John, Chapter 1, verse 3-5
3 All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What
came to be 4
through him was life, and this life was the light
of the human race; 5 the light shines in the darkness, and
the darkness has not overcome it.
Now is the time to reject all hubris and pride of
life acknowledging our dependence upon God. He is our strength and speed
whoever has a Holy fear God delights in.
Saint
Slyvester/New Years
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[1]
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.
Last 10 Things[2]
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
- wisdom
- understanding
- counsel
- fortitude
- knowledge
- piety
- fear of the Lord
Also, the seven sacraments of the Catholic faith [Baptism,
Confirmation, Holy Eucharist, Penance, Extreme Unction, Holy Orders, and
Matrimony]
GREAT GIFT FOR THE NEW YEAR! GET IT NOW IN TIME FOR THE NEW YEAR.
COURAGE FOR THE MODERN WORLD 2017 #2017CALENDAR
Authored by Mr. Richard H. Havermale Jr.This book is the continuation of my first book based on more than 365 references in the Bible to fear, dread, and that in fact our God encourages us to "BE NOT AFRAID". To do this we must be in the presence of our Lord and talk to Him. I recommend you develop the habit of spending 10-15 minutes a day with our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel or if that is not available some other quiet place where you can be in the presence of our Lord. Read the daily entry and reflect on it asking our Lord and His mother to talk to your heart and reveal to you the will of the Father and then Do it. The layout of this book is to list and reflect on the books of the bible Sirach through Revelations. In the early part of September my search of the verses dealing with fear and being afraid was completed; so I asked the Lord what do I, do now. After some reflection I realize that the fruit of fear in the Lord is the Theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Love which ultimately results in Peace of the Lord. As a consequence the month of September will deal with Peace, October with Love and the month of November will be reflections on Faith and Hope. After Thanksgiving for the season of Advent and Christmas this work uses a multitude of references that reflect the Christmas season. There are many theologians who state that the eighth deadly sin is fear itself. It is fear and its natural animal reaction to fight or flight that is the root cause of our failings to create a Kingdom of God on earth. Saint John Paul II in his writings and talks also tells us to BE NOT AFRAID. In fear or anger we walk away from God. Our Lord, Jesus Christ taught us how to walk back toward God in His sermon on the mount through the Beatitudes. Each of the beatitudes is the antidote for the opposite deadly sins.
[3]http://www.holytrinitygerman.org/xmascustoms.html#twelvedays
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