4th Sunday of Advent
Beloved in Jesus Christ,[i]
back in the 4th century, there lived an old hermit named Abba Abraham; he was a man of prayer, living a simple life as a monk in the desert. Now it so happened that his brother died, leaving Abraham’s niece Maria, in need of care. He therefore arranged for her to live nearby him in her own little hut. To his delight, the girl embraced this simple life. She came to love prayer and the things of God.
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Now there was a certain man who used to visit Abraham, pretending to want spiritual advice; but his heart became impassioned for Maria; for a full year he softened her up with his cunning words, until one day he seduced her and defiled her. Maria, who had tried to be a woman of prayer, was sickened at her sin, and wept day and night. Feeling hopeless, she fled to another city, and in desparation, began to live as a prostitute.
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For years, Abraham never knew what had become of his niece; but one day, news was brought to him of her circumstance. Immediately, he called for a horse and asked for the clothes of a soldier, so that he might find her without being recognized. He put on the clothes and a large hat to hide his face. He wore this style of clothes, so that he might save his niece, and then he made haste for that city.
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When he arrived at the brothel, he asked for her, and went to her room pretending to be a customer. He could hardly hold back the tears when he saw her dressed as a harlot. But sitting down on the bed, he revealed his identity; for the whole night, in tears and sobs, he taught her of the mercy of God; she brightened up, seeing that there really was hope of God’s forgiveness; then he said to her, ‘let us go out of here together,’ and they went home. Maria returned to her life of prayer, and God even gave her the gift of healing, such that many would go to her to be healed of their illness.
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Friends in Christ, There are only 5 more days until Christmas, the event that changed the world. The Lord in heaven saw us as sinners, lost and hopeless; we, who have given ourselves over in harlotry to other gods and to our sins. But in order to save us, the Son of God dressed in our human nature and journeyed to a far land to live among sinners, in order to rescue us.
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We can compare God’s action to that of Abrahm rescuing his niece, but the event of Christmas is much more profound even than that. St. Leo says that the Son of God could have sanctified us by his infinite power in some other way, but the Creator of the Universe deigned in his infinite goodness, to unite his divine nature to the nature of a servant and be born into time.
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When I think of this – when we think of this – how overwhelming to see this love of our Creator for us. And this is what overwhelmed Mary, to whom came her Maker, to participate in human life. ‘How can this be?, she asks the angel. And when she visited Elizabeth also, Elizabeth was overwhelmed with what God was doing. ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the Fruit of your womb. ‘How can this happen,’ she said.
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That the Creator would choose to do this – enter into our life, is an example of the humility of God, his lowering of himself down to us. St. Paul tells us: ‘[The Lord has] emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being made in the likeness of men.’
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So when people think, ‘God just doesn’t understand what I am going through,’ or when people distance themselves from God, who they think is Light-Years away in another universe – those who live a life of quiet desperation, alone and Godless – the truth is that this Creator of ours has taken a keen interest in the most intimate concerns of our heart.
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‘For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses.’ This is what St. Paul says. ‘Therefore he was made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful high priest, to make atonement for us.’
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I was looking on-line recently, and I saw that once a British skeptic of the 19th century said, ‘three words should be carved over all church doors: ‘Important, if true.’
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There are plenty of skeptics today, and people who have lost their faith –
They should be at least as honest as that British skeptic: ‘Important, if true.’ If God really has entered his own creation, taken on our life, and suffered and died for each person – this God, who knows and loves us; then the consequence is enormous: we have to give him our whole life. We owe him everything. There is no other adequate response.
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The secular world wants to enjoy a happy holiday with all the lights and decorations and presents to brighten up winter. They want Christmas without Christ. But they refuse to face directly, the claim of the season. If this claim is false, then Christmas is not to be celebrated, but reviled. But if this claim is true, it means their life must completely change.
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This claim: First, that the Son of God exists: the ‘Word,’ as we call him. ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.’
And the second claim: that this Son of God, the Word, actually entered our life, walked the earth, and dwells with us today. ‘The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.’
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‘Important, if true.’
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The lack of faith today leads to a morose languor, a depletion of joy hanging over our towns like a depressing smog. Let us then – let’s we ourselves marvel again at the feast that’s coming up: when the Son of God, seeing our poor lives left heaven and came in disguise among us, to rescue us; when he put on flesh to save us.
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Mary, pray for us, that in this holy season our own lives may radiate an unshakable faith, a hope in the truth of Christmas; and bring the Light of hope to our world.
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‘Important, if true.’
Yes. It is very important – because it is true.
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[Entrusted to the prayers of St. Joseph]
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[i] Harlots of the Desert, p. 97
Friends in Christ, today we begin this series of holy days running up to Christmas. The gospel today contains the genealogy of Jesus, demonstrating Christ’s human lineage, all the way back to Abraham.
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Now gallons of ink have been spilt, commenting on the meaning and symbols of this genealogy. But some scholars, and skeptics, have pointed to the curious phrase that concludes the genealogy: ‘The generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, from David to the Babylonian exile, fourteen generations, and from the Babylonian exile to the Christ fourteen generations.’ Now if we count, we will see that indeed, the first two lists have 14 names, but the final list has only 13. ‘Aha!,’ say the skeptics, an error. St. Matthew miscounted!’
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A professor once told me, ‘when you see something in scripture that seems strange, study it more, because something great is there.’ Many explanations have been attempted to explain this supposed ‘error.’ How can Matthew say that there are 3 sets of 14 generations up to Christ, when the last set – especially the one that includes the birth of Christ – when that one, seems to be missing one generation?
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Well, why don’t we ask the saints? St. Hilary, writing back in the 4th century says that one cannot read Holy Scripture superficially, for there are important hidden meanings there. He says that we are told there are 14 generations until Mary, yet we only count 13. In reality, this is not an error, because Our Lord Jesus Christ did not take his origin from Mary alone. Christ’s Eternal Generation by the Father is also to be included.[i]
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Therefore, Matthew was not mistaken or in error; generation refers to ‘begetting; the one birth of Christ should be considered as having two generations: his being born from Mary as Man, and his being Eternally Begotten by the Father. Matthew therefore listed the 13 human generations, but says that there are 14, in order to include the Divine generation. He added together the generations from the Father and from Mary, to teach that the eternal Son of God and the Son of Mary are one and the same Person. And this is what we are preparing to celebrate next week.
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[i] Mary and the Fathers of the church, p. 183.
Friends in Christ, today in the scriptures, Isaiah and also David in the psalms, they cry out for the Savior to come down from heaven. ‘Let the clouds rain down the Just One, and the earth bring forth a Savior, says the Psalmist. And Isaiah: ‘Let justice descend, O heavens, like dew from above, like gentle rain, let the skies drop it down.’
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The coming of the Savior is alluded to, as a gentle rain that comes down, or a dewfall. But the Lord’s coming down from heaven required some preparation. The saints tell us that God, having decided to become man in order to redeem lost humanity, needed to choose a Mother. God therefore sought the world over for the maiden that was the most holy and humble. The Son of God was preparing to drop down like rain to a parched earth, but He needed a safe beginning point, a ‘beachhead’ as they say in a battle, as God comes to take back the earth.
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And so God, having admired the Virgin Mary for her virtues and simplicity declared: ‘This one is my dove, my perfect one,’ to quote the scriptures. In the Song of Songs, Mary is referred to. It says, ‘While the king was at his repose, my spikenard sent up its sweet scent’ St. Antoninus explains this passage in the following way: Spikenard, he says, is used to produce a beautiful perfume, with an exquisite scent. It is a small and lowly plant. And so this little, humble plant is a symbol of Mary. Therefore, it was the sweet scent of Mary’s humility, which ascended to heaven and awakened the Divine Word, reposing in the bosom of the Eternal Father, and drew him down into his Mother’s womb.
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The Lord was drawn down from heaven as it were, by the sweet scent of the goodness of the virgin Mary, to become man and redeem a lost world.
We enter tomorrow the special days leading up to Christmas; it is a time of holiness, we wish to make it a time of peace. We ask that our prayers ascend to heaven with a sweet scent, to awaken the Divine Spouse, that he would shower us with many graces in the coming days.
3rd Sunday of Advent (Gaudete Sunday)
Beloved in Jesus Christ, at every Passover, the Jewish people reserve a cup of wine and a place setting, for the arrival of Elijah. It was believed that the prophet Elijah would come again at the time of the Messiah. The ancient rabbis had written a great deal about it. The tradition was so strong, that at seder meals, and even to this day, not only is a cup of wine poured for Elijah, but the door is left standing open for his coming. Also, in the concluding ceremony of the Sabbath, an appeal is made to God, that Elijah would arrive during the next week. ‘Let him come quickly,’ says the prayer, ‘let him come with the messiah.’
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But this expectation of Elijah preparing the way was no idle tradition. The prophet Malachi who lived centuries before Christ, wrote: ‘Lo I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the Lord comes, to turn hearts of children to their fathers. Lo, I will send you Elijah.
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So knowing this, the people asked John the Baptist: Who are you? And he said, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, Are you Elijah? Now John DID wear a leather belt and a garment of camel’s hair as did Elijah. But the truth would be, that it was not Elijah himself who would come, but one in the spirit of Elijah; John, out of humility, says ‘I am not he.’
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Thousands of years of preparation and prophecy, had foretold the Savior. The long line of prophets, and writings, and symbols were about to be fulfilled in Jesus Christ. John was too humble to say that he fulfilled the last prophecy; but in St. Matthew’s Gospel, Christ says so: ‘And he said to them, the prophets and the Law prophesied until John the Baptist; and if you can accept it, he is Elijah, who was to come.
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And so John the Baptist stood at the pinnacle of prophecy, at the very gate of the New Covenant. John the Baptist stands as the dividing line between the Old Law and the New Law. As Malachi’s prophecy of Elijah closes the Old Testament, John appears, at the opening of the New Testament.
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‘Who are you?,’ they asked John. In his humility, he could not give a theological answer, of how he is the forerunner to the Savior – no. He could only say, ‘I am not even worthy to undo the strap of his sandal.’
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The question they posed to John can be answered by us as well: ‘Who are you?’ Each of us will face that truth one day before our Maker; this question will cut through all the layers of delusion and rationalization; only what is real will be seen; and if we are honest, this should be a fearful thought.
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‘Who are you?’ This question will not only ask what we have said, what we have done, and with what motives we did things; it will go straight to who we are. ‘Who am I – really?’
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A friend of mine says he was at someone’s home, a Catholic. It was a very nice home, high quality. But he said, ‘there was not a single image of faith there, not a crucifix, no image of Mary, there were no meal prayers said; he said, ‘I wonder what really motivates that family, it didn’t seem to be God.’
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Advent is a time to look inside, to honestly ask that question of ourselves: ‘Who are you?’ ‘Who am I?’ Can I say, ‘I am a Christian.’ Can we say that our motives and thoughts and dealings with others, are driven by our love of God?
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The North American martyr St. Isaac Jogues was tortured by Mohawk Indians, but he escaped and was sent back to France. He said to his superior: “Father, the tortures were very great, but God is greater. I want whatever the Lord wants.’ And he went back again. His life was simply about God, come what may.
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‘Who are you?’ – this will one day be asked of us by the most powerful Creator, and our destiny will be decided not by how we answer, but by what is evident.
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In this life we wear many masks. There is the external mask we wear so that others think we are something, concealing our dark shadows or even leading a double-life. And there are the internal masks that we wear to deceive ourselves: the mask of rationalizing what we do and how we are.
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Psychologists tell us that we build up around our mind – we create an elaborate world-view – in order to protect and pacify our conscience. We distance ourself from reality.
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We make many compromises. Basing decisions on what can be gained, instead of what is right – acting for the sake of popularity or approval – building layers around us, complicating the truth of who we are, and separating ourselves from reality.
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We’ve maybe met people who are always scheming and calculating so that whatever they do is to their advantage. This kind of a life is joyless, with no foundation, one big deception.
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John the Baptist is presented to us during Advent, as an example of one who was not afraid of what others say; he spoke truth – it got him into trouble, he was killed for it; but he was a free man in the Lord, livingin perfect reality and truth.
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These last days preparing for Christmas call us to remove from our lives all that is not authentic. Removing the facades and poses that complicate us, but that also make us fake, and certainly not free.
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Life in Jesus Christ – is life in reality, knowing our true selves, and then living as authentic disciples of the Lord. It’s true, we’ve often tangled and complicated our life, but we can go to Mary! Mary has been called the ‘Untier of knots,’ so we can ask her to untie the knots in our life, that we may be more authentic disciples of Jesus Christ.
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[Entrusted to the prayers of St. Josemaria Escriva]
Friends in Christ, today Our Lord uses the example of children playing in the market place to show how fickle and ungrateful the world is. “To what shall I compare this generation, he said. It is like children who play in the marketplace.
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At the time of Christ, there was a game where the children were supposed to dance or cry or act out something when flutes were played. If a sad song was played, they were supposed to cry; if the flute switched to happy, they were supposed to dance; whatever the song told them to do.
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The world is this way with religion; it wants to manipulate and distort religion to it’s own ideology. It wants religion to dance according to it’s tune. This secular spirit even tries to manipulate the wonder of Christmas, distort it into anything except what it is: God become man, to save his people. God has become a baby, in order to save us. This is astounding, or it SHOULD be astounding.
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But the world has turned it all into shopping and Santa and snowmen and parties – anything, except Christ. There is no gratitude to God for what he has done for us.
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St. Alphonsus says, who could believe that a God, for love of a worm such as ourselves – that a God would become a worm like us, to save us? Suppose that walking along you accidently step on a worm and crush it, and then someone says: ‘if you wish to restore that worm to life, you yourself must become a worm, and then shed your blood for it; we would say, ‘what does it matter to me whether that worm lives or dies if I have to purchase its life with my own death? We would say this especially if the worm were ungrateful.
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But this is what Christ has done for us, we vile and lowly worms. Really, for us poor creatures, what difference should it make to God whether we are forever dead in hell or not? Yet God has such a love for us, that to save us from eternal death, he has become a worm like us, and poured out his blood to the last drop. As scripture says, He has loved us, and washed away our sins in his own blood.
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In these two weeks remaining of Advent, let us be full of gratitude to Christ the Lord, for all he has done for us.
Friends in Christ, although it is not on the Liturgical Calendar today, December 10th is observed as Our Lady of Loreto, Loreto being the place in Italy where is Mary’s little house from Nazareth.
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According to legend, the house where Mary was born and where the Annunciation happened – this little house – when under the threat of war, was moved from the Holy Land to Croatia, to Italy, to Loreto – they say, by angels. Shepherds there discovered the sudden appearance of a little house in one of their fields. They went to the priest who himself was crippled; visiting the house, he had a vision and was suddenly cured.
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It seems that indeed, the house of Mary in the Holy Land had disappeared, leaving only a foundation that measured the exact size of the house. There are others that say a family of workmen disassembled the house and moved it. In any case, this shrine is a revered and holy place, and the source of many miracles.
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One miracle involved a young boy named Giovanni who had been sickly for many years. He wanted to be a priest, but was subject to seizures and other maladies. The Pope, who knew him, advised him to place himself in the hands of Mary. He therefore made a pilgrimage to Loreto and calling out to his heavenly Mother, was cured. Ultimately, he became not only a priest, but the Pope: Pope Pius IX, who would proclaim the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception. As Pope he visited Loreto seven times, and this Holy house of Loreto is a favorite place for Popes to go and pray.
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Also originating at that Shrine, was the Litany of Loreto, which we usually call the Litany of the Blessed Virgin. When I was a young man, I was once speaking to an old priest. He showed me in his church, the verses of the Litany of Loreto inscribed around the walls of the Church. He then sat down, and as I looked at those verses, he recited all 51 of them by heart. He knew them all. His love for Mary made a big impression on me.
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It is a beautiful practice to add the Litany of Loreto to the end of Our Rosary each day.
Friends in Christ, today is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. It is very apropos that during this Advent season, we meet Mary along the way on this feast day, and then we meet Mary again at the end of this week in Our Lady of Guadalupe, preparing for the birth of Christ.
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The Immaculate Conception.
‘Immaculate,’ means pure and clean. The Immaculate Conception, is when Mary was conceived without sin in her mother’s womb. She never had Original Sin. But what does this mean?
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A young woman asked, how Mary could have been conceived without sin, isn’t she human like us?’
Well, what IS Original Sin? A person with Original Sin actually has something missing. They are missing grace. We are born into the world without the supernatural grace of God. We come into the world in a natural sate, not supernatural – without the Life of God in us. THAT is what Original Sin is. It’s a condition of being without sanctifying grace. So Mary was just as human as us,[i] just as human as her mother and father. Our Lady is a true member of the human family, one of us.
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WE acquire the supernatural life of God when we are baptized; grace comes into our soul. The Life of God. But for Mary, she received the Life of God in her – grace – right away. As the angel clearly said, ‘Hail Mary, FULL of grace.
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Eve had the life of God in her when she first was made; she and Adam walked with God, but they lost grace. Mary is called the New Eve, and St. Paul will say that Christ is the New Adam. So Mary is full of grace, from the very beginning, because she will be the model of what we can be.
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A protestant friend said to me, ‘Father, we are all sinners, we are nothing, we are vile and filthy and weak before the Lord God.’ Isn’t this true of Mary? I said, ‘It is true that we are sinners and wretches before the Good God.’ But you have forgotten the rest of the story: God wants us to become great. He has made us his children. Sons and daughters of the Most High. He wants us to be other Christs, like Jesus. He wants grace to increase in us – until we are Full of Grace!
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Now ONE of us shows the goal that God has for us, the Greatest Saint. Mary is the image of the whole Church. She is the first one of us to have it all. In heaven, Our Mother is sinless, pure, holy, great, beautiful, and alive. And this is the goal of the entire Church – to reach heaven and be great and pure, and immaculate.[ii] Mary leads the way, and so she is called the Gate of heaven.
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St. Bernard[iii] says that if we have the misfortune to lose grace, by mortal sin, if we are discouraged, Mary will help us. She will obtain for us the courage to confess, and change our life. He calls Mary the Finder of Grace!
Finder of Grace? She does not find it for herself, because she is full of grace; she finds it for us sinners.
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[i] Peter Kreeft in Catholic Christianity, p. 405. Protestants confuse Original Sin with a distorted humanity. They think Mary suddenly was born with a different humanity. Not so, same humanity, but with grace.
[ii] AD DIEM ILLUM LAETISSIMUM, number 5.
[iii] Glories, p. 81.
2nd Sunday of Advent
Beloved in Jesus Christ,
During the horror of Naziism during World War II in Germany, there emerged a truly heroic figure, a priest by the name of Fr. Alfred Delp. He was pastor of a parish in Munich, and an outspoken critic of the Nazi regime; quietly, he led a Resistance movement, and was arrested in 1944. After 6 months in prison, he was martyred by hanging.
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While in prison, he was able to write secretly some beautiful meditations on small scraps of paper that were smuggled out in the laundry. Not only during his prison time, but in all of his preaching, one of his favorite subjects was that of Advent, the time we are in today. In 1942 during a Holy Hour, he says: ‘These fateful days have hit us all hard, and we feel it. We want something more than this suffering and wory and visible distress that we have been going through.’
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Now he is talking about life under the Nazi’s, but I’m sure that those words might resonate with us today. There is more than enough to make us worried, or angry, or frustrated with the way the world seems to be going. But in all of those horrible years of the War, when Fr. Delp could have been arrested at anytime, he said: ‘Advent means remembering the freedom of God, and then abandoning ourselves to the divine unpredictability.’[i]
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God’s deep intention is to keep pursing us; pursing each person until he ‘gives’, until we freely give him our freedom, beyond our own desires or worries or crosses. St. Bernard, in an Advent homily says ‘Christ is our rest and consolation; therefore, keep God’s word and let it take possesion of your desires and your whole way of life.’ Allowing God to take posession of our life is not an easy thing, but as the saints tell us, it is the only way to true freedom.
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During this holy season, as we try to be more contemplative, we see that God is not only asking us to give him our whole heart, but we see that God is pursing us, chasing us down, as it were. Francis Thompson wrote a poem about this, of how God is pursuing us, the Hound of Heaven:
‘I fled from Him, down nights and days;
I fled from Him, down arches of the years,
of my own mind and in my tears – I hid from Him.’
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We hide from God in our own Will. He can’t get there. But if God is seeking us, then let him find us.
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Today John the Baptist’s disciples come to Jesus; he says: ‘What did you come out to the desert to see? A reed shaken with the wind? But what did you come to see? This is he of whom it is written: Behold, I send my Angel before Thy face, who shall prepare Thy way before Thee.’
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Advent is a time to prepare for the coming of Christ; you say, ‘but Christ has already come!’ yes. There was that lost world before Christianity; lost in sin and idolatry and death and despair – with no hope, and Christ came. But isn’t that a description of much of our world today as well, without Christ. And it is emblematic of ourselves at times: dark and lost.
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These days are days to throw ourselves into the arms of God, and for once, to trust him and his plan. Even in our best moments, we often just check with God to see if our plans fit in ok with his.[ii] But it should really be the other way around. When the cross is in front of us, or fears paralyze us, or anger confounds us, maybe we can begin to seek the peace of embracing and suffering over the reality of the world.
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We mentioned Fr. Delp. Writing from prison, he recalled when once a good person gave him an Advent banner with an angel announcing the Good News.[iii] He says, ‘A bomb destroyed the angel. A bomb killed the good person, the terror of this time would not be bearable except for the promises of Advent.’
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For us, Advent is a time to be found by God, but he needs some silence, the Lord needs us to give him some quiet, to work in us. The 1st week of Advent spoke of the end of the world, signs in stars and moon, ‘the powers of the heavens will be shaken.’ This was to shake us – to shake us into reality. God is seeking to be close to us, he is asking for freedom to work in us; to give him our heart and our will; not in worry or resistance or defiance, but in docility.
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Think of the 1st Advent – what if Mary had not given her ‘fiat,’ her yes to the angel?[iv] What if in the desire for an untroubled life, this Virgin would have said, ‘no, I’m not up to this. I pass.’ Sure, God could have then found another way to save us. But what about Mary? Her life would have been pathetically empty, not even close to the potential God had offered her. She would never have become the Mother of all, and Queen of heaven.
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Following God’s will in our life is not an ‘accessory’ or an ‘add-on,’ any more than the training of an athlete is a mere ‘bonus’; following God’s will is essential to our becoming fulfilled.
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‘I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare, not for woe. Plans to give you a future full of hope.’ (Jer 29:11)
Advent is a time to put our trust in God. To abandon ourselves to the Divine unpredictability.
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[Entrusted to the prayers of Blessed Bartolo Longo]
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[i] Advent of the Heart – Alfred Delp, p. 81. Ideas in this homily are from this book.
[ii] p. 69
[iii] p. 26
[iv] see p. 83
Friends in Christ,
God can do whatever he wants, he is all powerful. As St. Alphonsus says, by a mere nod of his head, he created heaven and earth out of nothing. And if he wanted to, he could destroy the immense machinery of the universe by a glance. God is all powerful.
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And yet despite this power of the Creator, there is a surprising rashness in mankind. Proud sinners flagrantly sin against God, defying him every day. And this is us.
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Suppose we would see some insect, say a tiny ant. And if this ant decided to make an attack against a soldier, we would think this is ridiculous and fool-hardy. Well, how much more foolhardy it is, for man to make an assault against his Creator by sinning.
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Here we are beginning the season of Advent. And we are preparing to celebrate a surprising event: The reckless and ungrateful sinners of this world are the very ones, for whom the Son of God comes down to save, by making himself a humble child.
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God becomes a child who needs milk to live, who is so feeble that he cannot even feed himself. The Eternal Word in coming into the world, wishes to conceal his strength. St. Cyril says: ‘Behold he who governs the heavens;’ ‘Behold God in swaddling cloths, unable to even stretch out his hands.’
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When Mary and Joseph took Jesus to Egypt, he could not even walk, he had to be carried. As St. Bonaventure says, when they returned from Egypt, Jesus was too large to be carried, but too little to make a long journey, and so they often had to stop and rest. God reduces himself to this weak and lowly state, for us.
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There he is in the shop at Nazareth; he busily works, helping Joseph as a carpenter. The boy Jesus exhausting himself to shape some piece of wood, laboring a whole day on it. He, who could create it out of nothing in a glance.
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A God then, has become so little and so weak. Why did he do this? To make himself loved.
Advent is a time to love this Child as he deserves.
1st. Sunday of Advent
Beloved in Jesus Christ,
Every Catholic often says the prayer: Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Now people sometimes ask, why does it say: ‘world without end? The world will have an end, won’t it?’ Well, this is an old English translation of the prayer; they had their ways of speaking, but the proper translation would be: ‘As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever, or, ‘unto the ages and the ages.’ The prayer is saying, that glory to the Persons of the Blessed Trinity has always been given and forever will be given. And so those who ask about this ‘world without end’ rightly call this strange phrase into question. The world WILL end. All that we see will be destroyed.
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One day, a man was walking along with Cardinal George, commenting on the beauty of the skycrappers and the City of Chicago; Cardinal George, in his characteristic fashion said, ‘You know, one day, all of this will be gone.’ This world will have an end.
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As the last Liturgical Year has ended, and we begin the new Liturgical Year today, an important theme given to us is: The End of the World. Today, Our Lord continues to warn his followers that the End will come: ‘There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on earth nations will be in dismay. People will die of fright for what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.’ In many places, Jesus foretells the End of this Universe.
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As if to give us trust in what he says, Christ also predicted that the Great Temple of Jerusalem would be destroyed within the lifetimes of those living, and although it had stood for over 500 years, it was destroyed, just as he had foretold. And so we can trust his telling of the end of this universe.
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‘The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When everyone says ‘we have peace and security, then sudden destruction will come upon them.’ (1 Thess 5:1) ‘the heavens will pass away with violence, the elements destroyed by fire, and the earth and it’s works will be burnt up.’ (2 Peter 3:10)
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For sure, we should care about our world, take an interest in the affairs of this age, work for justice and peace, avoid poluting the environment; but as Christians, we are not overly anxious or worried about whatever is happening this week or this year, because all of this is temporary. Jesus says, ‘do not be anxious about your life;’ St. Paul says, ‘have no anxiety about anything.’ This is because our hearts are fixed, not on the passing things of this world, but on the New World to Come. And so we live accordingly.
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People come up with all kinds of predictions or claims about the end of the world, as you know; but they do not get these ideas from Jesus Christ. “Beyond a shadow of a doubt, said Harold Camping, ‘beyond a shadow of a doubt, May 21, 2011, will be the date of the Rapture and the day of judgment, and the end of the world will be 5 months later. Well – we are still here.
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Jerry Falwell predicted the end of the world, would be in 2009. The Jehovah Witnesses predicted the world would end in 1914, then they changed it to 1915. When nothing happened, they insisted the end would be in 1918. When that didn’t happen, they assured us it would be 1925. And then 1975. But we are still here. Jesus Christ assures us, ‘you know not the day nor the hour.’ But it will come.
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So what do we know about the end? What events will lead up to it? We only need consult the Catechism of the church, which summarizes what we have been taught by the Holy Scriptures and the teaching of the Apostles.
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Four basic movements will signal the End.
1. The faith will have been preached to all the world, and also the Jewish people will finally accept Christ as the Messiah.
2. The Anti-Christ will appear and lead many Christians away from the faith. Whoever or whatever this will be, will bring a very seductive message, convincing many people that they will find happiness best in turning away from Christ and the Church. This will be the great Apostasy, only those willing to go against the grain will remain faithful.
3. Then will be the great Persecution against the remaining faithful followers; it will be a persecution unlike anything ever before, and so a lot of courage will be needed.
4. Then finally, the 2nd Coming of Christ in glory, the ressurection of the dead, and the End of the World. Then God will bring us to a whole, New Creation, a renewed cosmos – this will be the glory for those who are faithful. On that Last Day, when Christ comes on clouds in glory, good people will rejoice, but evil people will be in terror.
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We can imagine a family in those days. Their life has been hard for that Catholic family, with the persecution; perhaps the father has lost his job because of his faith, or even arrested or tortured. There is pressure against them. The daughter Joanne is doing her homework in her room, when suddenly a bright light, through the curtains, lights up her room. A shout from her mother: ‘Joanne, come outside, come!’ And she runs to her mother, and her mother points to the bright sky. There is coming Jesus in the clouds, in glory – ‘He’s here Joanne. Jesus is here. He’s come for you and I, and daddy.’ And they are so happy, because the End has finally come, and the resurrection, and the New World.
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‘And you will see the Son of Man coming on clouds in great power, and when these things come to pass, lift up your heads, for your redemption is at hand.’
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Friends, as we begin Advent today, to prepare for the Birth of our Savior, Mother Church asks us to consider the first coming of Jesus as a little Child, and not to forget his 2nd Coming, in Glory, that Great Day. We prepare our hearts in these weeks ahead, confess our sins, renew our daily habits of prayer. Maybe something new for these weeks: have the family read from the bible before dinner, pray the Rosary, a little sacrifice – something to bring us closer to Jesus.
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Our Lord gives us the message for our Advent: “Beware that that day not catch you by surprise like a trap. Be vigilant and pray, that you have the strength to stand before the Son of Man.” So as we await the Birth of Christ, we don’t forget the day we will meet Him face to face in glory.
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And in these days, let us wait with Mary too. Mary, pray that during this Advent, Christ would be born ever more in our hearts, making us true Christians, and worthy of his Coming.
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[Entrusted to the prayers of St. Thomas Aquinas]
