So much of popular Christian literature and culture is wrapped in the theme of the rapture, the Second Coming, the End Times. Quite often, those who make the attempt to produce films or author novels about such themes are rarely rooted in anything steeped in Tradition or Truth.
It's quite popular to portray end times or the end of the world as some hybrid of the plagues of Exodus, amplified with 20th century carnage and warfare. When, in reality, this is not an accurate representation of any truth found within Sacred Scripture, nor the ongoing Tradition of the Church.
So what are the real end times? What will it mean and what will happen? It probably shouldn't be a surprise that the answer is "I don't know". It should be music to the ears of the Catholic who recognizes that almost everything of our faith is cemented in the Mystery of a Triune God who was incarnate of a Virgin, suffered death and rose from the clutches of the underworld to bring all men to Himself. If you can somehow condense all that and make simple sense of it all, then you truly do not believe!
That is a great charism of our One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church - we embrace mystery, we find solace within the endless chambers of the the Heart of God.
When we read these passages in the Scriptures that alludes to the End Times, let us not get ourselves all worked up over some looming destruction and hell-hot coals consuming our earthly flesh; rather, let us truly understand the impetus of Jesus' words.
Jesus' sermon has now turned to the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. The destruction would take place 40 years after this great sermon in the year 70AD. It was in that generation that they would witness the horrendous destruction of the center of all Jewish sacrifice and life. There has not been a sacrifice offered by any Jew since that very day.
Within the Temple were endless displays of celestial ornamentation, paintings, weavings, tapestries and symbolism that gave the Jewish people a visual reminder of the constant presence of the God of the universe in their midst and that indeed this is where the heavens kissed the earth.
And it is from the destruction in 70AD that the Jews await their messiah - their King - to come and rebuild the Temple, defeat the enemies of chosen people and to rule for all time and make jerusalem the capital of creation. It is a restoration of the rubbled Old that they await for.
We Christians, specifically Catholics, await for a fulfillment, for the New Earth and the New Jerusalem. We await the coming of our King at the end of the Ages to come and rule over Heaven and Earth where He will reign in every galaxy, solar system, planet, continent, nation, community and heart. When He comes, He wont rebuild, He will transform!
We await the fulfillment of the New Covenant itself where every sin and sleep of death will be obliterated by the light of His reign and will be no more. It is where we will be face to face with our King, and a 'cushy, fluffy, weak, homemade, feel good, spiritual but not religious, it doesn't matter what I do cause God loves me anyways life of nonsense' will no longer cut it. Nor will the 'fundamentalist bible thumper kind either where ignorance of the Truth and depth of Scripture is encouraged' - It will be about His Church, His Law, His Commandments and His Truth.
We will come to finally come to see that our parish really is connected to the Church which is the Body of Christ extending every outpost of time and space where membership is eternal. It is through His Church, just like through His Temple, that the real presence will be fulfilled on earth. His reign will be so mighty and bright that the sun will fade into darkness. It will be blinding - that's why souls go through purgatory, preparing to gaze upon that light of the King.
That is why we need to be vigilant, because we know not the day nor the hour when the Son of Man will come. We need to be prepared to stand, not only in front of Him and beam with joy in the presence of His light, but along side Him as one body united in Truth and Love.
What will all this look like? Entail? Our transfigured bodies and world: what will they look and feel like?
Truthfully, it doesn't really matter. Those details wont change their reality or their imminence. What does matter is that we live lives as virtuous Catholics, ardently defending our Church, our God, and the Truth of Jesus Christ. Though the Jews are waiting for something we don't believe will ever happen, we need to remain united to them, not only as our great brothers and sisters of the Old Covenant and of antiquity, but their passion for the presence of God as the center of their lives - as seen in the Temple.
The truth is, our King will come! We are in those end times, after the destruction and waiting for the new. But these are not days of waiting for destruction, vengeance, pestilence and red rivers throughout the lands. We are in a period of waiting for Love enfleshed to stand in our midst and kill every evil. Our King, born to us as a baby, died for us on a tree, will come to hold us close in the warmth of his embrace and allow us to hear the beating of His heart.
We have nothing to fear and everything to gain if we live a life deserving of that King and His victory. Perfection may never be achieved in our lives, but an ardent desire to love God and follow His will is definitely what we can achieve.
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Sunday, November 4, 2012
What is the Greatest Commandment? LOVE!
Priesthood is a busy life! I have not found the time, nor carved it out, to write as often as I would like. But, I feel that I don't want to let this free moment go by without offering a little reflection on this Sunday's beautiful and rich Scripture and our elections this week...
Perhaps it is yet another one of those great mysteries of our Faith as to why great tragedies happen in our lives as individuals and as a people, this past week was not shy from offering us another such mystery. Hurricane Sandy just caused utter destruction and devastation to so many of our brothers and sisters on the East coast, neighborhoods obliterated, lives lost, memories washed away. It is within the pondering of man to seek the meaning behind the brevity of such things in our lives and the reality of eternity we dwell within. All suffering must be processed through the Crucifixion of our Lord and the Kingdom He has opened for us - any effort short of Christ will fail. Truth.
What this tragedy, as with others I can recall, did was to bring people back to their roots of common humanity. Communities that were once a collection of individuals, have become bodies of cooperation and charity. We have seen this past week the truth of who we are come through. We have seen political adversaries together arm in arm fighting for the welfare of their fellow man with no political filter or campaign stump. It is remarkable that Mr. Romney and Obama ceased campaigning this week for a few days. If politics were so important and defining to an individual, then why did they stop? Out of sensitivity? They stopped to be sensitive! THey stopped because ultimately none of those artificial divides mean anything. We are not Democrat and Republican. Those are made up terms to further divide and conquer a people. I can declare my self a "Jupiter Zambonni" and it holds as much weight in eternity as does our Democrat and Republican labels do.
I am not trying to be angry or pessimistic about government and the practice of law and policy - those are necessary entities in a well ordered society. But, there is a right way and a wrong way to understand it and live it out.
This week we're going to hear a lot about party politics, the economy, jobs, Benghazi, Medicare / Medicaid, HHS Mandate, the 'war on women', etc.,etc.,etc.. I can almost guarantee there will almost no utterance of the Gospel, the Crucifixion, the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, Natural Law, Salvation, Eternity, The Good, the True, the Beautiful! We live in a society that is both afraid and ignorant of what is truly real and meaningful. It is the easy way out to just blame others for our problems, to puff up our egos and make others inferior, to deny others the Love they deserve so that I can seek my own power and gain.
What is the greatest commandment? LOVE! Love your fellow man as if you can see the very image of God impressed on their soul. Love your community as a microcosm of the great and magnificent Body of Christ. Love your family for the Trinitarian Love it reflects. Love your God who loved you so much He came to walk among us and allowed HImself to experience every degree of human suffering and pain and willingly let His persecutors nail him to a pice of wood in utter agony just so we could be with Him for eternity. Love your God everywhere and everyday!
Husbands and wives just don't love each other in the privacy of their homes and hate each other in public. Men don't love and respect their wives and children at the dinner table and then beat them and ridicule them at the store. Its absurd to love in some places and not all places; to love sometimes and not all the time!
LOVE! Be people madly in love with life, each other and with God. Let that show and be the engine and thrust of our very essence and being. The moment we let artificial boundaries, labels, divisions, prejudices and politics get in the way of Love - that is sin! If I don't allow myself to love as I've been commanded and as a response to the unimaginable love we've been given by God, then I am falling into sin and promoting hatred and darkness. That is not the path to eternal life, it just isn't.
It is sad that we need tragedy to bring us back to our roots and down to our knees in humble awe at the true beauty of our humanity and of Love. Let us take this experience of seeing the truth of Love and humanity and run with it. Let us take it into our daily lives and not suspend it or jeopardize it for anything our anyone. We have been called to love totally in all times nad places, let us not fall into the traps of sin that tells us to defy our consciences and our beliefs for some finite and fickle cause.
Perhaps it is yet another one of those great mysteries of our Faith as to why great tragedies happen in our lives as individuals and as a people, this past week was not shy from offering us another such mystery. Hurricane Sandy just caused utter destruction and devastation to so many of our brothers and sisters on the East coast, neighborhoods obliterated, lives lost, memories washed away. It is within the pondering of man to seek the meaning behind the brevity of such things in our lives and the reality of eternity we dwell within. All suffering must be processed through the Crucifixion of our Lord and the Kingdom He has opened for us - any effort short of Christ will fail. Truth.
What this tragedy, as with others I can recall, did was to bring people back to their roots of common humanity. Communities that were once a collection of individuals, have become bodies of cooperation and charity. We have seen this past week the truth of who we are come through. We have seen political adversaries together arm in arm fighting for the welfare of their fellow man with no political filter or campaign stump. It is remarkable that Mr. Romney and Obama ceased campaigning this week for a few days. If politics were so important and defining to an individual, then why did they stop? Out of sensitivity? They stopped to be sensitive! THey stopped because ultimately none of those artificial divides mean anything. We are not Democrat and Republican. Those are made up terms to further divide and conquer a people. I can declare my self a "Jupiter Zambonni" and it holds as much weight in eternity as does our Democrat and Republican labels do.
I am not trying to be angry or pessimistic about government and the practice of law and policy - those are necessary entities in a well ordered society. But, there is a right way and a wrong way to understand it and live it out.
This week we're going to hear a lot about party politics, the economy, jobs, Benghazi, Medicare / Medicaid, HHS Mandate, the 'war on women', etc.,etc.,etc.. I can almost guarantee there will almost no utterance of the Gospel, the Crucifixion, the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, Natural Law, Salvation, Eternity, The Good, the True, the Beautiful! We live in a society that is both afraid and ignorant of what is truly real and meaningful. It is the easy way out to just blame others for our problems, to puff up our egos and make others inferior, to deny others the Love they deserve so that I can seek my own power and gain.
What is the greatest commandment? LOVE! Love your fellow man as if you can see the very image of God impressed on their soul. Love your community as a microcosm of the great and magnificent Body of Christ. Love your family for the Trinitarian Love it reflects. Love your God who loved you so much He came to walk among us and allowed HImself to experience every degree of human suffering and pain and willingly let His persecutors nail him to a pice of wood in utter agony just so we could be with Him for eternity. Love your God everywhere and everyday!
Husbands and wives just don't love each other in the privacy of their homes and hate each other in public. Men don't love and respect their wives and children at the dinner table and then beat them and ridicule them at the store. Its absurd to love in some places and not all places; to love sometimes and not all the time!
LOVE! Be people madly in love with life, each other and with God. Let that show and be the engine and thrust of our very essence and being. The moment we let artificial boundaries, labels, divisions, prejudices and politics get in the way of Love - that is sin! If I don't allow myself to love as I've been commanded and as a response to the unimaginable love we've been given by God, then I am falling into sin and promoting hatred and darkness. That is not the path to eternal life, it just isn't.
It is sad that we need tragedy to bring us back to our roots and down to our knees in humble awe at the true beauty of our humanity and of Love. Let us take this experience of seeing the truth of Love and humanity and run with it. Let us take it into our daily lives and not suspend it or jeopardize it for anything our anyone. We have been called to love totally in all times nad places, let us not fall into the traps of sin that tells us to defy our consciences and our beliefs for some finite and fickle cause.
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