24th and Last Sunday After Pentecost
Extraordinary Form
Today’s Introit antiphon speaks for God: "I think thoughts of peace, not affliction. You shall call upon me and I will hear, and bring you back from your captivity all over the world." The Gradual speaks of our affirmation that the Lord has liberated us, the afflicted. So why, every last Sunday of the liturgical year, do we hear what sounds like a prediction of doom and gloom, darkened sun and moon and falling stars in the wake of false prophets? If the Lord thinks thoughts of peace, why is there so much trouble in the world: governments that will not allow the free practice of religion, jihadist terrorists who murder randomly in the streets of Paris and the Sinai, Christians being murdered all over the world?
It’s enough to ask whether God cares, or whether He has any power to control human events. Where is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who brought the Hebrews across the sea, who caused the Catholic Church to spread throughout the known world? Where is the wonder-worker of Galilee whose sacrifice we celebrate and share each time we come together? Why do the good suffer and the evildoers prosper?
Knowing what a mess the world finds itself in, many Christians pray intently, “Come Lord Jesus.” That is, come and blow the whistle on all this corruption and violence. Make your Lordship felt among the rich and powerful, the politicians and financiers who oppress the poor and manipulate the economy. Smite the evildoers; destroy ISIS; rescue Your people from their trials. Don’t we all, from time to time or either continually, wish to hear the sound of the last trumpet? Don’t we long to see the last lightning coming from the east and lighting up the sky, and the sign of the Son of Man shining in the heavens? Isn’t it about time the Father bring an end to all this sin and shame and death?
Millions of dollars are spent just in this country every year by people looking to the future for an end-of-age event. Some buy end-times and survivalist novels. Others lay in months of supplies. Evangelists pull huge sums with their writings about why Jesus will be returning this year, or next year, or ten years ago. I recall a couple of decades ago there was a whole series of books called the “Left Behind” series, that even spawned a movie or two. And over forty years ago there was a book called The Late, Great Planet Earth, that outlined exactly how the final battles between good and evil would play out, in the 1970s.
They were all false prophets. They are all false prophets. Jesus told us quite distinctly that no one could know the final day or hour. The Father alone knew. Even Jesus in His human nature did not know. That Jesus will return in glory with all the angels in saints is an article of faith. When Jesus will return is unknown and unknowable. So why not now?
St. Paul taught us about the loving kindness and forbearance of God. Forbearance is God’s way of dealing with ignorant sinners. And in a culture that celebrates evildoing and screams bloody murder at anyone who tells the truth about sin, it is very, very easy to be an ignorant sinner. Think of those unmarried couples who are living together in open defiance of God’s clear warning about sexual union outside marriage. The culture encourages them with TV shows and movies and celebrity couples’ cohabitation. The government works to force companies to treat them as if they were married. It’s quite easy for them to look around, see the collapsing Christian culture, and assume that marriage–lifelong commitment to one partner–is passe. We know the results, of course. Single parenthood–if not abortion. Broken hearts. Abandonment. Ignorance does not lead to bliss. Ignorance of the law of God is the fast protocol to personal catastrophe, to family breakdown, to children without fathers.
God does not smite the sinner and destroy the evil cities because He loves us. He wants us to turn to Him in repentance, convert, and be healed. He is constantly the good Shepherd going in search of lost sheep. He is always the Father who like a chump watches for the return of the Prodigal son. He’d rather be considered a wimpy chump than lose any of us for eternity. God loves the murderer, prostitute and pimp. God longs for the income tax cheat and the gossip.
Now if Our Lord returned tomorrow nobody would be happier than I. We would all rejoice on the day of the Lord. But when that whistle blows, the game is over. General judgement. No second chance. It would be the day of God’s triumph, but at the cost of losing many souls who Jesus died to save. The only analogy I can think of is of the human family. Which of us mothers or fathers wants to give up on a son or daughter mired in alcoholism, sexual addiction, pornography or drug abuse? Don’t we pray for them and live in hope until the very last moment of their lives, or our own? God’s love for us sinners is infinitely greater even than that of a human parent for the child. So He forbears, and doesn’t mind being thought a chump for doing so.
What, then, do we do? St. Paul is very blunt. We are not to grub about worrying. He tells us to “lead a life worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” Thus will we be strengthened with power, “for all endurance and patience with joy.” When we are asked what we think of a certain evil action, of course we tell the truth. But we know how God has dealt patiently with us. All of us are works in progress. As we pray for ourselves, for our own spiritual growth, we also pray for others who are on the same road, but at a different milepost. The couple living in sin may learn from the example of married couples who made and kept their commitment. The cheating fellow student may repent and change habits when seeing you work hard to create your report. The inveterate gossip may think twice about that habit if you are offered the chance to talebear and walk away.
Daily we pray, in the words of the lovely Offertory antiphon of the day, “out of the depths I have cried to Thee, O Lord: Lord hear my prayer.” And daily Our Lord hears our prayer, because He was and is down here with us, interceding for us with the Father. He is pouring out His grace of patience and endurance on us. Yes, Our Mother, Mary, is praying with us as well, for us and our children and our fellow humans on the road. Our communion antiphon tells us that whatever we ask for in prayer, we should believe we will receive it, and it will be done for us. Whether Our Lord returns tomorrow, or after we die to go to Him, His solidarity with us is sure and eternal, and in this we can have total confidence. Heaven and earth will pass away, but His words will endure forever.
