Sister Anne Madeline Brost, OSB reflects on the scripture readings: Daniel 12:1-3; Hebrews 10:11-14, 18; Mark 13:24-32

Mark’s gospel has been my least favorite of the 4 Gospels, until these last weeks. Mark is “bare bones.” I am beginning to see in a new waywhat the “bare bones,” the essential, of Jesus’ message is. Certainly, I have always known the great commandment, “Love God above all and your neighbor as yourself.” Now I am understanding that I must see as God sees. I must become more aware, more deeply conscious of the Divine in me. As I said in my reflection on Mark 9, the 25^th Sunday, I must become a new person.

Until these last few years I thought of these dooms day readings as describing something in the far future.  Today I see these events happening all around me and I realize they have been happening since time began, or forever, if I think there is no end or no beginning of Creation.

And I also know that God, the Divine Presence, is everywhere always. Today I am learning to view what is happening in the world with a deeper consciousness.

At the surface of my life, lots is always happening, but underneath and deep within it all is the presence of the Divine. I am trying to learn to be aware of the Presence, to see the Fig tree, to pick the ripe figs, to be in the energy of Love.

My Novice mistress, Sister Mary Helen McMullen, a very proper nun from Boston had these non-Irish girls in Minnesota to teach. She had two sayings she repeated often.  When one of the novices was upset, or if there was disturbance or conflict around, Sister would say, “Let it go by.” She would also tell us, “Let not your mind be a highway over which the whole world travels.”

Some 60 years ago, I understood the first saying pretty well. It meant “mind your own business” but Sister Mary Helen would never say it in those words!

Minding my own business was a beginning of awareness for me. At least I am not generating false ideas.

The second saying I am understanding better, after all these years. This is what “Let not your mind be a highway over which the whole world travels” means to me, now: I must know what is happening here in me, in our Community, all over the world, and all over Creation, but I must not identify myself with what I know. I must not be caught up in what I know.

When I see “all these things taking place,” I must look from that deeper dimension within me, at “all these things,” and recognize “the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.” With “God’s eyes” I must find God in the Evolution of the Cosmos.

Today I see that some of us ordinary human beings, as we evolve, as we become more God-like, are becoming more aware of our own ignorance. In all the crazy, violent Happenings, we understand that this is a part of the Evolution of humankind. Humanity is learning–maybe the hard way—to use the gifts we have been given in the best way possible.

I feel that the gift of Faith in the Son of Man can lead me to that place of the Divine. And from the place of the divine, I can see with God’s eyes. But maybe soon, if not now, “The wise shall shine brightly, like the splendor of the Firmament, and those who lead the many to justice shall be like the stars forever.” We shall continue to become “New Persons.”