Episode Transcript
[00:00:12] Speaker A: Welcome to the Blessed Sacrament Homilies podcast where our mission is to help everyone recognize and experience the presence of God. We hope you are nourished and encouraged by the Word. Thank you for joining us.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: The Lord be with you and with your spirit. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke. Glory to you, O Lord.
While some people were speaking about how the temple was adorned with costly stones and votive offerings, Jesus said, 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.
Then they asked him, teacher, when will this happen and what sign will there be when all these things are about to happen?
He answered, see that you are not deceived, for many will come in my name, saying, I am he and the time has come.
Do not follow them.
When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified, for such things must happen first, but it will not immediately be the end.
Then he said to them, nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.
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.
It will lead to your giving testimony.
Remember, you are not to prepare your defense beforehand, for I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking that all your adversaries will be punished to resist or refute.
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, but not a hair on your head will be destroyed.
By your perseverance, you will secure your lives.
The Gospel of the Lord.
Well, I'm not bringing out a deck of playing cards because most guys are playing cards rather than hunting deer.
There is a phrase when it comes to playing cards, if you believe Wikipedia, a house of cards.
And believe it or not, that phrase has been around since 1645, so they say.
And when I googled, you know, the history of playing cards, I'd forgotten that playing cards have been around for centuries, brought to reality by the Chinese in the 9th century, zigzagged through Egypt and eventually got to Europe by the 14th century.
So that's 1300s. Well, by, you know, after 300 and some years, they could think of words to say like a house of cards.
And the house of cards basically is this.
You make a pyramid by putting Cards together and of course it's an impressive sight.
The problem is it's not very stable or secure, so it can easily collapse.
Well, Jesus is telling his listeners in the Gospel because they are all fascinated and overwhelmed by the structure of the Temple, that it really is a house of cards.
It can be destroyed and it will be destroyed.
It's interesting.
Finally it was finished, so they say by 66 AD. By 70 AD the Romans had knocked everything down except what we see now, the little piece of the wailing Wall, which when you see it is not little.
Well it is in comparison to the temple.
Herod expanded the Temple of Solomon.
The entire campus in Solomon's time was something like the. I should say the Temple Mount was 16 or so acres.
Herod expanded it to 36 acres.
The entire campus of the Temple was better than 450 acres, 29 football fields.
Getting the image?
The temple sanctuary was 90ft long, 30ft wide, 45ft high, with a facade of 150ft width and height.
The floor was made of fur, but clad with gold.
The doors of the holy holy were olive wood clad with gold.
So you can see why people were impressed with this space.
And yet Jesus said not a stone will be left standing on another stone.
The general stones of the temple weighed a few ton, but there were some that exceeded 600 ton.
So there was a lot of effort made to bring this space to give glory to God.
And yet Jesus is saying it's all a house of cards.
See, I think we like Jesus listeners get caught up in things.
And Jesus is telling us it's not things, it's relationships that are to perdure.
And even when family and friendships fail, the relationship with our God does not.
And he uses that image after he tells all the things that are going to unfold. Famines and plagues and earthquakes and what have you. And people handing over people but not a hair on your head will be harmed.
Father Rob lucks out because God doesn't have to worry about him at all.
But that image of not a hair on your head will be harmed is telling us that God is there, faithful to us, even when others are not.
And Paul's writing to the people of Thessalonica is reminding us that, that we are called to give the best of ourselves notice. He didn't say those who are unable to work. No, no, no, no, no.
Those who are unwilling.
You're able, but you don't want to.
That's usually in the mouth of a child, right? I don't want to do that.
So as we come here today we are reminded by the scriptures as we move toward the end of the church year that we have a God who knows even the follicles of our head so intimately is his connection to us.
And we should find some security in that. When things do unravel in our lives personally, locally, nationally and internationally, God promises to be there even when we get caught up in the house of cards and we are right in the season of of thingness.
Have you been watching the ads as we approach? How many Black Fridays can we have?
I think Black Friday is going to start on July 5th next year.
We are so consumer driven, so caught up in the cards and not caught up in the connection with one another.
So whether you're playing euchre or shmear or canasta or bridge, don't get caught up in the house of cards.
Let us get caught up in connecting and caring for one another.
