Msgr. Charles Pope, Author at Community in Mission

December 1, 2013May 28, 2015

Where Will You Be When the First Trumpet Sounds? A Good Question Asked in An Advent Hymn

Part of the Genius of the African American Spirituals is their ability to treat of serious themes, such as the final judgment, in a creatively compelling manner that steered a middle course between unproductive fear and prideful presumption. Some of them are even playful saying things like, I would not be a sinner, I’ll tell you the reason why. I’m afraid my Lord might call my name, and I wouldn’t be ready to die! Another song says, Satan wears a hypocrite’s shoe, If you don’t watch, he’ll slip it on you! Yet another song warns with love: In that great gettin up morning, fare you well, fare you well! Or fare you well poor sinner, fare you well!

Some of the early African American hymns from the late 19th Century also draw heavily on this tradition. One such hymn is “Where Shall I Be When the First Trumpet Sounds?!” by Charles P. Jones (1865-1949). The hymn consists in applying this question, “Where shall I be” to a litany of biblically based descriptions about the Second Coming of Jesus, when He will judge the world by fire. Each verse is steeped in rich biblical tradition and provides us a series of good advent reflections, all rooted in the essential Advent focus of second coming of the Lord Jesus.

As I sing it with my congregation each Advent, I am reminded of the familiar themes of another masterpiece, the ancient Dies Irae. That hymn too is richly biblical and I have treated of it HERE.

But as for this fine hymn, Where Shall I Be, let’s take a look at each line, asking the question, Where shall I be? I provide a biblical background for each verse and question that might help us since the rich tapestry of faith.

First, here is the hymn in toto, and then a line by line biblical lexicon, with brief commentary by me. Since this is a longish post I have put it here in PDF for you to print and read later. The hymn can be heard in the video at the bottom.

When judgment day is drawing nigh,
Where shall I be?
When God the works of men shall try,
Where shall I be?
When east and west the fire shall roll,
Where shall I be?
How will it be with my poor soul:
Where shall I be?

Refrain

O where shall I be when the first trumpet sounds,
O where shall I be when it sounds so loud?
When it sounds so loud as to wake up the dead?
O where shall I be when it sounds?

When wicked men His wrath shall see,
Where shall I be?
And to the rocks and mountains flee,
Where shall I be?
When hills and mountains flee away,
Where shall I be?
When all the works of man decay,
Where shall I be?

Refrain

When Heav’n and earth as some great scroll,
Where shall I be?
Shall from God’s angry presence roll,
Where shall I be?
When all the saints redeemed shall stand,
Where shall I be?
Forever blest at God’s right hand,
Where shall I be?

Lexicon and Commentary:

1. When judgment day is drawing nigh, Where shall I be?

A. Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near; so, you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door. (Matt 24:32-33)
B. Do not grumble….The Judge is standing at the door! (James 5:9)
C. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. (Rev 3:20)
D. If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. (Mk 13:36)
E. For, “In just a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay.” (Heb 10:37)
F. While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. (1 Thess 5:3)
G. Then the angel I had seen standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven. And he swore by him who lives for ever and ever, who created the heavens and all that is in them, the earth and all that is in it, and the sea and all that is in it, and said, “There will be no more delay!” (Rev 10:5-6)
H. Comment – Judgment day is drawer nearer and nearer for us all. Which each beat of our heart the moment edges forward. Are you ready for the Day of Judgment? What are you doing to get ready. The Dies Irae says, Day of Wrath and doom impending, heaven and earth in ashes ending….Do not delay your conversion to the Lord. The Lord has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. (2 Cor 5:19-20)

2. When God the works of men shall try, Where shall I be?

A. Their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames. (1 Cor 3:13-15)
B. For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done. (Matt 16:27)
C. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. (Rev 20:12)
D. God “will repay each person according to what they have done.” To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. (Rom 2:6-8)
E. But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. (Matt 12:36)
F. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad (2 Cor 5:9-11)
G. Comment: We will not be saved by our deeds, but we will be judged by them. For the veracity of saving faith is manifest by its work. As Jesus attests: The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil. (Matt 12:35) Hence our works shall be tried by God, that is, they shall be judged by the Lord Jesus, to whom we must render and account. The Dies Irae says, Lo the book exactly worded, wherein all hath been recorded, thence shall judgement be awarded.

3. When east and west the fire shall roll, Where shall I be?

A. Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the Lord Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them. But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. (Mal 4:1-3)
B. For behold, the LORD is coming forth from His place. He will come down and tread on the high places of the earth. The mountains will melt under Him And the valleys will be split, Like wax before the fire, Like water poured down a steep place. (Micah 1:3-4)
C. By the wrath of the LORD Almighty the land will be scorched and the people will be fuel for the fire; they will not spare one another. (Isaiah 9:19)
D. For behold, the LORD will come in fire And His chariots like the whirlwind, To render His anger with fury, And His rebuke with flames of fire. For the LORD will execute judgment by fire And by His sword on all flesh, And those slain by the LORD will be many (Is 66:15-16)
E. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly….But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. (2 Peter 7,10-12)
F. Comment: The only way to survive on the day of fire is to be fire yourself. Let God set you on fire with love and bring you up to the temperature of glory. Let God send tongues as of fire to enkindle in you the fire of his love.

4. How will it be with my poor soul: Where shall I be?

A. For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And, “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good. (1 Peter 4:17-19)
B. Comment – While we can have confidence for the day of salvation, our confidence cannot be in our own ability, but must rest in the grace and mercy of God. We are all poor sinners, beggars before God. The Dies Irae says: What for I fail sinner pleading, who for me be interceding, when the just are mercy needing?

5. O where shall I be when the first trumpet sounds, O where shall I be when it sounds so loud?

A. Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. (1 Cor 15:52)
B. Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. (Matt 24:30-31)
C. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. (1 Thess 4:16)
D. The Sovereign Lord will sound the trumpet; he will march in the storms of the south (Zech 9:14)
E. Comment – The trumpet summons all to judgement; some to glory others to wrath. But all must come! This is an appoint all must keep! The Dies Irae says, Wondrous Sound the Trumpet flingeth, Through earth’s sepulchers it ringeth, all before the throne it bringeth.

6. When it sounds so loud as to wake up the dead? O where shall I be when it sounds?

A. And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued. “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt. (Dan 12:1-2)
B. And [The Father] He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. “Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment. (Jn 5:27-29)
C. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. (1 Cor 15:52)
D. Comment – Where will you be? With the, with the righteous or with the wicked, with the Saint or the aints. Everyone will rise, but to different realities entirely. Where Shall I be?

7. When wicked men His wrath shall see, Where shall I be?

A. Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the LORD Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them. (Mal 4:1)
B. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. (2 Peter 3:7)
C. The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness (Rom 1:18)
D. You formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. (Eph 2:2-3)
E. You turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, 10and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come. (1 Thess 1:9-10)
F. Comment: Are you getting this. The Day of Judgment is going to be bad for the wicked. They will experience God’s wrath. What is God’s wrath? It is our experience of the total incompatibility of our sin in the presence of God’s holiness. It is like fire and water coming together. They cannot coexist, there is a fundamental conflict and one has to give way. So it is with sin in the presence of God; no can do. Only Jesus can give us the capacity to stand before God’s utter sanctity. Only Jesus can rescue us from the coming wrath. The dies Irae says, When the wicked are confounded, Doomed to flames of woe unbounded: Call me with thy saints surrounded

8. And to the rocks and mountains flee, Where shall I be? When hills and mountains flee away, Where shall I be?

A. As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ Then they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!” ’For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?” (Luke 23:26-31)
B. Men will go into caves of the rocks And into holes of the ground Before the terror of the LORD And the splendor of His majesty, When He arises to make the earth tremble. (Is 2:19)
C. Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” (Rev 6:15-17)
D. Comment – You can’t run from God, because He’s already there. There will be no escape, no postponing the Day of Judgment.

9. When all the works of man decay, Where shall I be?

A. Each man’s work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames. (1 Cor 3:13-15)
B. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. (2 Peter 3:10)
C. Jesus came out from the temple and was going away when His disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to Him. And He said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.” (Matt 24:2)
D. Comment – All things of man shall pass away, and all our works. Only what we do for Christ will last. Jesus says, You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit–fruit that will last–and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. (Jn 15:16). Only what you do for Christ will last. All other works will decay.

10. When Heav’n and earth as some great scroll, Where shall I be? Shall from God’s angry presence roll, Where shall I be?

A. Come near, you nations, and listen; pay attention, you peoples! Let the earth hear, and all that is in it, the world, and all that comes out of it! The Lord is angry with all nations; his wrath is on all their armies…. the mountains will be soaked with their blood. All the stars in the sky will be dissolved and the heavens rolled up like a scroll; all the starry host will fall like withered leaves… (Isaiah 34:1-4)
B. The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night. (Rev 8:12)
C. Comment: The Dies Irae says, Death is struck and nature quaking, All creation is awaking, To its judge and answer making. Come on now, if even the stars are struck and must answer, who are you or I to make light of judgement?

11. When all the saints redeemed shall stand, Where shall I be? Forever blest at God’s right hand, Where shall I be?

A. But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. “He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the LORD offerings in righteousness (Mal 3:2)
B. Wherefore…having done all to stand, Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. (Ephesians 6:10-18)
C. When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. (Matt 25:31-33)
D. Comment: The Dies Irae says, With thy sheep a place provide me, From the goats afar divide me, To thy right hand do thou guide me. When the wicked are confounded, Doomed to flames of woe unbounded: Call me with thy saints surrounded.

Yes, quite a song, so rich in biblical allusion. It, like the Dies Irae accesses many scriptures quite vividly and creatively. And yet like so many of the spiritual is able to combine them in ways that are almost celebratory. The hymn is usually sung in upbeat ways, in my parish we clap hands as it is sung.

But at the end of the day the question remains: Where shall I be? Will it be among the righteous in glory, or the sinful and unrepentant in Hell. Where, poor sinner, where shall you and I be? Thanks be to God for his grace and mercy that help us to stand a chance.

But as with all offers of God, grace and mercy are only accessed through repentance.

This song, like the more ancient Dies Irae could not be more clear, we are hastening to the day of judgement, a day about which to be sober and ready. Are you ready? Where shall you be when the first trumpet sounds.

Here is the Song as sung:

November 30, 2013May 28, 2015

A Recipe for Readiness – A Sermon for the First Sunday of Advent

The first weeks of Advent focus more on the Lord’s second coming in glory more than his first coming at Bethlehem. The Gospel is clear enough to state that we must be prepared, for, at an hour we do not expect, The Son of Man will come! “Ready!” is the key word. But how should we be ready?

The Second reading of today’s Mass (Romans 13:11-14) gives us a basic recipe for readiness. We can distinguish five fundamental ingredients in Paul’s recipe.

1. WAKE UP – The text says: You know the time; it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep. For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed; the night is advanced, the day is at hand. Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day – St. Paul of course has more than physical sleep in mind here. But consider for a moment some of the aspects of physical sleep. When we sleep we are unaware of what is taking place around us or even of what we are doing. Perhaps a family member will say, “When you sleep you talk and snore!” “Really?” we may wonder. “I was unaware I was doing that.” At other times we may doze off in front of the TV and miss the game-winning touchdown or the critical scene that helped the movie make sense. Further, when we are asleep our minds are dreamy and confused. Some of the craziest things happen in our dreams because our more rational part of the brain is asleep and any absurd thought may manifest itself and seem perfectly understandable. But when we finally do awake, we say. “What was THAT all about?!

Now this text which tells us to “wake up” refers to all of this in a moral and mindful sense. What St. Paul is really saying here is that we need to wake up, and become more aware of what is happening in our life.

We cannot sleep through life like someone dozing on a couch. We need to live lives that are alert and aware of what is happening. We need to be morally awake and responsible for our actions. We cannot and must not engage in dreamy thinking that is not rooted in reality and is fundamentally absurd in its premises. Dreamy thinking has to go.

We need to be alert, rooted in what is real, and what is revealed. We cannot go on calling good what God has called sinful. We need to wake up, take the “coffee” of God’s Word, shake off the cobwebs of drowsiness, and start living in the light of holiness, rather than the darkness of deceit and sin.

Waking up also means taking responsibility and exercising authority over one’s life. When we sleep we toss and turn and have little authority over our movements. But when we are awake we take authority over our actions and are responsible for them.

The first ingredient in the recipe for readiness is to wake up! The cobwebs of groggy and sleepy behavior have to yield to the alertness of a new mind. There are many scriptures that make a similar point

Rom 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
1 Cor 15:34 Come to your right mind, and sin no more. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.
Eph 4:17 Now this I affirm and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds; they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them…22 Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds
Col 3:2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth

2. CLEAN UP – the text says – not in orgies and, not in promiscuity and lust… and make no provision for the desires of the flesh. – Notice the emphasis in this passage on sexuality. This is because the pagan world at the time of Paul was sexually confused and immature: Promiscuousness, fornication, homosexual activity, divorce, abortion, and infanticide were all rampant. Sound familiar? We have slipped right back into pagan immaturity and immorality. This text tells us it is time to clean up and grow up and take authority over our sexuality by God’s grace. It’s time to act more like adults than irresponsible teenagers.

The text, in saying we should make no provision for the desires of the flesh, is indicating we should avoid the near occasions of sin. We should not easily find ourselves in compromising and tempting situations. To make “provision” literally means to “see ahead” or to “look toward” something in such a way as to facilitate it. The text says to resolve ahead of time not to provide occasion for the flesh.

Many people make light of sexual sin today and say it’s no big deal and “everyone is doing it.” But God says otherwise and speaks very strongly against it in his Word. He does not do this because he is a prude, or wants to limit our fun. Rather, God wants to save us a lot of suffering and also protect the innocent.

What does promiscuity get us? Sexually transmitted diseases, AIDS, abortion, teenage pregnancies, children born outside of the ideal nuclear and properly formed family, divorce, bitterness, jealousy, broken hearts, and used, discarded human beings. God is not out to limit our fun, He is trying to protect us. He is also trying to protect marriage and children. With all this promiscuity, it is children who suffer most. Many of them are simply killed by abortion. Those who survive are often raised in less than ideal settings without both parents in a stable union of marriage. Many are born to teenage mothers not ready to raise them.

God says to all of us that, in order to be ready we have to clean up. We have to take authority over our sexuality by his grace. Promiscuity, orgies, pornography, illicit sexual union, and lust have to go. Those who make light of sexual sin have been deceived. It is a very serious matter and God makes this clear in his word:

Ephesians 5:3-7 As for lewd conduct or promiscuousness or lust of any sort, let them not even be mentioned among you; your holiness forbids this. Nor should there be any obscene, silly or suggestive talk; all that is out of place. Instead, give thanks. Make no mistake about this: no fornicator, no unclean or lustful person – in effect an idolater – has any inheritance in the kingdom of God. Let no one deceive you with worthless arguments. These are sins that bring God’s wrath down upon the disobedient; therefore, have nothing to do with them.
1 Cor. 6:9-11 Can you not realize that the unholy will not fall heir to the Kingdom of God? Do not deceive yourselves: no fornicators, idolaters, or adulterers, no sodomites, thieves, misers, or drunkards, no slanderers or robbers will inherit the kingdom of God…Flee fornication… You must know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is within – the Spirit you have received from God. You are not your own. You have been purchased at a price. So glorify God in your body.

3. SOBER UP – the text says, Not in drunkenness– Physically, to be drunk means to have our mind confused due to the influence of alcohol or drugs. Conversely, to have a sober mind is to have a clear mind that is capable of making sound judgments.

So much of our battle to be ready to meet God comes down to our mind. Stinkin’ Thinkin’ is a real problem today. There are many fuzzy-headed, lame-brained, crazy and just plain wrongful notions today that amount to a lack of sobriety. They emerge from the haze of un-sober thinking and from a world that increasingly and in a moral sense resembles the Star Wars barroom scene.

Don’t believe everything you think. Much of what we think has come from a drunken and confused world. Square everything you think with God’s word and the teachings of the Church.

So, the third item in the recipe for readiness is to sober up, to request and receive from God a clear and sound mind. Scripture says elsewhere about the need to cultivate a sound and sober mind:

1 Peter 1:13 Therefore gird up your minds, be sober, set your hope fully upon the grace that is coming to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 5:8 Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking some one to devour. Resist him, solid in your faith.
Titus 2:2 Let the older men be sober, serious and temperate.

4. LIGHTEN UP – The text says, not in rivalry and jealousy – An awful lot of our sins revolve around our touchy little egos. Paul warns elsewhere of other things that flow from this source: enmity, strife, anger, selfishness, dissension, factions, and envy (Gal 5:20).

The recipe for readiness here warns that this sort of stuff has to go. We need to be more forgiving if we expect to be forgiven. We also to more generous to the poor, less stingy, and less prone to the kind of anger that comes from being thin-skinned and lacking in humility.

The biggest sin is pride and it is enemy number one. It has to go and along with it all its minions: envy, jealously, selfishness, hatred, fear, bitterness, a hard and unforgiving heart, and being just plain mean.

The Lord wants to give us the gift to be more light-hearted and less ponderous and serious about ourselves; a heart that is loving, generous to the poor, considerate, glad at others’ gifts, forgiving, truthful, patient and meek; a heart that is less ego-centric and more Theo-centric, a heart that is open to others.

5. DRESS UP – The text says, But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, – If we miss this point, everything else is just a moralism, more rules to live by. But the moral life of the New Testament is not achieved, it is received. The Moral life of the New Testament is not so much a prescription, as it is a description. It is description of what we are like when Jesus Christ really begins to live his life in us.

St. Paul says, I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me (Gal 2:20) Jesus says, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them , will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing (John 15:5). St John says, But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know [experience] we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did(1 John 2:5-6).

Hence the moral life is not imposed, it is imparted, it is not achieved it is received, it is not demanded it is delivered. There is surely a requirement that the moral law describes, but the requirement can only be met in a real or full sense by Jesus Christ living his life in us. If we try and accomplish it by our flesh, any minor success will last about twenty minutes (max).

Hence we must put on the Lord Jesus Christ. We must humbly give him our life and assent to his kingship and authority over us. The more we surrender the more he renders us apt and fit to the life he describes. The fact is, if we really hope to wake up, clean up, sober up, and cheer up it will have to be a work of his grace.

The Book of Revelation speaks of the garment, the long white robe that is given to each of the saints to wear (Rev 6:11). Later, Revelation 19:8 describes the long white robe (of the Bride of the Lamb) as the righteous deeds of all the saints. It is in this sense that St. Paul tells us to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ”

Hence righteousness is given to us like a precious wedding garment. In the baptismal ritual the newly baptized is clothed in white and told that their garments represent their dignity which they are to bring it unstained to the judgment seat of Christ. In the funeral rites the cloth placed over the casket recalls the baptismal garment. Yes, the final element in the recipe for readiness is to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” Only Jesus can really can really get us ready.

November 28, 2013May 28, 2015

On The Loss of The Thanksgiving Holiday…Is there anything we can do?

Many of us have rightly, lamented the steady erosion of the Thanksgiving holiday. Over the past decade or so that hideousness of people camped out, sometimes for days, in front of stores to take advantage of “Black Friday” sales grew more widespread. This next intensified to stores opening at midnight, then at 8 PM on Thanksgiving evening. And now many are just plain open all day on Thanksgiving.

Sad if you ask me, (and even if you don’t ask me) the loss of Thanksgiving is very sad. And those of us or left holding the candle, of the “old days,” ask somewhat mournfully, “Is nothing sacred anymore?” And the sober non-exaggerated answer is “No, very little, if anything, is sacred anymore.

Those of us who are a little older, remember when most Sundays were quiet days, most stores and businesses were closed, and only essential emergency personnel were expected to work. That went away in most places by the mid-70s. And Thanksgiving, Christmas Day were some of the last holdouts.

When I tell most younger people about the way Sundays used to be, many of them, even churchgoing Catholics, look somewhat puzzled even mystified: Why would things be closed? “I don’t know,” I answer, “But it was just that some of us thought some things were sacred, some days and times were just off limits for doing lesser things like buying and selling and other non-essential things.

Sundays and holidays were “set apart,” the true meaning of the word “sacred.” They were for family, for God, you just didn’t interfere with that.

Now, with the steady rise of secularism, the notion that anything is sacred, seems strange, antiquated, restrictive, even “hateful” since certain “religious” people are trying to “impose their values” on others. The libertarian leanings within me are sympathetic to those who raise concerns that laws could be passed forbidding businesses to open certain days etc.

But even if we could do that, (which we certainly can’t at this point), the concern that we might try to pass laws really misses the point. The point is, that we used to agree that certain days and times, certain things, were sacred and we carved out room, and gave reverence to them. Now we don’t.

Again to the question, “Is nothing sacred anymore?” The sad answer comes back, “No
Almost nothing.”

“Black Friday” By Powhusku from Laramie, WY, USA Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

What then to do about the current state of affairs? Is there any way for us to reacquaint others with the sacred in an increasingly secular culture?

Something occurs in terms of a solution in what Jesus said to a young man from whom he cast out many demons. You are likely aware of the details of the story, but if you wish to review the whole store you can read it in Mark 5:1ff. The young man had many demons, “Legion,” for there were very many of them. Jesus drove them out, into a local herd of swine, some 2000 and number, which ran off the bluff and drowned in the lake.

What is odd, and also speaks also to the cultural conditions of our time, is that the townspeople are not grateful to Jesus. Rather they are fearful and averse to him, and ask him to leave their town immediately. Now just consider, a young man was so fiercely possessed, that even when his hands and feet were chained, he broke the chains could not be repressed in anyway. One would think that gratitude joy, and a desire for Jesus to stay would be the natural and normal response to this.

But having experienced significant financial loss, and possibly fearing that Jesus could control too much, the people are angry, and fearful, and insist that Jesus leave their town.

Now here is a paradigm for our modern culture. Increasingly, we are seeing more than a mere indifference to God or religion, but and outright aversion, even overt hostility toward faith and the teachings of Jesus. The faith established by Jesus Christ is increasingly seen as an obstacle, both to happiness and progress. Perhaps too, there is some fear that if Christianity were to be more widely embraced, many changes would be necessary; many sins would need to be faced, and repented of; and many virtues such as generosity to the poor would be more strictly required.

Now at some level, these assumptions are true. Christianity, fully embraced, with more than lip service, does lead to significant change in one’s life! But of course the mechanism of this change is not simply the dreadful, fearful following the rules, per se, but rather a transformative power wherein one sees sins put to death, and many virtues come alive.

Yet many, not appreciating this or understanding it, fear Christian influence which shines a light of truth of their sins and/or neglects.

And thus, many in our culture are insisting that Jesus and us leave town on the very next train. So, what happened at the lake side, in the land of the Gerasenes, is very much alive in our time as well.

Given the similarities, what did Jesus advise then, and what does it mean now? The young man, having been healed, begs to follow Jesus, Jesus says “No” and advises the following, which the man does:

Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.(Mark 5:19-20)

So, the solution for the hostility in this land of the Gerasenes, is to leave behind a witness to the goodness and mercy of God, who by his witness and testimony, will help bring people to their senses.

The Man becomes quite a witness, it would seem, for he went through the cities of the Decapolis, (which means the region of the ten cities), and thus he covers a good bit of territory.

And the text states the results that all who heard him were amazed. Actually, the Greek verb is a little more specific than that. ἐθαύμαζον (ethaumazon) is an imperfect, indicative, active verb.

That a verb is in the “imperfect” tense implies that it is not yet fully completed at the time it is reported to us. Thus perhaps a better translation of this verb would say that those who heard him were “becoming amazed.” In other words, witness, and evangelization, is generally not a “one and you’re done,” scenario. More is needed than one barn-burner sermon where everyone gets converted instantly. But rather, it involves staying in a conversation with people over some period of time and leading them back.

And this then is our lot, and also our solution in a culture that has lost almost any sense of the sacred, and is becoming increasingly irreligious and even hostile to the faith.

So, what are we to do? The Lord’s advice seems clear enough: Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you. In other words, tell them how he healed you; tell them what he’s done for you; show them how you have been healed; and manifest a joy to them. And while this may take time, many will begin to be amazed.

It seems clear today, we cannot simply reduce evangelization to an intellectual appeal. Doctrines and dogmas are ultimately very essential, lest we go off and invent our own new religion, a very bad and idolatrous thing to do!

But it would seem, that our first appeal is to be living witness of the transformative power of Jesus Christ in our lives. We need to be able to tell others, to manifest to them the power and the glorious majesty of Jesus Christ and the power of his cross to put sin to death and bring joy and many graces alive.

Of course, this will take time, and we will take back territory from the devil one soul at a time. But at a certain point things reach critical mass, and faith goes from small little communities to a more cultural influence. It may take a long time, and that is not without his frustrations. At times, it seems that it takes centuries to build something up, and only twenty minutes to tear it down.

But all we can do is rebuild. One day, we may rediscover the sacred, Sundays and holy days may return his days of special observance. For now, all we can do is get to work it is the Lord will bring the harvest.

This song’s text is “Gratias Agimus Tibi” (We give you thanks) from the Bach B Minor Mass.

November 27, 2013May 28, 2015

Some thoughts to help deepen our gratitude.

True gratitude is a grace, or gift from God which proceeds from a humble and transformed heart. In such a case we do not render thanks merely because it is polite or expected, or because God commands it, but because it naturally flows from a profound experience of gratitude. The “command” of Scripture to give thanks is not a moralism, but a truth and description of a transformed heart.

Thus, an anointing to seek from God is a powerful transformation of our intellect and heart wherein we become deeply aware of the remarkable gift that everything we have really is. As this awareness deepens so does our gratitude and joy at the “magnificent munificence” of our God. Everything, literally everything, is a gift from God.

Permit a few thoughts on the basis for a deepening awareness of gratitude. Ultimately gratitude is a grace, but having a deeper awareness of the intellectual basis for it can help to open us more fully to this gift.

1. We are contingent beings who depend on God for our very existence. He holds together every fiber of our being: every cell, every part of a cell, every molecule, every part of a molecule, every atom, every part of an atom. God facilitates every function of our body: every beat of our heart, every organ and movement of our body. God sustains every intricate detail of this world in which we live: the perfectly designed orbit of this planet so that we do not cook or freeze, the magnetic shield around the planet that protects us from harmful aspects of solar radiation, every intricate visible and hidden process of this earth, solar system, galaxy and universe. All of this, and us, are contingent and thus sustained by God and provided for by Him. The depth, height, length and width of what God does is simply astonishing. And he does it all free of charge. As we ponder such goodness and providence we are helped to be more grateful. All is gift.

2. Every good thing you or I do is a gift from God. St. Paul says, What have you that you have not received. And if you have received, why do you glory as though you had achieved? (1 Cor 4:7). Elsewhere he writes, For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Eph 2:8-10). Hence even our good works are not our gift to God, they are His gift to us. And on judgment day we cannot say to God, Look what I have done, you owe me heaven; All we can say on that day is Thank You! All is gift!

3. Gifts in strange packages – There are some gifts of God that do not seem like gifts. There are sudden losses, tragedies, natural disasters and the like. In such moments we can feel forsaken by God, and gratitude is the last thing on our mind. But here too, Scripture bids us to look again: And we know that all things work together for the good of those who love God and who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28). We don’t always know how, but even in difficult moments God is making a way unto something good, something better. He is paving a path to glory, perhaps through the cross, but unto glory. For now we may have questions but Jesus has said to us: But I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. On that day you will have no more questions to ask me. (Jn 16:22-23). Yes, even in our difficulties we are more than conquerors (Rm 8:37) because the Lord can write straight with crooked lines, and make a way out of no way. All is gift!

4. Yes, all is gift. Absolutely everything is gift. Even our failures, if we are in Christ and learn from them and they teach us humility. For what shall we give thanks? Everything! All is gift!

5. There is an old saying: Justice is when you get what you deserve. Mercy is when you don’t get what you deserve. grace is when you get what you don’t deserve. I like you get asked a dozen times a day, “How are you doing?” I have trained myself to often answer, “More blessed than I deserve.” Yes, All is gift.

6. Finally, the work “Thanks” in English is unfortunately abstract. But in the Latin and the Romance Languages, the word for “thanks” is far more tied to the fact of grace and gift. In Latin one says thank you as gratias ago tibi, or simply, gratias. Now gratias is translated as “thanks” But it is really the same word as “grace” and “gift” which in Latin is rendered gratia. Hence when one receives a gift they thus exclaim: “Grace!” or “Gifts!” It is the same with Spanish: Gracias and Italian: ‘Grazie. French has a slightly different approach but also less abstract than English, when it says Thank you as Merci which is rooted in the Latin merces, meaning something that has been paid for or given freely. So all these languages vividly record the giftedness that underlies everything for which we are grateful. The English word “thanks” does not quite make the connections. About the closest we get are the words, gratitude and grateful. And again all these words (gratias, gracias, grazie, merci, gratitude) teach us that all is gift!

To be grateful is ultimately a gift to be be received from God. We ought to humbly ask for it. We can dispose our self to it by reflecting on things like that above but ultimately gratitude comes from a humble, contrite and transformed heart. Saying thank you is not a moralism. True gratitude is a grace, a gift that comes from a heart deeply moved, astonished and aware of the fact that all is gift.

November 26, 2013May 28, 2015

How is the “Weakness” of God Stronger than Satan’s “Power?”

There is a line in the Letter to the Hebrews which reads:

You made [Jesus] for a little while lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor, subjecting all things under his feet.” In “subjecting” all things (to him), he left nothing not “subject to him.” Yet at present we do not see “all things subject to him,” but we do see Jesus “crowned with glory and honor” because he suffered death, (Heb 2:7-9)

Now this text is clear about two things. First, All things are subject to Jesus. Second, we do not presently see or experience that all things are subject to him. Why is this? Fundamentally it is because we experience grave injustice in this world and it seems to us that wickedness and evil are often triumphant. Our sufferings too can discourage us that God has any power at all. Such things do not seem to us to be subject to Christ. Yet the text is clear that all things are under his feet even if it does not seem so.

How can we claim that Christ is triumphant over all when things so often seem the opposite?

Come with me to the cross. The text says we DO see Jesus crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death. So, here we are at the foot of the cross. And what do we see? With our earthly eyes we see complete defeat, a total failure. Jesus who cured the sick, walked on water, and even raised the dead, is now himself dead on a cross. Our fleshly eyes see only failure, and a cruel joke. Can He who saved others not save himself? Satan has won; end of story.

Or is it? You know it is not the end of the story, for on Sunday he rose. So he did defeat Satan. But how? ….Through weakness….. Through death. Even in his “weakness” God is stronger than Satan’s mightiest power. And hence, though we look about this world and see God’s “weakness” we need to understand that even in his weakness he is defeating Satan. Indeed, his greatest works have emerged from the “weakness” of his Son. An old song, “El Shaddai” says,

- Through the years you made it clear,
- that the time of Christ was near,
- But couldn’t see what Messiah ought to be.
- And Though your word contained the plan,
- they just would not understand,
- Your most awesome work was done,
- through the frailty of your son.

We really Don’t know what we are talking about, our earthly eyes just can’t see it all. Thus the text from Hebrews makes it clear that all things are subject to him even though our earthly, eyes do not (will not) see it. Hence you and I may complain of God’s apparent weakness and question the apparent triumph of evil. But we really don’t know what we are talking about. It’s like standing at the foot of the Cross on Good Friday and proclaiming total failure. If we were there and did so we would really have no idea what we were saying. Even as we were saying it, the supposedly dead Jesus was down among the dead in Sheol awaking them and turning out the devil’s trophy room. While the Devil was running victory laps around the cross Jesus was robbing him blind of all his “trophies” (the dead) and preparing to open heaven for them who had long awaited him. All things are subject to Christ even if they don’t appear so.

Note this too, Jesus defeats pride by humility. The well known saying of Dr. Martin Luther King speaks to this necessity. “Darkness cannot drive our darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” And I would add, Pride cannot drive out pride, only humility can do that. Thus Jesus conquers Satan’s pride (and ours) by an act of awesome humility. Sadly, to earthly and fleshly eyes, the humility of God seems to many as weakness. But it is not, it is an ingenious undermining of pride, such that pride can have no real answer or strategy to conquer it.

And for us who experience our own weakness, here too we know not what we say unless the wisdom of the Cross is applied to it. St. Paul said, For when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Cor 12:10). How are we strong? We are strong because in our weakness we learn to depend on God who is our true strength. Our greatest enemy is pride. Only our weakness can strip us of this pride so that God can use us and save us. At age forty, Moses was strong, in the prime of his life, educated, passionate and powerful. But he was too strong and in his pride he murdered a man. God couldn’t use him and so caused him to flee to the desert for purification. It took forty years. At age 80 Moses was stooped, leaned on a staff and stammered. Now he was weak enough for God to use him. At age 80, God said to Moses, “Go down Moses, tell Pharaoh to let my people go.” For when I am weak, then I am strong for then the power of God rests on me.

I like you have my crosses and suffering. A spiritual director once told me, “Thank God you’ve got them. Otherwise you’d be too proud to be saved and be heading right to hell. And even on your way God couldn’t use you.” Yes, even our weakness is subject to Christ and used mightily by him.

The Cross is a paradox and we must spend our lives learning to kneel before and heed its wisdom. Yet at present we do not see “all things subject to him,” but we do see Jesus “crowned with glory and honor” because he suffered death. God’s “weakness” is stronger than Satan’s power.

November 26, 2013May 28, 2015

On the Bondage of Abundance and the Freedom of Poverty and Simplicity

“Close up of the coin hoard” By Portable Antiquities Scheme from London, England Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

In the Gospel from Monday, Jesus praises a woman who gives from her substance: He noticed a poor widow putting in two small coins. He said, “I tell you truly, this poor widow put in more than all the rest; for those others have all made offerings from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has offered her whole livelihood. (Lk 21:2-4)

Now in praising her act he also gives a teaching for us all which highlights the kind of freedom that often comes with poverty and simplicity, and also the kind of bondage that can come with wealth and worldly connections.

The teaching is very paradoxical since, in worldly thinking, we usually conclude that those with the most money, power and access are the most free to do what they please. But frequently the opposite ends up being the case, and our worldly possessions, power, popularity and access lead us in to a sort of bondage and fear that wasn’t featured in all the promises and advertisements about “the good life.”

Why and how is this so? In effect, those with great wealth and who have power, popularity and deep connections in the world, have “too much to lose.” You can’t steal from a man who has nothing and it is a lot harder to intimidate him. Yet those who go up on the heights, tend to look down from those heights, and fear the fall.

Yes, wealth brings on the bondage of many worries. Scripture says, The sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether they eat little or much, but as for the rich, their abundance permits them no sleep (Ecclesiastes 5:12). And this evident, society-wide. We have never been so wealthy as modern Western culture affords. And yet, despite this, our stress is off the charts; fears and worries abound. Insurance buildings dominate our skylines, and huge numbers of Americans are on psychotropic medicines to stay calm and less depressed. Many others self-medicate with alcohol and drugs and addiction looms large in our culture.

Wealth also tends to bring on the bondage of insatiable cravings. Again, Scripture says, The eye is not satisfied with seeing, Nor is the ear filled with hearing. (Eccles 1:8). St Augustine says, For of a forward will, was a lust made; and a lust served, became custom; and custom not resisted, became necessity….a hard bondage held me enthralled. (Confessions 8.5.10).

Thus in our wealth we seldom reach a point where we say, I have enough and am satisfied. When does a person ever say, “Gee, I make $600,000 a year, that is more than enough. I think I can get by on 100K and I’ll give away the rest, or invest in something to help others. No, now we want 700K, and our 3,500 square foot home is just too small. Now we need the 7,000 square foot home with all the appointments, and the beach house too. We’re hooked, living well beyond what we need, we are now in bondage to what we merely want. And we thus mistake mere wants as needs. This is not freedom is the “necessity” that St Augustine describes as “bondage.”

Wealth and excess also lead us easily to the bondage of compromise and surrender of our soul to the world. St. Paul writes, But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. (1 Tim 6:8-10)

Indeed, it is a very great tragedy that on account of the bondage to money, power and access, many sacrifice their vocation on the altar of career and advancement. Many set aside their vocation as husband and father, wife and mother, disciple and beloved child of God, for the sake of some career, and the money, power and access that comes with it. Their children are raised by strangers and the home fires grow cold. Most do not do this out of wickedness, but out of a kind of bondage, even a desperate fear, that if they do not do so, they will lose out on money, access, power and prestige. Too many cannot break free of this bondage, or do not want to.

None of this says “freedom” it says bondage.

Scripture attests that Jesus told a would be follower who seemed to seek Jesus for the power and access it might give him: Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head. (Mat 8:20).

Jesus owned next to nothing in this world, save for the seamless garment his mother likely wove for him. Even his deathbed of the cross was not his own. But in this, he had a radical freedom. He owed no one anything. Having nothing, he had nothing to lose. He could not be intimidated, he could not be owned, or pressured to compromise. He had no “access” or worldly power to lose. He could not be excluded because he was not desperate to join, to fit in, or gain worldly footholds. You can’t take from a man who has nothing, he is free from your influence. Jesus was free.

Yes, for all our talk of how wealth can free us to do what we want the paradoxical opposite seems more the case. Consider some other paradoxes beyond the mere question of wealth and perceive how what seems to offer more freedom and abundance actually leads to bondage and lesser fulfillment.

1. We moderns have more leisure time than perhaps ever before. Yet having all this time we seem to have less time. We are over-scheduled, running here and there to this diversion and that; taking the kids to the soccer practice, dance rehearsal, etc. Options multiply and now become required as we are expected to be here and there. The important is eclipsed by the urgent; scheduling and hurrying about goes off the rails, and many more central things, like eating dinner with the family, prayer and sleep give way. Having more time we strangely have less time and “busy” becomes the usual way we describe our lives.The freedom of leisure time too often turns to a kind of bondage.

2. We moderns have more food, more calories available to us than ever before. Food is quick and cheap. Such freedom, and such variety! Yet, it seems clear, many of us are in bondage. Obesity and all the health problems that go with it are rampant. The food that should sustain life is killing many of us.

It is interesting to observe that centuries ago, when food was far more scarce, fasting was a more rigorous and common Christian practice. Many fasted from meat the whole of Lent. Many also undertook fasting in Advent. Over the years as food became available in great abundance and predictability, it would seem we could fast more easily. But the opposite has happened and most people seem incapable of even the most simple fasts. The bishops, wisely or not, have relaxed the fasting laws to something almost meaningless, concluding that the traditional fasts were “too hard” on people.

We have so much food today that you’d think after a while we’d say, “Enough, I don’t need to eat for days!” But the opposite seems to happen. The more we get the more we want. Portion sizes get ridiculous, and super sizing a way of life. And increasing numbers simply cannot stop, or even approach a reasonable caloric intake.

Thus our abundance does not bring us freedom and variety, but bondage and the limits of poor health. More does not bring freedom, it brings bondage.

3. Many sinfully claim a freedom regarding sex today that Scripture forbids. But honestly, for all the modern claims of freedom, sexual bondage is very deep for many today.

Calls to teach chastity to children are greeted with incredulous looks and remarks that such approaches are unrealistic, and the best that we can hope for is to throw contraceptives at youth who cannot really be expected to control themselves. This does not speak to freedom, but to bondage.

Internet porn is off the chain and many are in deep bondage to it.

And no matter how high the body count grows through abortion, broken families, teenage pregnancy, single motherhood, children raised with out proper families, sexually transmitted diseases, AIDs etc., no one seems to be able to connect the dots and say, “Promiscuity is unhealthy, even deadly, and we must become more serious about addressing this public health hazard.”

Here too the result of sexual revolution that marched under the banner of freedom, is not freedom, it is bondage.

Well, you get the point. Freedom is often paradoxical. We usually think the the “more” of riches, power, choices, and connections brings freedom. Usually it does not. Bondage is more often the case when we embark on the fool’s errand of living beyond what is needed, reasonable or holy.

Jesus looks to a poor woman in yesterday’s gospel and admires her freedom. Free from fear and having little to lose she is able to be generous. Too often our riches, abundance, variety and choices disable rather than enable us. Having much, we have too much to lose. Bondage is never far when this be the case.

November 24, 2013May 28, 2015

Have You No fear of God?! A Meditation on the Need to Recover Salutary Fear.

In yesterday’s (Sunday) Gospel, the good thief on the cross rebukes the bad thief at the other side of Jesus with a very poignant question, Have you no fear of God?.

Now this question is very well addressed to us as well; especially those of us who live in this modern age, so often marked by things like presumption. Further, with the rise of militant atheism, there is even a contemptuous dismissal of the fact that we will ever answer to God or anyone for anything we do.

Even among believers, there are many who have all but set aside any notion that we will ever face a judgment of any significance. The error of “Universalism” is dismissive of the notion that judgment will result in anything but Heaven for the vast majority, especially me.

Yes, even those who faithfully attend Mass every Sunday, have often to come to this non-biblical notion and pay little regard to the day of their judgment. For this, the preachers of the Church are largely to blame. And when blogs like this, where we regularly discuss these issues, discuss them, many write to me saying they’ve never heard this from their pulpits. A few others, react with a kind of anger or dismissiveness.

Thus the question, the rebuke of the “Good Thief” Have you no fear of God? is an important and poignant one for us today. Somewhere we have lost balance and erected a kind of “no fear” zone which is ultimately unbiblical and unsound.

Now granted, fear is not usually perceived of as a good thing, at least at an emotional level. It is not something to which we usually say, “Isn’t that nice.”

But fear, especially understood as respect and reverence, is an important and noble virtue. And, as we shall discuss, even servile fear, understood here is kind of fear of punishment, serves as an important foundation for the higher and more noble “Holy Fear” that is rooted more in reverence, respect and love for God.

And thus, while fear can be complex, it is important to get it right and restore proper balance, for Scripture speaks of it often at many different levels, and Jesus makes great use of it in his counsel to us.

In considering fear, let’s begin at the top with the “Holy fear” of the Lord. Holy Fear is distinct from servile fear in that servile fear has to do with punishment, where is Holy Fear is rooted in love.

Among the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit is Holy Fear. The Holy Fear the Lord is to hold God in awe, to be amazed at his glory, and his wisdom, his beauty and truth. And this awe, this Holy Fear draws us into a deep love for God which seeks union with him, so as to share in His awesome glory and majesty and to delight with wonder in it. And thus, we fear to offend him in any way, or to act in any way that might harm our union with him. And we do this, not so much out of fear of punishment, but simply because we love him so much, hold him in such reverence, awe and respect. Yes, this is a very great gift from God the Holy Spirit, the gift of Holy Fear!

Of this Holy Fear Scripture says,

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:16-18)
For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” (Rom 8:15).

But honestly, most of us cannot, and do not begin with this sort of fear. For this Holy Fear presupposes the kind of deep love, awe, and wonder that comes more often with spiritual maturity. Note how the Scriptures above speak to this reality of deep love and presuppose it for us to be free from the fear of punishment.

No, most of us begin with, and must be schooled in, a less perfect form of fear, but a fear which the Lord nevertheless counsels. Many theologians call it “servile fear,” since it speaks of the kind of fear that a servant might have of being punished for disobedience.

It is popular today to be dismissive of the sort of fear and see it as the relic of a immature faith, and not befitting of people who have come to an adult faith.

Some of the modern rejection of servile fear has resulted from the arrogance of the modern age, wherein it is common thinking that we moderns have attained it to a kind of maturity that our puerile ancestors did not have. After all, we have been to the moon, and have technology. So, not only are we smarter, we are some how more mature are well. They had “simplistic” and “childish” faith (e.g. “pray, pay, obey”), whereas somehow we have come of age, and are more mature and sophisticated; or so the thinking goes.

Of course the arrogance and error of this thinking (that tended to predominate especially in the 60s and 70s), becomes evident as we see how our culture has devolved to a kind of teenage fixation. Many in our culture never grow up, and the majority seem to remain rooted in a kind of teenage thinking, of which I have written more here: Modern Culture: Stuck on Teenage?

Thus, to presume that we can utterly reject servile fear as a relic of an immature faith and time, must be rejected. Not only is the height of arrogance, but also must be reject simply on the evidence. We are not mature, if anything we are far less mature than those who went before us, who generally knew how to take responsibility for their actions and assume adult responsibilities such as making commitments and keeping them, not making so many excuses, and by accepting consequences of decisions.

Thus, for all our braggadocio, about maturity, the fact is, many of us are nowhere near what it takes to be totally free of servile fear and fully capable of a mature Holy Fear rooted in love of God.

So, we need to rediscover a place for servile fear as necessary for most of us in our initial stages, and, even if we have developed a deeper Holy Fear rooted in love, to appreciate that there is still need to the preaching tradition to appeal to servile fear as well, for not all have passed on to mature faith (cf, Heb 5:14, 1 Cor 3:2).

Still not convinced? Jesus uses it. So do the Apostles he commissioned. Consider,

Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell (Mat 10:28) (N.B. He is referring to himself here, for he is the only one who has the power to cast into hell).
Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell. (Mat 5:22)
[Jesus says] But as for those enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them before me. (Luke 19:27)
And Jesus was saying to them, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. “Therefore I told you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I AM, you will die in your sins.” (Jn 8:23-24)
Then he [Jesus] will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. (Mat 25:41)
Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ (Mat 7:23)
“Later the [foolish virgins] also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’ “But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’ “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour. (Matt 25:11-13)
“If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it
is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body cast into hell. (Mat 5:29)
And the King (the Lord) said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?’ And the man was speechless. “Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ “For many are called, but few are chosen.” (Matt 22:12-14)
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor those who commit homosexual acts , nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God! (1 Cor 6:9-10)
But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. (Rom 2:5)
If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (Heb 10:26-31)

Honestly, I could multiply texts like these tenfold. The point is, I hope, clear. Jesus and the Apostles he commissioned to preach in his name had frequent recourse to the fear of punishment, judgment and hell, to servile fear.

Why? Because not all are at a place were loftier appeals will have any effect. Very often children must first be schooled in the discipline of punishment. Only later when discipline has had its proper effect can appeals to loftier concepts such as love, loyalty, enlightened self-interest, the common good and simple love for God and the truth, be motivating.

We grow in stages and the preaching and teaching of Scripture, and the Church rightly respect this and will appeal to many motives to convince us unto repentance. This must include the lesser fear of punishment as well as the greater motive of Holy Fear.

It will be granted that appeals to fear cannot and should not be our only focus. Clearly appeals to love of God and neighbor must also be included, along with appeals to reason and enlightened self interest as motives for keeping the commandments. The mercy and love of God can and must be preached.

But the point here is that things have gone out of balance and we need to recover that balance by pulling back in the other direction. Hence this blog post and I pray the voices now of many others who sense the current lack of balance.

Some will argue that fear based arguments simply do not hold the sway they once did. Perhaps. But why is this so? Perhaps the steady diet of cross-less Christianity, mercy without repentance, and universal salvation, a sort of sin without consequences, have deceived many. This sort of preaching and teaching is unbiblical and it is a lie.

All the more reason we must reacquaint the faithful with the true Scripture and the real Jesus. All the more reason we must work to inculcate a proper fear of judgment and consequence for unrepented sin.

Given the current climate referencing fear may NOT be effective at first and cause some to scoff and wonder if “Father is in a bad mood.”

But, my own pastoral experience is that people are at first surprised, and do sometimes scoff, but as I build the evidence for them over time in sermons and teachings, they gradually adjust to the biblical world view again. It is a process.

And once we get our own house in order, then our faith can once again begin to influence a culture that has inoculated itself from proper and healthy fear.

Yet all the inoculations in the world cannot ultimately erase the truth that Scripture affirms: So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God. (Rom 14:12) and again, [Jesus said] But I tell you that even for every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. (Matt 12:36). Yes we will answer to God. And that is worth having some salutary fear about it.

And thus the question of the Good Thief rings true and poignantly today: Have you no fear of God?

November 23, 2013May 28, 2015

King of the Universe and King of Thieves? A Homily for the Feast of Christ the King

Jesus Christ is King of Thieves, though he never stole. He is savior of sinners though he himself never sinned.

The Gospel chosen for today’s feast presents Jesus as reigning from the cross. Nothing could be more paradoxical. Perhaps we can look at this Gospel and feast from four perspectives:

I. Vision – In the Gospel for today’s feast we have vision or an image for the Church. We like to think of more pleasant images such as the Church being the Bride of Christ or the Body of Christ. Today’s image is less exalted and more humbling to be sure, but it is an image just the same: The Image of the Church is Christ, crucified between two thieves.

Yes, this is the Church too. Somehow we are all thieves. The fact is, we are all sinners and we have all used the gifts and things that belong to God in a way that is contrary to his will. To misuse things that belong to others is a form of theft and we are thus thieves for we have all misused what belongs to God.

Consider some of the things we claim as our own and how easily we misuse them: Our bodies, our time, our talents, our money, our gift of speech, our gift of freedom and so forth. We call them ours but they really belong to God and if we use them in ways contrary to the intention of the owner we are guilty of a form of theft.

So the Church is Christ, crucified between two thieves.

II. Variance – But consider also that these two thieves were very different; even as in the Church we have saints and sinners, and in the world there are those who will turn to Christ and be saved and those who will turn away and be lost.

One thief derides Jesus and makes demands of him: – Are you not the Christ! Save yourself and us! The text says this thief “reviles” Jesus. To revile means to speak against another with contempt and to treat some one as vile, or loathsome.
The other thief reverences Christ and rebukes the other saying, – Have you no fear of God? This thief recognizes his guilt – We have been condemned justly. And he requests – Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom. But he leaves the terms of it up to Christ. He acknowledges he is a thief and now places his life under the authority of Christ the King.

So here are two different men. Christ came to call sinners, thieves, if you will. Yes, we are all thieves, that is true. But pray God we are the good thief, the repentant thief, The one thief who is now ready to resubmit himself to the authority of Christ, who is King of all creation, and King of us thieves.

Now heaven is a real steal, something we don’t deserve. But it is only accessed through repentance and faith. The bad thief wants relief but will not open the door of his heart by repentance and faith so that Jesus can save him. Mercy is offered and available there right next to him, but it is accessed through repentance and faith. He does not open the door, but the good thief does and thereby will be saved.

III. Veracity – But is Christ really your king? Well a King has authority. So another way of asking is, “Does Christ have authority in your life? Do you and I acknowledge that everything we call our own really belongs to Him? How well do we use the things that we call our own but which really belong to God?”

How do we use our time?
Are we committed to pray and be at Mass every Sunday without fail?
Do we use enough of our time to serve God and others or merely for selfish pursuits?
What of our capacity to talk?
Do we use our gift of speech to witness, to evangelize, or merely for small talk and gossip?
What of our money?
Are we faithful to the Lord’s command to tithe? (Mal 3:7-12; Matt 23:23).
Are we generous enough to the poor and needy?
Do we spend wisely or foolishly?
Do we pay our debts in a timely way?
What of our bodies?
Do we exhibit proper care and nutrition of them?
Are we chaste?
Do we observe proper safety or are we reckless and unsafe?
Do we reverence life?
Do we love the poor and help sustain their lives?

Well you get the point. It is one thing to call Christ our King, it is another to truly be under his authority. The Lord is clear enough in telling us that he expects our obedience: Why do you call me Lord Lord and not do what I tell you? (Luke 6:46)

Is Christ your King? Which thief are you, really?

IV. Victory – The thief who asks Jesus to remember him manifests a kind of baptism of desire as well as repentance and faith. As such he moved straight-way in the victor’s column. Jesus words, Today you shall be with me in paradise indicate a dramatic and sudden shift for the thief. In other words Jesus says, Your faith has saved you. As of this moment you are now at my side, and I am your saving Lord.

Now to be with Jesus, wherever He is, is paradise and victory. Soon enough the heavens will be opened as well, but the victory is now, and paradise begins now.

And thus he claims the victory through his choice for Jesus Christ. Will you have the victory? Well, that depends on if you choose the prince of the world, or the King of the Universe, Jesus.

Some think they can choose neither Jesus nor Satan, but tred some middle way. Well if that’s your choice, I’ve got news for you, you’ve chosen the prince of this world, who loves compromise. Jesus says, Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. (Matt 12:30)

As for me, I’ve decided to make Jesus my choice. Now I pray that he will truly be my King in all things and that my choice will be more than lip service. Come Jesus reign in my heart! Let me begin to experience victory and paradise even now!