The Second Coming

      November 20, 2011, is the Last Sunday after Pentecost, the end of the ecclesiastical year. Sunday, November 27, is the First Sunday of Advent, which begins a new liturgical cycle.

     This final Sunday represents the end of the history of the world. The Gospel in today's Mass is from Matthew 24: 15-35. Christ tells us of His return in glory on the last day. Those who have received Him in this life will join Him in the next. Those who reject Him now, He will reject forever. For the commemoration of His first coming, His Nativity, we begin preparation during Advent. We have that history. He came to open Heaven for us, entering the world in humility and poverty and leaving it in humility and seeming degradation.

     He told us that we must be baptized in water and the Holy Spirit, and live according to God's precepts and the words He himself left  us, passed on through the ages by his apostles and their successors. We prepare for the end of the world every day, since we "know not the day or the hour." As our pastor has reminded us, our own personal end of the world is the time of our death, whenever that may be. In either case, we need to prepare. There will be a judgment for each of us. How much are we concerned?

     Today's Gospel has a two-fold meaning. Besides the end of the world, the "abomination of desolation" predicted, as did the Old Testament prophets, the destruction of Jerusalem, which was accomplished by the Romans several years after Our Lord's death on the cross.

     Christ warns of imposters, among them Antichrist, the one called by St. Jerome "the man of sin who opposeth and is lifted up above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he sitteth in the Temple of God, showing himself as if he were God." As we look around us today, we might think that the days of tribulation are upon us and that the Antichrist is here. It's possible. St. Jerome says, "But in this case also, God will shorten those days (my note: as He did for Jerusalem); lest even the elect, if that were possible, be deceived." There is much more to come, however in the days of tribulation. We can only watch and be aware. Every generation has talked about signs of the times. We see much that troubles us about our world today that seems worse than in any time past, not forgetting the terrible wars and atrocities.

     With all the tribulation promised at the end of the world, the Collect (prayer) of today's Mass says that our souls will beseech God that we "may receive more abundant help from His Mercy." In the Introit (opening prayer) we hear the prophet Jeremias telling us that God thinks "thoughts of peace and not affliction;" and in the Communion prayer that He has promised to hear the prayer of faith.

     St. Basil, early Doctor of the Eastern Church, who died in 379 A.D., admonishes us to think of our eternal life: "When the inclination to sin comes upon you, I wish you would think of this dread and awful tribunal of Christ, where He will sit and judge on His throne on high. There every creature will appear, and stand trembling in His presence and there shall we be led, one by one, to give account of the actions of our life."   Many today have turned away from the notion of "sin."  Sin is an unpleasant word, and if one thinks or  acts in a way that is "sinful," it is put down to a "disorder," or simply a human aberration,  not something that offends Almighty God, to the condemnation of one's soul.

     St. Paul's Epistle for today, Col. 1: 9-14, exhorts us to "walk worthy of God" and to be fruitful in every good work, so strengthened, we may "endure all things in patience and joy;" and to give thanks to God the Father for His Son, who redeemed us "through His blood, the remission of sins."

     To contemplate these things should not be distressful. God ordained that mankind should live in eternal happiness with Him in the place He created, called Heaven. The Old Testament prophets, the New Testament apostles, through their Epistles and Gospels, simply remind us of that destiny and what will transpire according to the Will of God. It is up to us to be ready, at any moment, to accept this loving invitation. If we have on the wedding garment, have our lamps trimmed and lit (find the appropriate Gospels) we can look forward with joy to that face to face meeting.

                                                       Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost,
                                                       As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be,
                                                       World without end.  Amen

11/20/11