Brief synopsis of the readings: The prophet Malachi warns his audience about a coming day when the arrogant and evil doers will burn and be like stubble but those who fear God will shine out with healing in its rays. In Luke’s Gospel Jesus hears some speaking of the beauty of the Temple. But Jesus warned them of a coming day when not a stone will be left on stone and all will be destroyed. His disciples asked when this would happen and how they could anticipate it. Jesus then warned them against listening to those who will predict the time. Also he tells them not to be frightened when they hear about wars and revolutions because these events must happen. Further there will be earthquakes plagues, and famines and Jesus’ followers will be persecuted. But those accused should not prepare a defense as they will be given eloquence. “You will be hated by all [those] on account of my name but not a hair of your head will be lost. Your endurance will win you your lives.

Tell the truth: when you hear readings like these, where do you place yourself? Our first reading predicts doom and destruction to the arrogant and evil doers but healing for those who fear God. Some look at readings like this and feel a little (or a lot) smug. They see themselves as righteous and feel those unfortunates as “getting what they deserve.” Examples of this are televangelists and followers of the “Gospel of Prosperity.” They would never admit it but their smugness includes at least some satisfaction that “God has their back” when it comes to revenge. Their spirituality demands that they ignore large parts of scripture that warn against their smugness.

Others read these passages and fear. That fear normally comes from a long tradition of being told that no matter how much they wish to follow God they aren’t “good enough.” They micromanage even the smallest of thoughts and actions believing that God expects self attained perfection. Their spirituality is not only miserable but also unsustainable.

I think most of us find these readings a little confusing and try not to overthink it. This is certainly better than the other two options but I think there’s some wisdom in what we read today.

When people like Malachi and Jesus write to warn us they are, strictly speaking, not predicting the future. These readings aren’t like fortune cookies or psychic readings. But they do tell us that living a life of faith won’t always make events go our way. Accepting belief in Jesus Christ gives our lives meaning and doesn’t walk ahead of us slaying dragons and smoothing out hills. I’ve spoken about this before but several years ago I was a volunteer chaplain at a maximum security state prison. It was a rough place and many of the inmates did everything the could to become so hardened that no evil could harm them.

But a few listened to what we were telling them and decided to choose a different path. One inmate, a few weeks after accepting what we were telling him, appeared troubled. When I asked him about it he confessed that he had been given some bad news the day before. That’s not unusual in prison but he told me that he thought this would all end when he accepted Jesus. His response was: “Why should I care about God if this [nonsense] keeps happening to me?”

I’m not sure how successful I was but I tried to explain that faith isn’t like Novocain. Novocain and other pain killers just cover up the pain which allows us to function while we heal. We don’t need to understand how it works. Faith isn’t like that: faith harnesses the power to see pain and suffering for what it is: inevitable events that allow us to see not only God’s strength but our own.

I don’t know why pain and suffering exist and I know that the definitive explanation continues to elude us. But I have seen remarkable examples of courage and transformation. People who had previously thought “I could never handle that” show they can. They have provided intimate care for their parents. Others recognize what “in sickness and in health” meant in their marriage vows from decades earlier and shepherd a spouse through years of dementia.

On a global level we’ve seen stunning suffering as the result of evil. Jews in Germany in the 1920s and early 1930s thought they were safe only to find that the 1940s would nearly destroy all they had worked for. Painful as it is to admit, hundreds of Catholic children found to their horror that they weren’t always safe in the presence of clergy.

For many these events caused some to question or even abandon their belief in God, or at least in an all loving God. Please understand that on no level (on no level) do I blame them for a lack of faith . But I think we can all hope for and pray for the love, healing, and reconciliation that allows them to move beyond these sinful, horrible events.

We know in hindsight that Jesus’ audience would soon face the destruction of their Temple, the massacre of many of their people and the end of much of what they dreamed of. But while many in that day saw the end of their story, others didn’t. They regrouped and reinvented themselves. Followers of Jesus came to understand that the Eucharist, not the Temple, centered their life and spirituality. Jews began to write the Talmud, a collection of wisdom literature, and learning became the center of their lives.

I need not remind everyone that we also live in turbulent times. The 24 hour news cycle appears to thrive on keeping us tuned in by keeping us frightened. For many of us the idea that safeguards that we took for granted may now be in peril. In fairness there is much we have to lose. But faith is not one of them. The fact that we are still reading Malachi and Luke after all these years proves this.