Thursday, December 31, 2015
Psalm, Chapter 147, verse 10-11
10 He takes no delight in the strength of horses, no pleasure in the
runner’s stride. 11 Rather the LORD takes pleasure in
those who fear him, those who put their hope in his mercy.
This verse actually means that person full of
hubris and pride of life has a hard time acknowledging their dependence upon
God. They may feel they have strength and speed however those who have
Holy fear God delights in.
The night of the Holy Saint
Sylvester, the last night of the year, has always been the night of fun. Every
year Berlin hosts one of the largest New Year's Eve celebrations in all of
Europe, attended by over a million people. The focal point is the Brandenburg
Gate, where midnight fireworks are centered. Germans toast the New Year with a
glass of Sekt (German sparkling wine) or champagne.
The saint of this day, Pope Sylvester I, according to legend is the man who
healed from leprosy and baptized the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great. Sylvester I and Constantine. Sylvester was a Roman, the son of Rufinus. He was ordained a priest by Marcellinus. Chosen Pope in 314, he continued the work of organizing the peacetime Church so well begun by St. Miltiades. Sylvester saw the building of famous churches, notably the Basilica of St. Peter and the Basilica of St. John Lateran, built near the former imperial palace of that name. It is quite probable too that the first martyrology or list of Roman martyrs was drawn up in his reign. St. Sylvester died in 335. He was buried in a church which he himself had built over the Catacomb of Priscilla on the Via Salaria. His feast is kept on December 31
.
Bleigiessen ("Lead pouring") - an old German New Year tradition
In many of the German-speaking areas the change of the year is celebrated noisily and merrily. Guests are invited, and groups attend a "Sylvester Ball." There is eating, drinking, dancing and singing. It may be accompanied by the popular "Sylvester" custom of Bleigiessen. A small piece of lead will be melted over a flame in an old spoon and dropped into a bowl of cold water. From the shape you can supposedly tell your fortune for the coming year. For instance, if the lead forms a ball (der Ball), that means luck will roll your way. The shape of an anchor (der Anker) means help in need. But a cross (das Kreuz) signifies death.
At midnight, when the old year is almost gone and the New Year is about to start, glasses are filled with champagne or wine, and toasts and hugs go with wishing each other "ein gutes neues Jahr". Some go out into the streets and listen to the bells ringing throughout the land. Others participate in shooting in the New Year, or put on their private fireworks.[1]
Today
would be a good day to review the 10 Last things in
preparation for the New Year.
The Four
Last Things refer to death, judgment, heaven and hell. The 10 Last Things
as a phrase does not exist, but all are found in Scripture and
Tradition.
So,
when is Jesus coming back to earth? The
answer: At the end of the world. When is the end of the world? Jesus
said, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”—Mt 25:13. A
theologian of Scripture here in the USA said he believes one reason why so many
men have left the Catholic faith for Protestantism is because the Catholic
pulpit is silent on the apocalypse. It’s sad, especially since we have the
clearest and richest tradition.
Although
we’ll be discussing no specific dates, the Sacred Scriptures and the Catechism
of the Catholic Church (CCC) both name the ten things that must come at
the end of the world:
1)
The Gospel must
first be preached to the whole world. The extent of the level
of the orthodoxy of the proclaimer is not clear, nor is it clear if
every person or simply every nation will have heard the truth of Christ and His
Church before the end of the world. At least every land will have heard
the basics by the second coming of Christ.
2)
The Jews will return
to the Holy Land and ultimately enter the Catholic Faith. Obviously, the
first of these has happened (1948) and the second has not yet happened. I
had thought that the first was only a vestage of Protestant dispensationalism,
but I recently discovered in Yves Dupont’s Catholic Prophesy
that Saints like Alphonsus Liguori had taught that the Jews must return to
Israel before Christ’s second return.
3)
The Great Tribulation
and Apostasy. Before the end of the world, CCC 675 speaks of “the Church’s
ultimate trial” which will be both “apostasy from the truth” and “persecution.”
Perhaps this one has been fulfilled. Indeed, many Catholics have apostatized,
formally or informally. However, many Catholics and other Christians are being
persecuted for following Christ. Since Christ’s birth, there have been 70
million Christian martyrs. Of these, the past hundred years have witnessed the
majority— 45,500,000 of all 70,000,000 martyrdoms! Granted, most of these were
Orthodox at the hands of communists; it’s still persecution of Christians.
Jesus said this tribulation would also be accompanied by an increase in
earthquakes (Mt 24:7.) Even CNN admits a marked increase in earthquakes the
past 100 years.
4)
The Anti-Christ or the
man of lawlessness. Although there have been many anti-Christs (1 John 2:18)
we’re going to have to experience the big one, “the son of destruction, who
opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so
that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.”—2
Thess 2:3-4. See CCC 676–680.
5)
The Restrainer. Mercy
is defined as the divine limit to evil. The anti-Christ will deceive so many
people that God will send someone to limit evil. His name in the Bible is “The
Restrainer.” (I know “the Restrainer” sounds like the coolest Marvel Comic book
hero. But he’s right in the Bible, which might explain why our Protestant
brothers and sisters speculate about him more than Catholics.) Anyway, this
mysterious good-guy will come along at the end of the world as an agent of
Divine Mercy so that the man of lawlessness doesn’t win. “Only he who now
restrains it will do so until [the man of lawlessness] is out of the way.”—2
Thess 2:7. Some Catholic theologians speculate the Restrainer will be St. John
the Baptist or St. Michael the Archangel. But he is unknown at this point.
6)
Widespread
disturbances in nature. “Immediately after the distress of those days the sun
will be darkened and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from
the sky and the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time the sign of the
Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn.
They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and
great glory.”—Mt 24:29-30
7)
Second Coming of Jesus
Christ. There’s an actual “day and hour” (Mt 24:36) to Christ’s return to
earth. This day has definitely not yet come. “As the lightning comes from the
east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of
Man.”—Mt 24:27. Once, at a lunch, a priest with several impressive degrees
snickered at me for taking these words literally. Then, I have to wonder: If
Jesus doesn’t return with power, maybe he’ll return on a My Little Pony Cutie
Mark Magic Princess Twilight Sparkle Charm Carriage Playset? (That’s an actual
toy at Target! I have to wonder who named that…An 8 year old girl in love with
a cutie named Mark who was allowed to combine her eleven favorite words
randomly?) Anyway, my point isn’t to rally tough-guy fundamentalism. I just
can’t imagine a fitting middle ground between Christ coming as a baby and then
coming in glory. Unless…Jesus comes strolling into Seattle with corduroy pants
and a Dockers short-sleeve at His awful second coming. For my part, I’ll
believe the Apostle’s description of the last day: “For the Lord Himself will
descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and
with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise
first.”—1 Thess 4:16. See CCC 681 and the 13th century hymn Dies Irae, “Day of
wrath and doom impending…heaven and earth in ashes ending.” Google it. The rest
of it gets even more terrible, in the ancient Latin sense of the word.
8)
Final Judgment. The
Church teaches that every one of us on earth will be judged by Christ at the
end of life, be it our particular judgment or the general judgment. The
particular judgment is what you will experience if you die before Jesus returns
in glory. It’s simply your judgment when you come before God a bit after
cardiac arrest. A great Spanish priest described that moment as a 2-dimensional
instantaneous download of your entire life, replete with Christ’s judgment of
you (heaven or hell). The general judgment, or the Last Judgment, however, is
what everyone will experience when Christ returns to earth. This will also
affect those who have already died. For everyone, it will be like a
3-dimensional instantaneous download of every good and evil action committed by
every person on the planet (Luke 8:17) and how it affected you and vice-versa.
In short, during your death and/or Christ’s return, your chance for mercy will
be done. That’s what the confessional is for. On judgment day, you will answer
for any unconfessed sins, and you will see how every one of your actions
affected the whole world, for better or for worse. I’m not trying to scare you.
This is Our Faith: You matter. See CCC 1021 and CCC 1038–1041.
9)
Resurrection of the
Body. Simultaneous to #5, everyone will get their body back. It will be
physical, spiritual and hopefully glorified. I write “hopefully” because even
those even in hell will get a body back for eternal torture (John 5:29.)
Happily, 100% of those in purgatory will go to heaven and also get their
glorified body back. But most adult Catholics think of heaven as an amorphous reality
for the soul…kind of like a nursing home hot tub where billions of doped-up
souls stare in a smiley bliss. Rather, let’s consider Jesus’ resurrection: He
could eat fish but walk through walls; He shined with glory, but He had wounds.
In fact, the four Catholic doctrinal points of the resurrection is that your
new body will be: 1) Glorified (like Jesus at the Transfiguration), 2) Agile
(not subject to gravity. I promise I’m not making this up.), 3) Subtle (from
the Latin, meaning the body will obey the soul as the essential form of the
body…meaning you won’t accidentally burp in your new body.) and 4) Impassible
(unable to suffer.) Does this all sound just a little fantastic? CCC 996 says:
“From the beginning, Christian faith in the resurrection has met with
incomprehension and opposition. On no point does the Christian faith encounter
more opposition than on the resurrection of the body.” Wait. No other point met
with more opposition? What about contraception and same-sex marriage? You see,
the resurrection of the body is the foundation of all other Catholic morality
since “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one
may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or
evil.”—2 Cor 5:10. Apparently, man’s notion of once-saved always-saved doesn’t
fool God. See CCC 988–1019.
10)
New Heavens and
a New Earth. First, this earth will burn (2 Pt 3:10.) Then God will make a New
Heavens and a New Earth (Is 65:17.) Where else did you expect to use your new
body? Notice that the physical reality of eternity is already found in the Old
Testament. For the Jews, the “age to come” will not be any more nebulous than
this age. But it will be an era of peace. That era of the Messiah’s peace will
permeate so deeply into creation that even the lion will lie down with the
calf. (Show off that Bible trick at parties since 99% of you thought I should
have written “lamb.” You’re wrong! See Isaiah 11:6.) There’s a solid section on
the New Heavens and the New Earth in CCC 1042–1060. Finally, since I made fun
of a goofy notion of heaven in #5, I really should highlight all of Christian
history’s most beautiful description of heaven. It’s composed by the Holy
Spirit through the Apostle John. This description of heaven spans from Revelation
21 to 22 (the last two chapters of the Bible) but here’s my favorite, the
beginning of the end, literally and eschatologically: Then I saw a new heaven
and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and
the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of
heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a
loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with
man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will
be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and
death shall be no more.—Rev 21:1-4a[2]
Yet the world and its enticement are passing away. But whoever does the will of God remains forever. (John 2:17)
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