June 1948 and Patsy Collins has broken my heart. I know you are sick of hearing about that saga, but she rejected my offer to go to the eighth grade graduation party. So I turned to my friend, Lukey Stanton. Lukey was a diamond in the rough. Tact was not his strong suite, but he always told the truth, Lukey. So I said to Lukey, “Well since Patsy doesn’t want me, I ‘ll ask Millicent Cavanaugh” who was in the eighth grade. Millicent Cavanaugh was a child model, a beautiful girl. She was on the cover of McCall’s and Ladies’ Home Journal as a child. So I said to Lukey, “I’ll ask Millicent. I think Millicent likes me.” And there was a pause and Lukey said, “Oh, Mike! You wanna bet?” ....You wanna bet? That’s our theme, not an acronym today, but “You wanna bet.... You wanna bet?”

Now, when we studied today’s gospel in ‘92, at that sabbatical in Menlo Park, Father Raymond Brown was our Bible teacher, brilliant, acknowledged throughout the world, brilliant Bible scholar, this Catholic priest. And when we got to this gospel, he said, “It’s a tough one. It’s full of puzzles.” And this week (I always read my Bible scholars.) I came across this line from one of our Catholic Bible experts, “The gospel is an eschatological discourse regarding the cosmic portents and the apocalyptic omens. I said, “Oh, that does it, that.... I get it.” Well, that‘s the way scholars talk. But Ray Brown was, as most profound minds are, Ray Brown could put things so simply and clearly. And he told us that today’s gospel is written by Mark. Now, Mark is the shortest gospel. That’s why I like it, because it moves like a movie. But, because Mark wanted everything fast, he compresses stuff. Mark bunches it all together. Today’s gospel, Our Lord talks about the sun and the moon and catastrophies and then he says, “This generation won’t pass away until all these things happen....” blah, blah, blah. Those are three different talks! You can find them in the other gospels, different places, different times. He was talking about three different things, but in Mark they are all bunched together.

What are the three things Our Lord’s talking about, with those ominous symbols, famous Jewish Old Testament symbols? He is talking about three things. One, our own personal deaths. The other thing is about the destruction of Jerusalem, which did happen a few decades later, after he left this planet. Rome came in and reduced Jerusalem to rubble. That’s what he means when he says, “This generation will not pass away before these things happen.” He is talking there, as you can see in the other gospels, about Jerusalem. It was knocked down around 70 A.D., which is only a few decades after Our Lord said it. “This generation won’t pass away before some of you see....” That’s sad. And, then, of course he is talking about the end of the world and our own personal deaths. And he also says, “I don’t know when.” Doesn’t he? “I don’t know when, the day or the hour...” which we will get to in a minute. But, the important thing is, if you understand, we are not trying to clean up Jesus’ mistake. It is Mark, the great mangler and melder, that leaves you somewhat confused. Now, when Our Lord, at the end of the gospel, says “When these things are going to happen, the angels don’t know, the Son....” (meaning himself) “doesn’t know. Only the Father.” Now, in Our Lord’s human knowledge, on that particular part of the planet, when he lived two thousand years ago, it was not necessary, although he was divine and human, it was not necessary he know absolutely every detail, if that wasn’t necessary to his job.

Now, in 1958, we had another great Bible scholar, Miles Burke. He was first rate. And when he got to this gospel where Our Lord says, “The angels don’t know when this is going to happen (the end of the world) and I don’t know. The Father knows.” Miles Burke lowered his voice. I’ll never forget. It was as if he were confiding something very dangerous. He said, “It’s clear in many passages from our new Greek translations, which happened in our lives, that in other parts of the New Testament, it indicates that Jesus’ full rising to total divine knowledge and Lord of the Universe came at the Resurrection. But in his human life, those years in Jerusalem, he only needed to know and pass on to us what he needed to teach us.” Now, nobody denies that anymore. But when Miles Burke said it, it was like “This is dangerous stuff, Guys!” And, at lunch, a classmate of mine said, “What’s Burke getting away with, limiting Jesus’ knowledge?” I’ll never forget we were having knockwurst. “Jesus knew everything in Mary’s womb! He knew Quantum Physics. He knew the Louisiana Purchase...” (which I’ll never forget!) “He knew all the Presidents of the United States.” And the rest of us timidly said, “Oh, of course....”

It’s not necessary to be a good orthodox Catholic to believe that. Our Lord isn’t conning us. There were some things it wasn’t necessary for him to scare us about. And he admitted it. But at the Resurrection (I know you don’t worry about that and toss and turn at night, but there are still Fundamentalists who go to such extremes, that even Our Lord’s beautiful humanity didn’t go to.) I wish I could be at lunch again with Joe, the guy who got so mad. I would like to say to Joe, “This is 2006 and we have all kinds of new wonderful insights into Our Lord....” “He knew everything!!” And I would say, “You wanna bet?”

The next thing is Pascal. Pascal got to the phrase “You wanna bet.” Now, Pascal was a great genius admitted. He was also a devout Catholic. but the whole world admits that Blaise Pascal, a few centuries ago, was a scientific, mathematical genius. He was also a highly convinced, intelligent Catholic. Now, when we get to this part, it was around this time that Father was teaching us in Menlo Park, around Thanksgiving / Christmas, because I took assiduous notes. It was around this time, and Father Ray Brown segwayed a bit and he said, “You know, we are getting near the holidays and when you read the gospels, you’ve got to get some strength from the gospels. The holidays can be bad times for people.” Now, some of you might say, “Oh, I’m sick of hearing about depression and holidays. I love the holidays.” But, for some of you, who may be carrying a very heavy cloud in your hearts and are dreading the holidays, Ray Brown, talking about today’s gospel, went on to Pascal and he talked about Pascal saying, “You wanna bet?” And this is what it means. Suppose that some people, even now, are feeling so low. Out of sheer routine they came to Mass, out of good-hearted loyalty, but they uh! “I don’t know what I believe. I don’t know who I believe.... I just feel like hell! Literally, I just feel like hell!” cause it’s something they are going through.

Pascal said, several hundred years ago, an empirical scientist said this. “Make a bet! Make a bet in your heart. Make a bet. Act as if there is a God, even if you don’t know what you believe anymore because you will find” says Pascal, the scientist, “that acting as if you believe what Christ said was true, that a cross is not a waste of time, that you are going to live forever and meet the people who died, that all that is true, even if you don’t know what you.... Act as if because you will find that even your body, if you spend those days in the dark, hoping against hope, reaching out to help, you will be healed.” That’s how I remember the three H’s, hoping against hope, reaching out to help other people, you will find you were being healed, even though you were just acting as if Jesus were saying the truth. Now, in the years that have followed, in our lifetime, we found out that science is telling us that, about the pulse and the heartbeet and mental health. Act as if all this stuff is true, act as if, bet. .... Bet belief And then if it is true, then you will get all of this and heaven too. That’s how he says it, in beautiful French. You get all the good stuff and heaven too because it turns out that your bet on belief was accurate. But even if it isn’t, you’ll be better off! I’m putting it very bluntly. But I know you know what I mean. You wanna bet? Well, on the darkest day, bet belief.

And then we got onto reincarnation. We got into reincarnation and it ‘s quite clear in the gospels that Our Lord did not believe in reincarnation. Many very spiritual people do, especially in the East, but not Christ. And some of us may be relieved. Once is enough! Only one time up at bat, according to Our Lord. He says it so many times in the gospel, even when he is dying. Remember the Good Thief over here. The Good Thief turns to Our Lord. They’re on the cross, and the Good Thief says, “Whoever you are,” (which is what he meant) “...they are calling you some kind of a king, sarcastically. When you enter your kingdom would you remember me?” Remember what Our Lord says? It’s my favorite line in the entire Bible. “This day” says Our Lord, bleeding to death, “...you will be with me in Paradise.” Today! Not, well, when you come back in various incarnations as a chestnut, a cockroach and a cobra, then we can negotiate terms.... No. No. This day you’ll be in Paradise. One time up at bat. And even at the last few seconds, we can be saved. You wanna bet? Bet belief!

OK, and this is finally the conclusion. I want you to pretend that you are at a party, some kind of office party for Christmas, or Thanksgiving with relatives, and some of the relatives are (and some of you told me) “hostile unbelievers.” Not all unbelievers are hostile. Some are very patient with us, and listen to us quite tolerantly. But beware the hostile unbeliever, especially at a party where they have had a little of the sauce. They are getting a little squiffed. Beware the hostile unbeliever at bashes (parties)! Sober, they are dangerous. Drunk, they are lethal. And this hostile unbeliever (Just pretend for a minute.) comes up, “I hear you go to Church on Sunday and you’re a Catholic..... ruh...ruh....ruh” And you say, with consummate dignity, because you are cold sober, “Yes, I am.” “Well, I wanna tell you that the whole thing is fake and phony and false. The whole bag of tricks is a bunch of stupid superstitious junk!” And you maintain that consummate dignity and say, “Really? Well, didn’t you know that the finest minds in Western Civilization for two thousand years have been believers” (And they have.) “.... and that great scientists and mathematicians, Alexis Korel and Nobel Prize-winning people have all become converts to Christ and the gospels. Have you read G.K. Chesterton? Have you read C. S. Lewis? Have you read Pascal?” which you whip out from under your canapes. And the other guy is getting madder and madder, “The whole thing is junk and I don’t believe a word.” And then you will say, very politely, in the immortal words of Lukey Stanton, “You wanna bet?”