KEEPING AN EYE ON THE BIG PICTURE
by Bishop David Chislett SSC

One day a priest had to go to the supermarket before a parish council meeting to get some coffee. It had been a very busy day, and included the funeral of a faithful parishioner. So he decided to have some time out and go to the supermarket on foot. On the way he was daydreaming about life, love, death and eternal life. A teenager recognized him and called out from the other side of the road, "Hey Father! Where are you going?" The priest, jolted out of his reflection, said, "I'm going to heaven." The teenager persisted, "But where are you REALLY going, Father?" The priest looked up, grinned, and said, "I'm really, REALLY, going to Heaven . . . but I'm stopping off at the supermarket on the way."

How good are we at living our day to day lives in the light of our ultimate destiny?

It is true that some people are hopeless BIG PICTURE people. Their vision is big. They are excited about the Church at the global level, and about God's promises for eternity. In the secular world they are the entrepreneurs. They can be annoyingly positive in every situation, and show great impatience with others who point out the potential problems in particular business or church projects. Unchecked, however, they tend also to be impractical as far as real life here and now is concerned. And sometimes they are so UNCONCERNED with the LITTLE PICTURE that there is a lack of integration of their Christian faith with their real lives and relationships.

But LITTLE PICTURE PEOPLE are just as frustrating - those who are so focused on the here and now that they are never energised or motivated by anything up ahead - those who NEVER SEE THE BIG PICTURE. They shuffle through life, obsessed with little details. Outwardly content, but frequently negative and bitchy on the inside, they also tend to be unforgiving. Often their reason for not attempting anything new in their lives is fear of failure.

In fact, I have described (or caricatured!) the polarities. Some people tend towards one pole or the other. But in reality most of us are in between.

Today's readings tell us that we ought to pay close attention to the LITTLE PICTURE of our daily lives in the light of the BIG PICTURE of what is up ahead in God's cosmic purpose - a purpose that includes you and me.

I have never been very fond of jigsaw puzzles. We all did them as children. But over the years I have known a small handful of people who enjoy spending most of their spare time putting together jigsaw puzzles with thousands of pieces. Some glue the pieces together; others photograph their achievement just to prove that they succeeded!

One thing I've noticed, however, is that no-one is expected to even begin the jigsaw puzzle without first getting an idea of what it should look like. So, the manufacturer provides you with a picture on the lid or separately inside the box. If you lose that picture you will almost certainly not be successful in putting the pieces together. The people I know who are seriously into jig-saw puzzles lean the picture against a nearby wall or on the table, and keep an eye on it while they are sorting through the thousands of little pieces in front of them.

Jesus was critical of people who thought they were clever enough to get through life without looking at the big picture, especially as their Scriptures (what we call The Old Testament) well and truly set the big picture before them.

Today's first reading comes from such a passage. Daniel describes the end-time as a period of unsurpassed stress where some who die will be in everlasting horror and disgrace. But it is not all doom and gloom. Daniel also prophesies that many will live forever . . . "those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever." Other Old Testament passages also talk about the parallel realities of stress and horror on the one hand, and un-numbered blessings on the other as God pours out his Spirit, as his glory is revealed, and as he gathers his own from all the nations of the earth.

In the Gospel Reading Jesus talks about the end-time as a time of tribulation, when the earth will shake and even the stars will fall out of the sky. This is not for the faint-hearted! But, as with Daniel, there is the other side of things. Jesus adds, "they will see the Son of man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven."

The first Christians taught that evil will become more and more terrifying the closer we get to the return of Jesus in glory. (I don't think from our vantage point in history we can fault that insight of theirs!) But they also taught that Jesus will return to his people and, to use Cardinal Pell's expression, "the scales of justice will balance out across eternity." The New Testament was written in an era in which (very much like the last 100 years in some parts of the world!) there were many officially sanctioned acts of terrorism against the Christians. Furthermore, even discounting persecution, we know that back then children starved to death while the rich stuffed themselves to overflowing. The conquering Romans, like the Greeks and Persians before them, had no real respect for life other than their own. They killed the population of whole cities - men, women and children - viciously and randomly.

No wonder the early Christians prayed, "Come, Lord Jesus, Maranatha!"

JESUS IS COMING AGAIN in glory to wind up what we call human history. As with all clusters of Christians, we at Patmos House are called to be a radical Eucharistic community of believers determined to address the tiny details of our daily life WITH AN EYE ON THE BIG PICTURE, so as to subversively undermine this world and its shonky anti-life values, announcing to those around us through word and deed, but chiefly through the depth of the life and love we share, that without Jesus, all attempts at making the world a more just place, are futile. Our lives should draw others to him.

From the Patmos House pew Bulletin 19th November, 2006