Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains. (Mark 13:8)
On Wednesday, 11th November, the world remembered that on “the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month”, 1918, World War I ended, having taken the lives of over 17 million people. Some nations still observe two minutes’ silence at 11:00am on the 11th November to remember the victims of war (a practice that, incidentally, began in Cape Town).
The passage in Mark, quoted above, is often given a title like “Signs of the End”. It speaks of the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple in 70AD, an event that must have seemed like the end of the world. However, Jesus invites us to see the horrors of war, famine, and so on, not simply as signs of the end, but of the beginning of a new age (“birth pains”). The Saints have always had a remarkable capacity to endure suffering and trust that God’s Kingdom will come.
Sunday’s Old Testament lesson about Hannah (1 Samuel) reminds us that God brings new life into situations of barren desolation and apparent hopelessness. May we, the Church, learn to pray like Hannah, pouring out our hearts with a willingness to give our greatest gifts to God.
God Bless, Sean