live.
Holocaust survivor and psychotherapist Viktor Frankl wrote in Man’s Search For Meaning that those who had something or someone to hope for were best able to endure the Nazi concentration camps. And, for it to be effective, the object of a person’s hope really didn’t matter. It could be anything, like a backyard garden. But, when the time of trial was over and the opportunity for hope to be realized came, the object of hope mattered very much to people’s wellbeing. If that beloved backyard garden was obliterated by bombs, a person could shatter and collapse even after having borne up under unimaginable horrors.
No one knows when Christ will return. “Of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.” (Matthew 24:36) But, we can either live in such a way that we will increasingly anticipate his return or in such a way that we numb the pain of living and become dull and unaware of his pending return.
Today’s epistle reading goes on to say, “For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we wake or sleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.”
Christ will not disappoint those who actively hope in him. Even in dark times, we can lovingly, faithfully live in the light of his coming dawning day.