Homily originally presented on Sunday, November 13, 2016

It’s hard to believe that it’s been 13 years since the Space Shuttle tragedy happened. It was on February 1st 2003, that Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated in the sky over the state of Texas ... as it was re-entering the earth’s atmosphere ... at the end of its mission ... to make its landing in Florida. The whole world gasped as the video was played over and over on TV ... showing the multiple vapor trails against the clear blue sky indicating that Columbia had come apart in the sky and would not make it safely to the ground. All 7 Crew Members died in the accident. What happened? That’s what everyone wanted to know?

After months of study and analysis, NASA determined that the loss of Columbia was caused by damage that the Shuttle sustained during launch when a piece of foam insulation the size of a small briefcase broke off from the main propellant tank and struck the leading edge of the left wing. The impact of the foam hitting the wing ... broke off some of the #8 reinforced carbon-carbon tiles on the wing of the Shuttle. Now, while this damage didn’t cause any trouble during orbit in space, it was responsible for the break-up of the Shuttle during re-entry to Earth’s atmosphere.

You see, the missing tiles on the wing weren’t a problem in the coldness of space; but, they needed to be in place during re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere to protect the shuttle from the searing 2,800 degree heat that re-entry friction creates on the Shuttle’s surface. And with the protective tiles missing ... super-hot gases penetrated the wing and burned up the hydraulics, the tires, the controllers, and finally the wing structure itself ... and the shuttle simply disintegrated in the air.

Without protection from those special tiles, the Columbia exploded from the heat. 7 astronauts died and a Billion Dollar vehicle was destroyed ... all because it wasn’t able to endure the burning heat of entry ... to the Earth’s atmosphere. Today our Scripture Readings warn us ... that we too might be destroyed ... if we’re not able to endure the burning heat of entry into ... the presence of God!

Why would this be a possibility? Well ... in the New Testament Letter to the Hebrews we read that “Our God is a consuming fire.” and this gives us an image of God as being ... a flaming inferno of love. Recall that it was as tongues of fire that God’s Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles at Pentecost! And so, if God is a consuming fire ...then ... the question is, “How will we fare ... when we come into the presence of God.”

In our First Reading today, the Prophet Malachi points out that ... people will fare differently in the presence of God. He says, “Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven, when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire.” Yes, stubble ... dry lifeless stubble ... in the presence of fire burns quickly! So if evildoers are as stubble before the Fire of God’s love, then they will be burned up ... disintegrated so to speak ... when they come into His fiery presence!

Malachi continues, “But for you who fear (His) name, there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays.” We can easily relate to these words because we know what happens whenever we go out in the summer sun. Those who are wearing the proper sunscreen protection can happily bask in the sun for hours ... enjoying its brightness and warmth without any bad effects. But those who are not wearing the proper sunscreen protection, will quickly be burned by the rays of the sun and will later suffer with pain and peeling of skin. It’s the same sun ... but to some it warms... and to some it burns.

So knowing what happens in the presence of the S-u-n, the star in the sky ... Malachi says it will be similar when we come into the presence of the S-o-n, the Just Judge of all. In both the Old and New Testaments, people wondered about the Day ... the Day of Judgment, the Day of the Lord, when God comes to judge the living and the dead. How this will unfold remains a mystery. But we believe it will surely happen because of other predictions made in the Bible that have come true.

For example, today Jesus predicts that The Temple that the people are admiring ... in all of its size and grandeur ... would one day be brought to rubble. He says, “All that you see here - the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down.” That was an unbelievable prediction, given that it took 46 years to build the Temple ... and yet, within 40 years of Jesus saying those words, the Romans took over Jerusalem and completely destroyed the Temple!

When St. Luke wrote his Gospel in the year 85, he knew that the prediction Jesus made about the Temple in the year 33 actually came true in the year 70 ... and so he includes it to give credibility to Jesus’ other predictions about the end times. Jesus speaks about wars, and earthquakes, and famines and plagues occurring all around the world as precursors to the end of the world. It’s obvious that these things are happening today with increasing regularity. So the end of the world may be coming soon. We may or may not get to see it. But one thing we will definitely get to experience ... is the end of our lives. Then, instead of God coming to us, we will go to God. And in doing so, we will come into the presence ... of a consuming fire. And so the question is ... will we be burned up like stubble or will we bask in the warmth of His love? That all depends on how we’ve been living our lives.

If our hands are full of the good deeds we’ve done for God and others, if we’ve embraced the 7th Gift of the Holy Spirit and developed a Holy Fear of God, and if we’ve put on our S-O-N screen by clothing ourselves in Christ ... then we’ll be well protected ... and being in God’s presence ... will warm us! If however, we’ve done evil deeds and have not been pleasing in God’s eyes; if we’ve been proud, arrogant, self-righteous and distaining of the love of God; if we’ve abandoned a loving relationship with Jesus and not sought His mercy... then we’ll not be protected ... and being in God’s presence ... will set us on fire!

So the question is, “What can we do ... to increase our chances of coming through ... the Day of the Lord?” The best thing we can do is to respond as NASA did ...
and make regular inspections ... not of a space shuttle ... but of our souls! We need to look for any damage that will prevent us from withstanding ... the fire of God’s love.

You may know that NASA constantly runs checks as it counts down to a launch ... and many times have delayed a lift-off after finding a leaky valve or a bad sensor, that could have jeopardized the flight. So, they took the time to fix the problems before launch. We need to do the same thing with the inspection and repair of our souls. Looking inward, we need to honestly assess the condition of our spiritual lives, to identify the things that are missing and give attention to those areas that need to be repaired in order to stand in the presence of God. What habits in my life need to be changed? What relationships in my life need to be mended?

In our Second Reading, St. Paul urges us to imitate him. He says, “We did not act in a disorderly way among you ... on the contrary, in toil and drudgery, night and day we worked.” That’s what we’re called to do ... to complete our mission. What is our mission? To get to Heaven and to take as many others with us as we can! In our Gospel, Jesus encourages us to complete our mission ... in the face of all kinds of troubles ... and rest assured that He will help us ... in our time of trial. He says today, “By your perseverance you will secure your lives.” The last thing we want to do is to disintegrate after our short life here on earth. Rather, we want to bring our lives to a safe landing in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Recall that Space Shuttle Columbia did ok cruising through the coolness of space even when it was broken. But when the heat was turned up upon entry into Earth’s atmosphere, it’s brokenness couldn’t withstand the heat ... and it disintegrated! Let’s not be fooled just because we’re cruising through a comfortable life on Earth. This is nothing compared to being in the presence of God, who is a consuming fire. Let’s make sure that everything is in place, that everything that is broken has been fixed, and that we’ve clothed ourselves in Christ ... so that we can stand before God ... and bask ... in the fire of God’s love.