Preparing for the End

Last Sunday after Pentecost

    In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.  No small number of people spend no small amount of time trying to figure out exactly when the end of the world will come.  It’s like the meme on the Internet of the Pepe Silvia conspiracy board from the show, “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.”  I’ve never watch the show, but from time-to-time I’ll see the meme with this office worker who has a stressed look on his face as he points to numerous sheets of paper push-pinned to the board with red lines going between the papers.  
    We ourselves may sometimes go down a rabbit hole or two as we hear these passages and then think of how the world seems to be spinning out of control.  Our Lord talks about false messiahs, the darkening of the sun and moon, stars falling from heaven, and the like.  Elsewhere Christ talks about wars, earthquakes, famines, plagues, and other calamities, all of which we have seen all too frequently.  And certainly we know that the return of Christ in glory is closer today than it was yesterday.  
    But the temptation can be that we’re so focused on trying to figure out if it’s now, or tomorrow, or next week, that we miss out on opportunities for growth in holiness, that will make the end times less problematic for us.  St. Paul tells us in the epistle that God desires us to grow in wisdom and spiritual understanding, to allow our good works to bear fruit, and to grow in knowledge of Him.  We know from Christ the God desires that we love Him with all of who we are and love our neighbor as ourselves.  Christ tells us that our judgement won’t go easier just because we had a passing familiarity with Him (“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.”).  And He tells us the way we treat the hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, ill, and those in prison will determine our judgement because the way we treated them were the ways we treated Christ.  What Christ doesn’t say is that we will go to heaven if we can decipher on what day and at which hour the end will come (which, point of fact, Christ one earth even said that He does not know).
    Christ does say that the end will be difficult.  He reminds us in the Gospel that if He did not shorten the tribulations, not even the elect would be saved.  But, for those who follow God to the best of their ability, they will survive the tribulations and shine like the stars in the heavens.  Christ uses the image of a woman in childbirth for how painful the end will be, but then the joy of having the newborn child makes the nine months of carrying the child and the pains of delivering the child worth it.  Or, for men, the pain and suffering from a man-cold, and the joy that comes when it finally ends.  
    But if we remain faithful to God, no matter what trials and tribulations come, we will enjoy eternal happiness.  It is as our gradual said, “You have delivered us, O Lord, from those who afflict us.”  The end will be difficult because God will be setting everything right that was wrong.  And just like setting a broken bone, the healing begins with some pain.  It will remain painful for those who persist in their brokenness and rejection of God, because God will respect their free choice and allow them the pain and suffering that come from rejecting God and His eternal happiness.  But for those who reached out for the mercy of God, the healing, though painful at first, will result in great joy and wholeness as we finally fulfill the purpose of our lives: eternal worship of God and having our loves ordered correctly.
    So what do we do?  Maybe it’s better to say what we don’t do.  Don’t waste time wondering if this world event, or if this situation in the Church, or if that natural phenomenon means the end is about to come.  Don’t stress out about things beyond our control.  Worrying and trying to determine the exact signs and times doesn’t help us grow closer to God.  Yes, we may mourn that Christ is so opposed in the world and the evil seem to thrive and calamities seem to multiply.  But rather do live a holy life as a husband or wife, father or mother, child or sibling, employer or employee.  Care for your family; show them the love of God; instruct them in the faith.  Treat people justly and as you would want to be treated.  Love your enemies; pray for those who persecute you.  Be harsh on your own sins, but merciful, patient, and understanding with others’.  Take up your daily cross and follow after the Lord, even if it’s not the cross you want to carry.  
     Christ will return, and His return is closer today than yesterday.  But if we do our best to follow Him with all our hearts, we have nothing to fear and everything to gain.  Christ will make the world right and usher in an eternity of joy, peace, truth, and love as He creates a new heaven and a new earth where all the elect will worship God: the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.   

The End is Near

Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Four years ago, there were people, no small amount, who did not think that we would be here, because the Mayans stopped updating their calendar and didn’t have a date past 21 December 2012.  By this time in 1999, the world was freaking out (that’s a scientific term).  Computers weren’t supposed to be able to handle the year 2000, and it was supposed to create a worldwide disaster, which could signal at least a return to the dark ages for Western civilization, or maybe even the end of the world.  In 1831, William Miller and 100,000 of his closest friends, were convinced Jesus was going to return in 1843, until that didn’t happen, and the date was revised for a year later, which also, obviously, didn’t happen.  In 1524, a respected German mathematician and astrologer predicted there would be a world-covering flood, because all of the planets were aligning under the zodiac sign Pisces; it did rain lightly on the predicted day of the flood.  In 476, as the barbarians crushed what was left of the Western Roman Empire, the same empire that had legalized and then endorsed Christianity, it was thought that the world was coming to an end.  And though I hesitate to mention it, there are a number of people in our country who feel like the world is going to end because of our recent elections.

But here we are.  Now, as Catholics, we know that Jesus will return and usher in the end of the world.  We profess that every solemnity in our creed.  But I’m not here to give you a date for that return.  We don’t know when it will happen.  But it will happen.  The signs that Jesus describes in our Gospel today–wars, insurrections, false prophets and messiahs, earthquakes, famines, and plagues–all of these have happened over and over again.  Still, we are still here, for now.

When many preachers talk about the end times, they make it quite scary.  And Jesus does talk about how it will be trying times.  But as Catholics, we should not be afraid of the end.  Nor should we put our faith in magnificent buildings or large numbers.  One of the great joys of my life has been to study in Rome for 5 months.  I was able to see amazing churches, especially the Basilica of St. Peter, the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, and the Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva.  It would create such an ache in my heart if I found out that any of those churches, or any others, were destroyed by nature or by humans.  But my faith is not in buildings.  We survived and thrived as a church for about 300 years without a Basilica of St. Peter, and the current basilica is only from the 17th century (in Roman terms, in a city founded in 753 BC, it’s just a baby basilica).

Our faith cannot be in the passing world.  So many of the things in this world we assume will always be here; we cannot imagine life without them.  But they are passing things; only Jesus is eternal.  Each day that we live, we are getting closer and closer to the second coming of Jesus, the end of this world, and the beginning of the new heaven and new earth.  In that sense, we can say the end is near.  It’s certainly closer to happening now than it was 1000 years ago.  

Does this freak us out (again, a very scientific term)?  The end of the things that we take for granted as always being a part of our life should only cause us to be alarmed if our life is not anchored in Jesus, who will outlast all the passing reality.  The end of the world should only make us worry if we do not live as Jesus taught us, because God tells us through Malachi in our first reading that evildoers will be stubble, burnt in a field.  When we think of evildoers we often think of people like Hitler and Stalin.  But to be a doer of evil simply means that we act contrary to God’s will in a grave way as expressed through Scripture or through the Church.  So if we steal from our company; if we make false gods for ourselves out of our possessions; if we condone or support racism; if our first allegiance is not to our God but to our own wills or to any other organization; if we call good evil, and call evil good; then we should be worried.  Then Jesus’ return will not be a happy day for us.  “But for you who fear [God’s] name, there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays.”

For almost two full millennia, during her liturgies in most churches, all of the people, including the priest, faced a unified direction for the Eucharistic prayer, not so that the priest didn’t have to look at the people, but so that the entire church could be focused on Jesus, the Sun rising from the East, the sun of justice.  The posture of the people was such that they knew that they had to be focused on Jesus, waiting for His return, rather than turning in on itself.  Turning towards Jesus meant turning away from all those things that distracted them from Him.  Even today in most Catholic cemeteries, including New Calvary, all the bodies who are buried in the ground are facing east.  I’m not saying I’m going to start celebrating Mass ad orientem, but we are invited in today’s readings to turn away from sin, turn away from our fallen selves, turn away from all the passing things that we consider so permanent, so that we can turn to Jesus, who “is the same yesterday, today, and forever,” and whose kingdom will have no end.

Maybe the homily seems a little dour today.  Maybe it feels a little fire and brimstone-ish.  Brothers and sisters, the good news today is that, while we still have breath, we can turn towards the Lord Jesus, the sun of justice who will rise from the east, and ask forgiveness.  We don’t know when the world will end, but if we live each day as if it could end any moment, then we will be ready for Christ to return in glory, and that time of the end will be a day of rejoicing.  

Marana tha! or Dies Irae?

Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

            It’s clear that our readings today focus on the end times.  And perhaps this subject is already on our mind with the impending arrival of December 21, 2012 (though, we should pay close attention to our Lord’s words at the end of today’s Gospel: “‘But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father’”).  But whether we have been thinking about it or not, the Word of God calls us to remember that this world is passing away, and a new world is coming where the Kingdom of God will be revealed in its fullness.

            Because the end of the world as we know it means the beginning of the world as God intends it, we should want the world to end.  In Sacred Scripture, the response of the Christians to the world ending is Marana tha!, an aramaic phrase that means, “Come, Lord Jesus!”  The Book that we associate with the Final Judgement, the Book of Revelation, is precisely a book of consolation.  St. John consoles the early Christians by assuring them that the persecutions and sufferings of this age will end, evil will be vanquished, and the reign of Christ, the Lamb who was slain but lives, will be ushered in.  It will be the time when “[Jesus’] enemies are made his footstool,” as our second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews stated.

            But there is another response besides Marana tha! which is also associated with the end times: Dies irae in Latin, or “Day of wrath,” in English.  This is the response of those who have put themselves at enmity with God, and for whom the coming judgement is feared because the establishment of the fullness of the Kingdom of God means the destruction of their own kingdom.  As Dies Irae states, “Tearful will be that day/ on which from the ash arises/ the guilty man who is to be judged.”

            What is our response to the second coming of Christ?  For those who are following the will of God in their lives, it is likely, Marana tha!  For those who are following their own will, it will likely be a Dies irae.  Even our first reading sets up the dichotomy of two responses to the end.  The Lord tells Daniel that when St. Michael comes, the great angel (that is, messenger) of the judgment of God, for some “‘it shall be a time unsurpassed in distress since nations began until that time.’”  And yet, the just “‘shall escape,’” and the wise, “‘shall shine brightly likely the splendor of the firmament, and those who lead the many to justice shall be like the stars forever.’”

            Some of you may be thinking right now, “Why so morbid?  What exactly happened on that pilgrimage to the Holy Land?”  But reflecting on the end times is a perennial call of the Church, to remind us of the eternal consequences of our actions.  Let’s be honest, sometimes we need a little fear in our life to do the right thing, because we still labor under the effects of original sin.  Some people like to speed while driving, so I’m told.  But when they see a police car on the side of the road, they are reminded to slow down.  Some students would much rather take the short cut of copying off a neighbor’s test, but the watchful eye of the teacher or professor can help us to avoid that temptation.  Being reminded of the end times reminds us that, while we may get away with just about anything here on earth, we will be called to account for our actions before the judgment seat of God who is Truth itself, and no amount of sweet-talking or rationalizing will change the truth of what we have done.

            That is why the Church recommends a regular examination of conscience and frequent confession, to call us back to the Lord, and to have our sins forgiven while they still can be.  Because once we have died, there is no more time for conversion: we have either said yes to God and will be welcomed by the saints into heaven (even if we need a little purifying from our attachment to sin in Purgatory), or we have said no to God and will be welcomed by Satan and the fallen angels into Hell.  We either receive the reward of eternal happiness as the consequence of our good choices, or we receive the punishment of eternal damnation as the consequence of our unrepented sin. 

            So we can ask ourselves: do I enjoy spending time with God?  Do I attend Mass each Sunday and Holyday?  Do I take time each day to pray?  If so, Marana tha!; Come, Lord Jesus.  Or do I go throughout my day without giving God a thought, and make excuses why Mass is inconvenient for me or just plain, old boring?  If so, Dies irae; Day of Wrath.  Have I made a god out of power, prestige, sports, influence, money, or any other created good?  Dies irae.  Or do I seek to serve and to put all things in their proper order, so that God is first, others are second, and I am last?  Marana tha!  Am I greedy?  Do I keep things from the poor and those in need, and therefore keep them from Christ, especially clothes or other goods that I will never use?  Dies irae.  Or am I generous with what I have, especially my time and the gifts that God has given me to share with others?  Marana tha! 

            May the coming judgment, which will find us individually at our death, and universally at the second coming, be for us not a day of wrath, but an invitation for the Lord Jesus to come.  And as even Dies Irae states, “O you, God of majesty, gracious splendor of the Trinity, join us with the blessed.  Amen.”

More Precious than Money

Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

            I could see the gears moving in your heads, gentlemen, as the first reading was read.  I could see the checklist being created for your wife or your girlfriend, as the case may be: “value beyond pearls; unfailing prize; brings good, not evil; works with loving hands; reaches out her hands to the poor; fears the Lord.”  And then we heard in the Psalm, “your wife shall be like a fruitful vine.” 

            If we were listening closely to the other readings, we heard that they are more about the end of the world.  St. Paul warning the Thessalonians not to grow complacent but to remain as “children of the light” the midst of a “corrupt and depraved generation.”  We heard Jesus talking about His return and judging people based upon their talents and how they have used them.  We may be wondering what the first reading has to do with the second and third, if it does at all!

            When we hear the parable of the talents, we probably think about those gifts that God has given us and how we can use them well.  A talent was worth about $1,000, no small sum!  We might thing about our intellectual abilities, our athletic abilities, our friendliness, our cheerful disposition, our ability to work well with others, etc., etc. and how valuable they are and how we should use them for God’s greater glory and for the benefit of our brothers and sisters.  But people, too, are great gifts that God gives to us to help us be holy and to give glory to God.  People, too, are worth so much, much more than even $1,000.  Now, we shouldn’t trade people like the man did in the parable.  But we should recognize how much God, the Master of our lives, has given us in the people He has placed in our lives.  Whether it’s a wife, or a husband, a family member, a neighbor or a friend, a coach, a teacher, or anyone else, those people have helped us to become who we are.

            How many times have we relied upon someone for their generosity, a shoulder to cry on, a hug to comfort, wise words to instruct us?  How many times have we thought to ourselves, “thank God so-and-so was here, or else I don’t think I could have made it through this trial!”?  God entrusts to us people, as he entrusted talents to his servants, some of whom depend on us, others are the ones upon whom we depend.  But they are precious, and when Jesus returns to judge us, He will certainly judge based upon who we have utilized the great gift of caring, wise, and loving people.  As part of our examination of conscience, we can ask ourselves: Do I appreciate my children?  Do I show it?  Do I appreciate my parents, if they are still living?  Do I care for them?  Do I take advice from trusted friends, even when it means a painful change in my life?  Do I learn from those who try to teach me?  Do I thank the people I find invaluable in my life?

            Because so many of the things that we receive are disposable, it can be hard to not let a disposable culture seep into the way we treat people.  There’s always a new technological advance, so we just move on to the newest phone, tablet, computer, TV, appliance, or other material thing.  When it fails to serve us well, we get rid of it.  Sadly, our country tends to treat people the same way.  If a child will be too much of a burden to carry in the womb for 9 months, or if it doesn’t serve the lifestyle that we want, we throw it away.  If seniors are constantly sick and are seemingly contributing nothing to society, we throw them away.

            Rather than looking upon them as burdens, we need to recognize that these are talents that God entrusts to us.  These are the precious items that God wants us to develop and with which we are to grow in relationship.  St. John of the Cross says that at the end of our lives we will be judged on our loves.  Real love is always directed towards a person, and so our judgment will be based upon our treatment of others. 

A week from Thursday we as a nation celebrate Thanksgiving.  And while the word “thanks” is in the name of the day itself, it can be very easy to get caught up with cooking, eating, watching the Lions, eating, doing dishes and cleaning up, eating.  We should remember to give thanks, at our Thanksgiving Day Mass at 9 at St. Thomas, and/or at home with family and friends.  Otherwise we are like the useless servant who didn’t utilize the great wealth the Master had bestowed upon him in giving him that talent, but buried in the field. 

God has blessed our parish and city with so much!  We have a great community of faith; an amazing parish school; wonderful parishioners from infants in the womb to our oldest members; a great university with great men’s and women’s athletics; and so many other ways that are known to you and God alone.  What will be our response to the talents, especially the people, that God has placed in our lives.  Will we bury our talents?  If we do, then at the judgment we will hear, “‘You wicked, lazy servant!  Throw this useless servant into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.’”  But, if we are grateful for the people in our lives, and capitalize on the blessings that they are to us in so many ways, then, as children of the light, we will hear, “‘Well done, my good and faithful servant.  Come, share your Master’s joy.’”

Cornerstone

Fifth Sunday of Easter

            This past week, and especially Friday night and Saturday evening I was asked a question by a number of parishioners: “Father, is the world going to end?”  And, while we know by faith that one day, God will create a new heaven and a new earth, we also know that this will be the consummation of God’s love for humanity, welcoming into heaven those who have lived as his faithful disciples.  But, about when it will happen, even Jesus, while He was on earth, said we do not know the day nor the hour.  Still, he also tells us in today’s Gospel, “‘Do not let your hearts be troubled.’”  And really, if we are living as disciples of Jesus, then we have nothing to fear.  The only reason to fear the end times is if we are not being good disciples, and if Jesus is not the center, or you might say the cornerstone, of our lives. 

            “‘Behold, I am laying a stone in Zion, a cornerstone, chosen and precious.’”  “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.’”  “‘Like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house.’”  These quotes all come from our second reading today, and focus on minds on construction.  St. Peter tells us that we are in the midst of a great construction effort: the building up of the house of God, with Jesus Christ Himself as the cornerstone.  We are being put together into one large building: the household, the temple of God.

            As we build up our own house, our very selves, we are also contributing to the larger complex, almost as if the overall goal is a condominium complex, made up of many smaller houses.

            What matters most for us and for the complex as a whole is the foundation.  Without a good, strong foundation, the rest of the house, and indeed, the complex, is in danger of collapsing or nothing protecting us from the tornados of life.  What is the base of who we are?  It’s easy to say Christ, because we know that’s supposed to be the right answer.  Besides, when asked a religious question, we have this tendency to think that Jesus is always the right answer.  But, if we’re honest, we may have to pause to take some time and think about it.  If you’re a type A personality like me, too often the temptation is for my plans to be the foundation of my life.  Sure, we can say that Jesus is the cornerstone of my life, but in the day-to-day experiences of life, to whom do I turn more for giving me a solid base?  My plans or God’s plans?  Likely, all of us struggle with this a little.  Or perhaps our struggle is with money being the foundation, or prestige, or power.  Whatever our temptation, there are other stones, better looking stones, that want to be established as the foundation to our house.  But, to have a house which can stand the test, not only of time but also of eternity, Jesus, the stone rejected by the builders, must become our cornerstone.

            Another important fact is to realize that our house is two stories: the basement or earthly floor and the heavenly or first floor.  The foundation that we lay here on earth greatly impacts how the first floor turns out.  Jesus tells us that in His Father’s house there are many dwelling places.  He goes to prepare a place for us.  But, we cooperate in building that level, too.  Jesus has the plan for us of how to construct it, but we have to follow those plans.  Otherwise, we build the basement floor on earth, and, if we get that wrong, we don’t build up towards the heavens, but rather down towards eternal perdition. 

            By our actions while we are building this level of the house, we establish a good foundation upon which a nice, stable first floor can be built, or we weaken the foundation and end up building down.  By every good deed we do in response to God’s grace, we cooperate with the Master Builder to prepare our place in heaven.  But, by every sin that we commit contrary to God’s grace and will, we undermine the very end for which we are striving. 

            Sometimes the construction of our own spiritual house happens quickly.  Reading this Gospel in preparation for the homily, my mind went to the funeral of our own parishioner, Alex Powell, a young man whom we commended to the Lord on May 12^th.  What a short time the Lord gave him for construction.  And yet, the more stories I heard about his own life and response in faith, especially during extreme pain and suffering, the more I came to know about a strong foundation that had been laid in preparation for the first floor.  Sometimes the construction takes longer, not for any lack of virtue, but simply according to the mind of God.  My mind also went to Dave Gagnier, who greatly assisted this Student Center, especially with the Liturgy, during his life.  In either case, what is important is not so much the time it takes, but how strong that foundation is in Christ.

            If Christ, the stone rejected by the builders, the chosen and precious stone, is our foundation for our lives, then we rest secure in the strength of the base of our spiritual homes.  If not, then as long as we have breath we have a chance to strengthen that foundation so that, at the end of our lives our hearts will not be troubled because we will be prepared to allow God to build up for us that first floor heavenly dwelling place.  If Christ is the foundation of our lives then we will look forward to hearing, “‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father.  Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’”