It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . .

An old farmer noted that his neighbour, Joe, was never happy.  Joe always seemed ready for the worst; he never smiled, and was always miserable.  When it was a sunny day, Joe feared that the sun would burn up the crops.  Whenever it rained, he was convinced of an impending flood.  As hard as the old farmer tried to help Joe see the bright side, Joe could only see the dark side.

The old farmer suddenly had a brilliant idea.  He thought, ‘My retriever, Daisy, is one smart dog.  Maybe if Daisy learned a real clever trick, well, it might at least help Joe to see something positively.’

About a month later, the old farmer met Joe who was busy smoking his pipe and pondering every manner of calamity about to happen.  This time, however, the farmer was duly prepared with nothing more than his retriever and shotgun.  Joe had thought the farmer was on his way to put his dog down.

The farmer, however, began his incredible demonstration by shooting a goose that was flying overhead a bit down range just over a lake.  When the unfortunate bird had fallen into the water, the old farmer told Joe to watch as his clever dog, Daisy, fetched the goose.  The dog ran swiftly to the lake, gently walked on the water—barely wetting even her toes—and retrieved the goose which she laid at the feet of Joe.

‘So,’ the old farmer said to Joe, ‘what do you think of that?’  Joe replied, ‘What’s the matter, your dog can’t swim?’

Jesus invites us in the Gospel to have a beatific worldview where grace enables one to see poverty, mourning, hunger, and even persecution as a blessing.  But seeing with beatific eyes actually extends to all of reality.  Such sight is not wishful thinking.  Rather it is the freedom of knowing and believing that our hope is rooted in God and His goodness even in this valley of tears.

No doubt we live in troubled times.  Charles Dickens says it well:

‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.’  [Charles Dickens: A Tale of Two Cities.]

For those who have beatific eyes, this is not a time for the Church to retreat into defeat.  No! it is the time for renewal and to advance the Reign of God.  Behold, the Kingdom of God is hand.  Ours is the season of grace.

- Fr. Sylvester CFR

Gospel reading can be found at Catholic Ireland.net