REMEMBER WHEN THE TIME COMES

 A SERMON FOR THE SUNDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF ASCENSION

How easy it is to dismiss the reading of the Gospel.  Sure, it’s the life of Christ, his words, his warnings to his apostles.  But it’s also ancient history.  Christ has ascended into heaven, his apostles are long since dead, and we are left to live our lives the best way we can in whatever happen to be the circumstances of the day.  Yet we know our Lord didn’t just speak to the people of his own generation; he intended his teachings to be passed down even unto the end of the world.  So let’s just take a look at the last sentence of today’s Gospel and see how they apply to us: “These things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them.”

A couple of things before we get into what exactly he told us.  First of all, let’s make sure we understand who our Lord is referring to when he says “you”.  “These things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them.”  We know that he was speaking to the apostles.  But this was the Son of God speaking, he who knows all future events that await mankind.  When he speaks to his disciples, he is in fact also speaking to us, today, and if we think of his words in this way, we stand to benefit a bit more from them.

So then, what are these things he is telling us, so that when the time comes, we will indeed remember what he told us?  He mentions two things here, and only two things: “They shall put you out of the synagogues”, that’s the first, and “yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.”  The synagogues our Lord is talking about refers to the houses of worship of the chosen people of his day.  Their modern equivalent are the houses of worship, or churches, of today’s chosen people, the members of his Mystical Body, the Catholic Church.  We don’t have to think too hard to realize the fulfillment of our Lord’s prophecy since Vatican II.  We who follow the traditional faith, the traditional Mass, the traditional commandments of the Church—all given to us by God himself—are no longer allowed to worship in our local “Catholic” churches.  We priests are not permitted to say Mass as it was said for two thousand years.  The last conciliar pope tried to allow it, but somehow he was replaced by the current tyrant, a latter-day Nero, who is hell-bent on abolishing the traditional Mass and sacraments once and for all.  And so we are put out of our “synagogues”, our beloved Catholic churches, built with the enthusiasm of a faith now long suppressed, built by Catholic faithful who knew the value of having the tabernacle of the Most High God as the focal point of their community. The descendants of these faithful must now stand by and watch in horror as their now empty churches are transformed into mosques, bowling alleys, apartment buildings, and worst of all, into houses of sacrilegious worship perpetrated by the conciliar Church and known as the “New” Mass.  The New and Improved Mass.  And while we watch this mockery of God openly promoted by the leaders of the Church, we are “put out of the churches.”

“When the time shall come,” said our Lord, we should remember that he warned us about such things as this.  The time has come, so it is time to remember.  The comforting thing about our Lord’s warning is that it is a prophecy fulfilled.  From all time, God knew these things would happen, and he is allowing them to happen for a purpose.  We who are caught up in the events of our times must now recognize that we have been chosen by God to play our part in his plan.  We don’t yet know what our role might be, we don’t even know what God’s purpose is, but we can be assured that he is working that purpose out, and that we are being prepared by our weekly attendance at Mass, by our frequent reception of the divine Eucharist, so that eventually we may give honor and glory to God by accepting whatever befalls us.

How far the persecutions of the Church will go, no one but God knows.  But when the next words of our Lord warn us that “whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service,” we should be prepared, I think, for the worst.  Violence is the ultimate method that the liberal progressives of the world long to use to rid the planet of people who don’t embrace their own woke agenda.  They have already begun their threats against Catholic churches, threats we should take seriously as we await the longed-for Supreme Court on Roe v. Wade.  Things could easily escalate, and we should certainly pray that they don’t.  But again, let’s be prepared, and remember that we were warned.

Why will these evil men do such things to us?  Why do these pagan progressives hate Catholics?  And why do so many so-called Catholics hate traditional Catholics?  Again, our Lord gives us the answer—"these things they will do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.”  They know not the Light of the World and have thus become the children of darkness.  Whether they are mass murderers who shoot little children like Salvador Ramos in Texas, or worse still, mass murderers like Nancy Pelosi and Joseph Biden, who are responsible for the slaughter of millions of children in the womb, or perhaps worst of all, like Jorge Bergoglio, mass-murderer of souls, who seeks to take away our Mass and sacraments, the sources of grace by which those souls may be saved.  All these sons and daughters of Satan want nothing but to crucify anew our Blessed Lord—they know not the Father and know not our Lord Jesus Christ.  If they will do such things to the innocent, we can be assured that they are all ready and prepared to launch their assault on the faithful.

St. Peter advises us on in today’s Epistle what should be our response.  “Be ye sober, and watch unto prayer.”  Prayer is no longer the idle cliché that we offer for those we feel sorry for.  Prayer is now real, prayer is our only defense against what surely awaits us if we do not pray.  Today we remember what Christ warned us would happen: the first half of his prophecy already has happened, and we have been put out of our synagogues; we see that we are on the verge of the second half also being fulfilled, where the children of darkness will kill us and think they’re doing a good thing.  Is it time, perhaps, to get on our knees and beg God’s mercy?  Is it time now to heed our Lady’s warnings at Fatima, and get out our Rosary and plead for her intercession?  And above all things, as St. Peter says, isn’t it time finally to “have fervent charity among ourselves, for charity shall cover the multitude of sins?”  Never has it been more imperative to recognize that life is too short for our trivial arguments and misplaced anger.  Let’s strive to replace them with that fervent charity that will help make restitution for our multitude of sins.  And let’s not waste any more time, for it seems the time has come for us to remember what Christ told us.