November 3, 2024

Thirty-First sunday in ordinary time

by Fr. Boniface Endorf, OP

Dear St. Joseph Parish Family,

We have just celebrated All Saints and All Souls Days and those both point to our deepest hope as Christians: that we will journey to our true homeland in heaven, enjoying eternal life with God who both created us and calls us back to Himself so that we may share in His perfect goodness and joy. We live in this world of time, but we do not live for it. Our eyes are set on God and His Kingdom. 

That was the topic of our last Thomistic Institute talk this Fall, when Dr. Capizzi spoke of St. Augustine’s magnum opus The City of God. St. Augustine wrote about the collapsing Roman Empire, falling before his eyes, and how, although we can make good use of the peace of the earthly city, and should help further that peace, it is always fragile because this world is subject to decay and corruption. Nothing on this earth lasts forever, and if we place our deepest hopes in it, we will end in despair. We must place our deepest hopes in Christ and His Kingdom, for it is eternal and our hope in Him is never in vain. We are made for God, not this world, and our hopes are only certain in Him. Or, as St. Augustine said in another great work of his, The Confessions, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”

This Christian wisdom serves us well today, especially with our national elections this Tuesday. While we hope for peace in our nation, and that our country will flourish, we also should never make our earthly city an idol. Whatever the outcome, our hope should rest in God. American politics should not have a religious hold over us, but rather our trust in God should hold us steady with a deeper peace than any worldly thing can provide. As Psalm 146 says:

Put no trust in princes,

In mortal man who cannot save.

Take their breath, they return to the earth,

And their plans that day come to nothing.

Blessed is he who is helped by Jacob’s God,

Whose hope is in the Lord his God,

Who made the heavens and the earth,

The seas and all they contain,

Who preserves fidelity forever,

Who does justice to those who are oppressed.

God Bless,

Fr. Boniface