Today is the penultimate Sunday of this liturgical year. I admit, I’ve been looking forward to using the word “penultimate,” all week. Along with “juxtapose,” it is a word I love finding occasions to use.
The Book of Daniel, from which our first reading is taken, is an apocalyptic book. As such, it is fitting to read from it as the Church year ends. At the end of each year, the Church looks forward to the end of time, not to the end of the world, but to the end of the world as we know it. This reading looks forward to the resurrection of the dead.
Our reading from Daniel makes mention of Michael. Calling him “the great prince and guardian of [God’s] people.”1 This is a reference to none other than Saint Michael the archangel. We do not speak about angels very much. I suspect this is due, at least in part, to how angels are often depicted: as chubby toddlers. Hence, it seems childish, superstitious, or perhaps even downright silly to some.
Nonetheless, “the whole life of the Church benefits from the mysterious and powerful help of angels.”2 For example, the Sanctus, an ordinary part of the Mass, which is sung or recited at every Mass, begins Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus… (i.e., Holy, holy, holy), is the song of angels. By singing or reciting the Sanctus, we join the choirs of angels in praising God.
We profess in both the Nicene and Apostles Creeds our belief that Jesus Christ will return in glory to judge the living and dead. Like angels, we do not pay much attention to this dogmatic belief. As Christians, we need to live our lives in joyful expectation of that day when God will make good on all His promises, which is the source of all true hope.
In our Gospel, Jesus teaches his closest disciples about His return. He, too, mentions angels, saying He will send them forth to “gather his elect from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of the sky.”3 In light of this aspect of divine revelation, we need to mightily resist the stripping away of the great mystery of creation and redemption and the reduction of Christianity to a this-worldly, utopian project that simply bids one to “Be nice.”
As C.S. Lewis observed:
But we must not suppose that even if we succeeded in making everyone nice we should have saved their souls. A world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world-and might even be more difficult to save4I could go into the distinctions between being nice and being kind and between being kind and being charitable. Don’t get me wrong, being nice, at least when used as a synonym for being kind, matters. As Maj. Frank Burns quipped: “It’s nice to be nice to the nice.” But being nice, even in this way, isn’t everything. I think I could lack faith and still manage to be nice.
No one knows when the Lord will return. According to Jesus, not only do the angels not know the day or hour of His return, but even He, at least during his earthly sojourn, did not know. This is why, as that great Christian spiritual master, Metropolitan Anthony Bloom, insisted that for Christians, every day is judgement day.
“Epiphany” is a word frequently used in the New Testament to refer to the Lord’s return. An epiphany is a sudden occurrence, realization, or revelation. If today’s Gospel is to be believed, Christ’s sudden appearance will happen after a time of great tribulation. Remember All Saints when we read from the book of Revelation? Specifically, to when the elder tells the revelator that those wearing white robes and holding palm branches who surrounded the Lamb and praised Him are those “who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”5
There is a reason in the Salve Regina that we refer to this life as hac lacrimarum valle- this valley of tears and to ourselves as exsules filii Hevæ, - Eve’s “poor, banished children.” Like all who have come before us, we live in a time of great distress.
Our reading from Hebrews mentions those who are being consecrated. Note that this is in the present active tense. So, it does not refer to those who have been consecrated. It is about those who are, even now, being consecrated. Primarily, to be consecrated means to be set apart for a purpose. Theologically, the purpose for which one is set apart is God’s purpose. And God’s purpose is the redemption of the world through Jesus Christ.
In the Rite of Baptism, just prior to making a credal profession of faith, several questions are posed to the person being baptized or, in the case of an infant, to her/his parents and godparents:
Do you renounce sin, as to live in the freedom of the children of God?These are not rhetorical questions. Furthermore, they presume belief in “all things… invisible” mentioned in the first part of the Nicene Creed. The spiritual or unseen part of creation is real, not fantastic, let alone imaginary. Hence, the sacraments are not antiquated exercises in medieval magic designed to make us feel good in some non-specific way.
Do you renounce the lure of evil, so that sin may have no mastery over you?
Do you renounce Satan, the author and prince of sin?6
A few weeks ago, we celebrated the Rite of Acceptance whereby several adults entered the Church’s Order of Catechumens. At the beginning of the rite, Fr. Andrzej asked those desirous of becoming Catechumens what they asked of God’s Church. They responded by saying “Faith.” He then asked them what faith offers them. They answered by saying “Eternal life.”7 Even as Catholics, we profess that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. But as we are taught by scripture: “faith without works is dead.”8
Even after being baptized, we need help. God, in His infinite goodness, in His lovingkindness, gives us help of every kind. For example, as Saint Basil the Great explained: “Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life.”9 Yes, you have a Guardian Angel!
Don’t hesitate to call upon your Guardian Angel. Saint Therese of Lisieux, a Doctor of the Church, gave us this lovely prayer:
My holy Guardian Angel, cover me with your wing. With your fire light the road that I’m taking. Come, direct my steps… help me, I call upon you. Just for todayLet’s not forget the Prayer to Saint Michael, which used to be prayed at the end of every Mass:
Saint Michael the archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.My dear friends in Christ, the only way to survive the time of great distress is to recognize, something C.S. Lewis noted: “Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing had yet been done.”10 And so, make use of all the means of grace our loving Father has placed at your disposal. As we prayed in our Collect today, “it is full and lasting happiness to serve with constancy the author of all that is good.”11
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray;
and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host,
by the power of God,
cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits
who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls
1 Daniel 12:1.↩
2 Catechism of the Catholic Church, sec. 334.↩
3 Mark 13:27.↩
4 C.S. Lewis. Mere Christianity, Book IV, Chapter 10, “Nice People Or New Men?”↩
5 Revelation 7:14.↩
6 Order of Christian Initiation of Adults, sec. 224A: Order of Baptism of Children, For Several Children, sec. 57.↩
7 Order of Christian Initiation of Adults, sec. 50B.↩
8 James 2:17.↩
9 Catechism of the Catholic Church, sec. 336.↩
10 C.S. Lewis Letters to an American Lady, "A Letter to Mrs. L."↩
11 Roman Missal, “On Sundays and Weekdays,” Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time.↩
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