THE LITURGICAL YEAR

Sermons, hymns, meditations and other musings to guide our annual pilgrim's progress through the liturgical year.

Sunday, November 26, 2017

I AM WHAT HE WAS, AND WHAT HE IS, I SHALL BE

A MESSAGE FOR THE LAST SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST


At the funeral of a certain nobleman St. Sylvester, whose feastday is today, perceived in an open grave the disfigured corpse of one of his kinsmen who had been very good-looking in his lifetime, and he said to himself, “I am what he was, and what he is I shall be.”

It is never with pleasure that we contemplate the inescapable fact that one day we will be dead.  But if there’s any day of the year that we should do so, it is today, the very last Sunday after Pentecost, the last of the liturgical year.  Until now during this month of November we have been remembering all our loved ones who have gone before us.  Today it is time for us to remember that one day we will join them.

We cannot escape death no matter how much money we have, no matter how clever our doctors are, no matter how healthy a lifestyle we lead.  One day, and it’s getting closer, our hearts will stop beating and our brains will cease to function. We don’t know how it will happen, nor have we seen with our eyes what lies beyond, and these unknown factors makes many of us fear the hour of our death.  As Catholics though, we know by our faith that death is not the end.  Something far greater, and certainly far longer, lies beyond, and if we manage to persevere in grace until our death, that passing into the beyond will signify the transition from a temporary vale of tears into an eternity of perfect happiness.  This is our consolation in our thoughts of death.

We are incapable of seeing past the veil that separates the living from the dead.  Our five senses cannot detect the reality of what lies beyond, and for this reason we experience the fear of the unknown.  But our faith in God must transcend the knowledge our senses provide us.  Our senses can often deceive us, but God can never deceive nor be deceived.  He has told us through the words of his divine Son what we must expect to find once our eyes close in death and we pass on beyond that veil of separation. 

There exists, with just as much reality as the life we know now, another life that is eternal and supremely joyful.  It is a life that is defined, in a sense, by the absence of sorrow and suffering, a life where God “shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”  Indeed, heaven is the destination we strive for because it alone makes sense of all the sorrow and crying and pain we endure here on earth.  We bear our earthly sorrows with patience and hope, knowing that it is only in embracing our crosses that we may merit that heavenly bliss.

So whatever we may be suffering now, let’s think about death in a more positive sense than we are accustomed, acknowledging it for what it is, the beautiful Gate of Heaven.

JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN

A HYMN FOR THE LAST SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST


1 Jerusalem the golden,
With milk and honey blest,
Beneath your contemplation
Sink heart and voice oppressed;
I know not, O I know not
What joys await us there,
What radiancy of glory,
What bliss beyond compare!
2 They stand, those halls of Zion,
All jubilant with song,
And bright with many an angel,
And all the martyr throng;
The Prince is ever in them,
The daylight is serene;
The pastures of the blessed
Are decked in glorious sheen.
3 There is the throne of David;
And there, from care released,
The shout of them that triumph,
The song of them that feast;
And they, who with their Leader
Have conquered in the fight,
Forever and forever
Are clad in robes of white.
4 O sweet and blessed country,
The home of God's elect!
O sweet and blessed country
That eager hearts expect!
In mercy, Jesus, bring us
To that dear land of rest,
Who art, with God the Father
And Spirit, ever blest.
By Bernard of Cluny (1146), translated by John M. Neale (1858)

YE KNOW NOT THE DAY NOR THE HOUR

A SERMON FOR THE LAST SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST



Today is the last Sunday after Pentecost, the very last Sunday of the liturgical year.  After today’s Mass you will need to move the ribbon in your missal to the very beginning of the book, for the First Sunday of the year, Advent Sunday.  But before that we need to think a while on what is God’s message to us in these last days of the dying year. 

Appropriately enough, we are asked to contemplate the last days of this earth.  The latter days.  The end times.  We tend to see the end of the world through the perspective of Hollywood, with terrible tidal waves, volcanic eruptions, alien invasions, all kinds of drama and excitement.  Trust me, we will not spend eternity munching popcorn and watching these visions of mass destruction on a TV screen somewhere.  Our eternity, wherever we spend it, will be something entirely different.

It matters not how the end of the world will happen.  The only thing that really matters is the state of our soul when it happens.   When we read today’s Gospel we should think about our very own end, with its frightful death, its terrifying day of judgment when our whole eternity will be laid out before us in one glorious second—or one dreadful second. 

In the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel, there is an impressive and imposing picture of the final judgment of the whole world.  It is the greatest masterpiece of the painter Michelangelo.  And in today’s Gospel there is another painting of this Last Judgment, this one not in oils or water colors, but in words, words with which Christ paints for us an impressive and terrible picture.  This too is a masterpiece, a masterpiece of Eternal Wisdom.  And Christ paints it for one reason and one reason only.  When he speaks to us about the judgment to come, he has no other purpose than to help us prepare for that “Dies Iræ”, that day of wrath.  He wants to inspire us and fill our hearts with the kind of holy fear we need so as to be ready for judgment day.  Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell.  The four last things.  The things so many of us fear to think of.

When St. Paul was in prison in Caesarea, Governor Felix was anxious to hear the great preacher of the new religion.  His hands laden with chains, Paul was brought up from his prison cell.  Standing before the throne of Felix, Paul spoke first of Christ and Him Crucified, and the Governor listened most attentively.  But, when Paul changed his subject and began to speak of justice and chastity and of the judgment to come, Felix began to fear and tremble, and he stopped Paul in his discourse and sent him back to his prison.

Are we afraid to hear of these things?  If we are not comfortable with the words of today’s Gospel, and with the ideas of Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell, it is a sign we might be afraid that we’re not going to save our soul.  But today, Christ reminds us that by our own free will, we can change all that.  He warns us of the things that are to come, not to frighten us, but so that we can prepare for their coming.

First, our Lord speaks of the destruction of Jerusalem, a destruction that will come to pass a mere forty years after the Saviour’s prophecy.  That was the sign that should make us believe that, with equal certainty, the end of the world will come one day, and with it the final judgment.  Just as surely as the sun rose in the East this morning, so the Cross will appear in the clouds of heaven one day, and Christ will come with great power and majesty to judge both the quick and the dead.

Holy Mother Church shows us this picture of the Last Judgment twice during the course of the year:  at the very beginning of the ecclesiastical year, Advent Sunday, and at the very end of the ecclesiastical year, this Last Sunday after Pentecost.  At the beginning and the end.  The Alpha and the Omega, like Christ himself.  This is the importance the Church attaches to this Last Judgment.  It is the finality of all our actions, the reason for which we do all the things we do.  The reason for which we were created.  Why did God make you?  We remember our answer from the catechism, that he made us to know, love and serve him in this world.  But do you remember why?  So that we may be with him forever in the next.  And so Christ reminds us today: “My dear children, prepare for THAT day!”

On that day, the honour of Christ the King and the glory of the Cross will be vindicated, when the King of the Universe shall come in glory to judge both the quick and the dead.  He shall come with the Cross as his scepter to judge not just you and me, but all the nations of the earth.

Throughout the ages, hundreds of millions in every age have acknowledged Christ as their King and Ruler.  They have obeyed him, they have served him; they have loved him, and bowed their heads at the very mentioning of his Name.  But some there be in every age, and they have never been lacking throughout history, a vulgar rabble crying out as the Jews of old: “We have no king but Caesar!  Crucify him!”

It was in the dark hour of his bitter Passion that Christ said to Pilate: “I am a King!”  And on that day of darkness they honoured his regal dignity with a dirty red rag thrown around his shoulders to be his royal purple robes, his scepter was the Cross, and his crown a crown of thorns.  Make no mistake, this vulgar rabble has always been around, with their cries of “Crucify him!”  They are alive and strong even now.  The day will come, however, when Christ’s honour will be vindicated and justice will prevail.  The Cross will appear in the clouds of heaven, and Christ will be surrounded with great power and majesty, the thorn-crowned King now seated upon his throne of judgment.

On Judgment Day all mankind will be assembled under the Cross of Christ.  You and I will be there with the rest of them.  All of history will be there.  And just as on Calvary where the one thief was saved and the other lost, so on that day will Christ separate the sheep from the goats, the wheat from the cockle, the good from the wicked.  We will see Christ judge all the characters of history, those we know and those we don’t, saints and sinners.  The great popes of history will be there, popes like Pius IX, Leo XIII, St. Pius X who fought so hard against modernism—they will all be there.  And so too will John Paul II, Benedict XVI, Francis, men who so loudly proclaim the very same modernist errors those other good Popes condemned and fought against.  They will all be there, the good and the bad, ready to separated and go their separate ways.

And then at some point Christ will turn to us, this congregation and he will separate us, the good from the bad.  Which side will you find yourself on then?  That is for each of us to decide.  Our actions in this life will determine our last end.  There are four last ends, death, judgment, heaven and hell.  We cannot escape death.  We cannot escape judgment.  But we can escape hell.  We choose now with our own free will whether we are going to choose heaven or hell.

We cannot be sure of our last end.  Choosing heaven is only the beginning, and we must live our lives according to the will of God and with the help of the graces he gives us, always keeping our chosen destination in mind.  But to instill in us the fortitude to persevere in times of temptation, we must contemplate the possibility that we may fall into temptation, commit sin, and fail to save our souls.  Christ our Judge will pronounce on us one of two verdicts, guilty or not guilty.  What will be the words you hear? “Come, ye blessed of my Father, and possess the Kingdom.” Or “Depart from me, ye cursed, into the everlasting fire!”

If we are sentenced to hell, then we will surely cry out, in the words of the psalmist: “Ye mountains, fall upon us!  Cover us, ye hills!”  But our dreadful deeds will be laid bare for all the world to see, and we will be all too aware that our dreadful sentence is just and that we fully deserve it.  So choose well today and decide where you want to spend eternity.  With the devils of hell and enemies of Christ in eternal torment?  Or in the loving arms of Jesus and Mary, united with God and our loved ones forever?

Today in the Gospel words of Christ himself you have been warned!  “Ecce prædixi vobis!”—Behold, I have told you beforehand!  Christians, remember this prophecy!  Keep this picture before your eyes—always!

And those of you who yawn at Christ’s words because you don’t believe the end of the world is all that near just yet, stop yawning for a minute and remember that Death is always just around the next corner. I’ll happily admit the possibility that maybe the end times may not yet be upon us, nevertheless, St. Augustine reminded us: “YOUR last day cannot be far off!  Therefore, be ready.  Be prepared, since ye know not the day nor the hour.”