Last Sunday after Pentecost
– November 25, 2012
(Mt. 24:15-35)
In the Sundays coming up to Advent
the Church concerns herself with death and judgment, but especially on this last
Sunday after Pentecost. Next week begins the Season of Advent in preparation for
Christmas.
Death alarms those unrepentant
sinners who must leave behind their pleasures and their treasures. In their
fear of the coming judgment, many see themselves as abandoned by both God and
man. The just person, however, has lived in the light of the Gospel, and has
carried his cross and has repented for his sins. The just person can look forward
to death as the end of all temptation, all sorrow, suffering, illness and all
earthly desires. The father of a friend, when he was near death, was asked by
his doctor if he wanted to be revived should he stop breathing. “Oh no,” he
said, “I’ve been looking forward to this all my life.” Death for the just
person begins his joyous eternity with God.
Death
doesn’t have to be as dreadful as we suppose. It depends entirely on us to make
it a happy and beautiful event. Our souls give life to our bodies. The life we
live in these bodies is like an apprenticeship. Death releases our souls from
our bodies, and if we have served a good apprenticeship, it is as if we were
held captives in a foreign land, and now are free to experience the joy of returning to our
homeland with our Lord in His Kingdom. “Deliver my soul out of prison, that I
may praise thy name,” said King David (Psalm
141: 8, KJV 142: 7)
“. . . Give me wings like a dove, and I will fly and be at rest.” (Psalm 54: 7, KJV 55: 6)
How
happy are Christians when they follow in the footsteps of our Divine Master.
And what does the Lord’s life consist of? Three things: Prayer, good deeds and
suffering. We know our Lord often withdrew from the public to pray in private,
and that He was always active in good deeds, in the salvation of souls. But no
one wants to talk about a life of suffering today. We dislike any form of
discomfort. However, we also know that in our Lord’s life on earth He suffered
from poverty, persecution, humiliation and finally the terror of His passion
and death. He said through His prophet, David, “For my life is wasted with
grief: and my years in sighs. My strength is weakened through poverty. . . I am
become a vessel that is destroyed, For I have heard the blame of many that dwell
round about.” (Psalm 30: 11-14,
KJV 31: 10-13) Can
the life of a good Christian be anything other than that of a person who is
nailed to the cross with his Lord? Try standing up for good against public immorality
and you will find that cross.
To
hope for a happy death is not enough. We must work for this sublime happiness. Among
the means we can use to achieve this,
St. John Vianney selected three which, with God’s grace, will lead us to a
happy death. We must prepare ourselves for it by (1) living a holy life, (2) by
true repentance of our sins and (3) by a perfect union of our death with the
death of Jesus Christ.
As
a rule, people die as they have lived. Committed sinners die as sinners.
Committed Christians die as Christians. Last minute conversions are so few that
it prompted St. Jerome to say that death is an echo of life. If we are on the
road to hell and we think we can postpone our conversion to the last hours or
minutes of our life we are blind because we do not know the day or hour of our
deaths. It is not easy to return to our Lord, but if we become filled with a
spirit of repentance now, if we begin to live a Christian life today, we will
be among those contrite souls who move the Heart of Jesus to shower us with His
grace to put us back on the difficult path, the straight and narrow road to
heaven. The brave and strong choose this difficult path. The weak choose a life
of pleasure and self worship. We must always be ready to appear before Jesus
Christ to be judged for the life we have lived on earth.
In
the Bible we read of Abimelech, who killed his brother who ruled with him.
Eventually Abimelech attacked the city of Thebes and attempted to set fire to a
tall tower in the middle of the city. A woman in the tower threw a stone at him
and broke his skull. He was dying, and told his shield bearer to draw his sword
and kill him quickly lest it be said that he was killed by a woman. Why did he
do that? Because all his life he lived for the honor and glory of the world. He
could not suffer what he considered the dishonor of dying at the hands of a
woman. This was more important to him than repenting of his sins, so died as he
lived.
The
third way to prepare for a happy death is to offer our death in union with the
death of Jesus. When a priest visits a dying person he brings our Lord in
Communion, but he also brings a crucifix. A crucifix will drive a devil away,
but far more importantly, it is brought to serve as a model to the sick person
to prepare him for death in the same way our Lord prepared for His own death. In the Garden of Olives, the first thing
Jesus did was take leave of His Apostles, as we should take leave of our loved
ones on our deathbeds so we can occupy our mind only with God and His
salvation. When He was alone, Jesus threw himself on the ground and prayed
fervently. So should we when death is near unite our death agony with the death
agony of Jesus in prayer.
If
we live a good Christian life right up to the end, we will have a happy death.
Amen. +++
We
Celebrate the Traditional Tridentine Latin Mass
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