Fr Robert Hendrickson

Dear Friends in Christ,

The gospel for the day ends with Jesus asking his disciples, “You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?”

He’s talking of storms and weather but, obviously, is pointing toward something more.

How should we interpret the present time? Things feel so…unsettled. Whether it’s war or pandemic or political upheaval, each day the news brings some sign. Of what though?

I’d offer two signs.

The first is that we are not in control. All of the games we play on the political, international, psychological, or emotional scale consistently point toward the fact that the pursuit of control is a fool’s errand. The human condition is not to be in control.

The second is that we need one another and we need God. This is, perhaps, a corollary of the first but is different. We need others not to find control but to share in the human condition. We need one another to bear the weight of living and loving in this broken world.

We need one another to be reminded that not being in control is not a reason to lash out at each other but to hold on to one another tighter.

This is a time when, as ever, we are being given signs to read that tell us something of the present time. But they are really telling us something about all time — about what it means to be alive.

Let us lose our need to control and in it find our need for one another and for God yet again.

Yours in Christ,

Fr Robert