Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
But imagine for a second that you were cheering for the Commanders. Sunday was not a day you really wanted to remember. The things that made it so great for the Lions made it pretty horrible for the Commanders. In any contest, what is good news for one is bad news for the other.
In this penultimate Sunday in Ordinary Time before we begin Advent, our readings focus us on the end of time. And the Prophet Malachi, in particular, presents us with this idea that the same event, the day of the Lord, will be bad for some, but great for others. For some it will be a day of pain and suffering, with the proud and the evildoers burning up like stubble in a field. For those who fear the name of the Lord, the sun (s-u-n) of justice will heal with its rays. As Catholics we know that Christ is the true Sun of Justice because He is the Son (s-o-n) of God and Son of Man. We look for the same event, Christ’s return in glory, but it will not seem the same for everyone. For some it will appear as a day of joy, for others a day of wailing and gnashing of teeth.
When we come to this time of year, the Church traditionally puts before us, as she did at every funeral in the old rite, the hymn Dies Irae. The title means “Day of Wrath.” And the first verses focus on what the return of Christ will be like for evildoers:
Day of watch and doom impending!
David’s word with Sibyl’s blending,
Heaven and earth in ashes ending!
Oh, what fear man’s bosom renders,
When from heaven the Judge descendeth,
On whose sentence all dependeth.
That certainly gives us a wake-up call for what the end could be like if we do not give our hearts over to God and open ourselves to His grace which transforms us.
But, it continues:
Faint and weary, Thou hast sought me,
On the Cross of suffering bought me.
Shall such grace be vainly brought me?…
Guilty, now I pour my moaning,
All my shame with anguish owning;
Spare, O God, Thy suppliant groaning!
Through the sinful woman shriven,
Through the dying thief forgiven,
Thou to me a hope hast given.
With Thy sheep a place provide me,
From the goats afar divide me,
To Thy right hand do Thou guide me….
Lord, all-pitying, Jesus blest,
Grant them Thine eternal rest.
Amen.
While not pretending to be blameless, the return of Christ for those who love the Lord means a time of salvation and the rectification of all that evil has ruined, so that the souls of the just can have eternal rest.
The key, then, is what team we are on? Not Team Edward or Team Jacob (you’re welcome, “Twilight” fans), but Dies irae-Day of wrath or spem dedisti–a hope given. Because the end will mean suffering. Our Lord outlines the things that will precede the end: wars, insurrections, powerful earthquakes, famines, plagues, and persecution of the followers of Christ. Those who work against Christ will think that they have won. They will try to get Christ’s faithful to abandon their virtue, to abandon Christ, and will offer apparent ways out of the tribulations that may even mean less or even no suffering in the short terms. But for those who remain faithful to Christ, who persevere, the time of sorrow and suffering will lead to a day of hope and victory in Christ, who will reward those who remained true even when turning away seemed easier and more enjoyable.
[Ava & Wade: you are choosing to follow Christ today, and Christ receives you as His catechumen. This means that Christ already recognizes you as a follower, even if you have not yet become part of Him through Holy Baptism. You are abandoning the logic of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and striving to live according to the logic of the Logos, the Divine Word, who helps us understand how God has truly created the world. You are choosing hope in place of wrath, and for that we give thanks to God and promise you our prayers.]
The end comes, seemingly ever faster. We find ourselves closer to the return of Christ in glory today than we were yesterday. This time of year reminds us to take stock of our choices, which do not only have consequences in time, but have consequences into eternity. Christ will return in glory, and how we view that day will depend on how we lived each day before that: for or against Christ. May the words of Dies Irae apply to us as the just so that, “When the wicked are confounded, / Doomed to flames of woe unbounded, / Call me with Thy saints surrounded.”
