I took a couple of weeks off from my pastoral care duties of presenting Holy Communion to the patients in the hospital and to a couple in their home because I was just plain worn out and needed time for “regrouping”. I got word today that late last week, the man to whom I’ve been ministering Communion passed away. Joe was a good and faithful Catholic—not to mention a great husband, father and grandfather, as I was a witness to. Please pray for the repose of his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of Jesus Christ.
As we near the end of the calendar year and Church cycle, it is good to be reminded that we will rise from the dead and join our Lord in Heaven if we are faithful to His teaching, since we are otherwise tempted to think only of our time here on earth and not life after death.
I don’t know about anyone else, but the book of Revelation is so hard to make sense of and it is tempting to just turn away in frustration; I did so many times this last week. My irritation with my inability to understand parts of it went away after I realized how hard it would be for me or any other human being to verbalize an experience of heaven. Along with the Gospel, Saturday’s reading is also talking about the faithful being called to rise from the dead. In Revelation, we saw all those who gloated over the two fallen witnesses were shocked to see them come back to life and stand before them. And they hear a loud voice from heaven call the two prophets home by saying, “Come up here.” The people didn’t like what the prophets were saying and were celebrating their demise.
People don’t change—Christians (especially Catholics) are still suffering martyrdom in our world today. The Bishop of Sudan was the celebrant of the Mass on EWTN this morning. In his homily, he said that there are many, many unknown martyrs for the faith in his diocese, and that it is not limited to the Sudan. He struck me as a very holy man—and for that he has suffered in his own country. While most of us don’t go around killing people today, we are critical of those who hold fast to their Faith. So, who are our prophets (witnesses of the faith) today? And how do we react to their message? Many times I have heard Pope John Paul II referred to as a prophet. I feel I have a bond with this good and faithful servant of our Lord simply because I saw him up close and personal when he visited Candlestick in 1987.
(Read about that experience, here, on my first blog entry)
He left an indelible impression on me that invigorated my faith and planted the seeds for my present fervor.
Joe, in a way, was a prophet. He held fast to his Catholic beliefs even in the midst of pain and suffering. He would tell me of the latest procedure that was done or the one that was to come during the week and do so with a smile on his face! It gave me the impression he was not afraid, but merely waiting for Christ to appear and say, "Come up here."
My brother Bob is another example of "silent suffering" who has told me and others on several occasions that he's not afraid to die to this life--he knows his life in Christ will be beyond description.
These are the stuff of which prophets are made.
In Luke’s Gospel, which is a repeat of the Gospel from Sunday the 7th, Jesus tells the Sadducees that “those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage…they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise. (Luke 20:35,36). And so we are reminded to think about the path we are taking and the true goal, heaven. We know there are a lot of false prophets out there and other distractions. Let us keep our focus and pray for guidance to be able to discern the voice of the true prophet, so that we too might be called Home to rise and be with the Lord. Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment