Reflection - Opiates

By Steve Hall

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/112622.cfm
Revelation 22:1-7
Luke 21:34-36

What a mess!

Earthquakes, tidal waves, volcanoes, heatwaves and drought, torrential rains and floods. Then, of course there’s also the wars and rumors of wars. Lies and threats, accusations and condemnations, defrauding and deceiving, shootings and stabbings.

What a mess!

The philosopher George Santayana once said that “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Assuming that aphorism to be true, there must be an awful lot of people who don’t remember the past. The above list of disasters, catastrophes, insidious, cynical, contemptuous and caustic human behaviors are not new. Read a little history from any age and you will find them all. And if we had such a thing as a history of humankind’s prehistory I’m sure we would find them there as well.

What a mess!

Has humanity progressed at all? Have we simply become more sophisticated in the ills and evils we continue to perpetrate? Even if we remember the past will we ever stop repeating it? No historian, no politician, no philosopher has seriously offered an alternative. Knowing the past as well as the present seems sufficient to provoke or even promote despair.

However, John shares a vision of that some day, some time, some where where things will be different. He sees that as part of the return of our Savior.

“Nothing accursed will be found anymore.
The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it,
and his servants will worship him.
They will look upon his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.
Night will be no more, nor will they need light from lamp or sun,
for the Lord God shall give them light,
and they shall reign forever and ever.”
(Revelation 22:3-5)

We pray for that day in the Psalm: Marana tha! Come, Lord Jesus!

But then we have the caution from Jesus in the Gospel.

“Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy
from carousing and drunkenness
and the anxieties of daily life. . . .”
(Luke 2:34)

These words will be poorly understood if we fail to consider their context. They come at the conclusion of a lengthy passage about the end times; and Jesus’ words are even more graphic than the description that began these thoughts.

“Alas for those who are with child and for those who are nursing in those days! For great distress shall be upon the earth and wrath upon this people; they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led captive among all nations; and Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth distress of nations in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

"And then they will see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”
(Luke 21:23-27)

In this context Jesus’ words take on a different meaning, especially when we take note of His reference to the heart. It is the heart, not the mind that we should not allow to become drowsy. Why? Because it is the heart, not the mind, that is the seat of our emotions. It is the heart, not the mind, which knows the most important things of life. It is the heart, not the mind that can sense the overriding joy which puts all else in its proper perspective and place. Jesus is not warning against bad or sinful behavior, but against losing heart when we become aware that things are such a mess.

We are to know in our hearts the reality which John’s vision foretold. But more than that we are to know, in the here and now, the power of God’s love. Those who have been in love, who are in love, know how the strength of that love can drive and direct our lives. Even greater is the power that comes with knowing we are loved. That’s difficult to know when our hearts are drowsy from the futile efforts we make to anesthetize ourselves to the chaos of the times we live in.

Karl Marx famously said “Religion is the opiate of the people.” He was seriously wrong. Not having religion makes peoples turn to an opiate. It makes us turn to carousing and drunkenness

and ways to relieve the anxieties of daily life. It turns our hearts to stone, numb to the mess that we see things are. This must have been at least one of the many reasons which led God to promise his people:

“A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:26)

Only a heart of flesh can know it is loved.

God loves me!

Do not lose heart! Ask him for a heart of flesh so that in that heart, far more so than in the mind, we can know that truth.