Tuesday November 25, 2025
Luke 21:5-11
When some were talking about the Temple, remarking how it was adorned with fine stonework and votive offerings, Jesus said, ‘All these things you are staring at now – the time will come when not a single stone will be left on another: everything will be destroyed.’
In this beautiful month of November, the church focuses our attention on the end times. Our family’s volleyball calendar did not allow me to preach about this theme but here is my opportunity.
How many times has the world ended for you? I mean the world as you knew it. The world as I knew it ended for the first time for me when dad died. Everything, absolutely everything changed. He was the breadwinner, the mighty protector of our family with very strict rules. Then at a tender age of 47 he died. Then the struggle began. At a time when teenagers needed that strong guidance, he was dead, the world as I knew it ended.
The second time the world as I knew it ended was when I left the passionist monastery where I had been for seven years. I went there right after high school. All I wanted was to be a Passionist. All I knew was to be Brother Robert Chibundi CP. One day some superior kicked me out with nothing but my suitcase. Removed from the strong protection of the congregation, I faced the ‘real world’ and wondered like Mary in the Sound of Music “what are we going to do now?” I could not go back home and tell mama that things did not work out!! I got on a plane and left Africa for the USA. I was not going back home. The world as I knew it changed. Not one stone was left standing on another.
I could go on and on but enough of me. How about you? How many times have things that you thought where real and unshakable come tumbling down and you had to begin again. You had to build again.
Through it all, what has sustained us is the belief that God is not done. God always opens a window and there is an even more beautiful life when one ends. Hang in there, God will see you through as he has for me and many others.