Everything that the Father gives me will come to me,
and I will not reject anyone who comes to me,
because I came down from heaven not to do my own will
but the will of the one who sent me.
As a chaplain in the Louisville VA Hospital, I rarely found much curiosity about the afterlife. More often, elderly and dying Veterans told me they were grateful for the lives they'd had. They enjoyed their schooling, served their time in the Service, married and had children, did their part in jobs and careers, and were content with retirement.
Many were unhappy, of course, especially those who had invested in idleness, alcohol and lawlessness, but they were not the majority. Looking back on their lives, most said they were content. Rarely did anyone say they were curious to see what comes next.
When the Lord spoke today's reassuring words to his disciples, he was speaking to those who were anxious. They were the entire church – apostles, disciples, bishops, priests, deacons and the vast majority of devout men and women – who were being harassed by the government, ostracized by their neighbors, and stripped of their possessions. Because they loved the Lord. they were living on the edges of society. Between normalcy and anxiety. They were paying a high price for believing that Jesus is the Son of God.
Jesus spoke to them when he said, “Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me.” You may be rejected by family, friends, and neighbors but I will never reject you!
Like our predecessors -- including those Jews who suffered persecution for their fidelity even before Jesus was born -- disciples of every age are hectored not so much for their beliefs as for their witness to the truth. Nobody cares what you think, imagine, or believe so long as it makes no difference in the real world.
Many Americans have never paid a high price for their Christian beliefs. It is usually safe to say you’re Catholic or Christian in a nation that enjoys social and political stability. Nobody really cares what you believe so long as you pay your taxes and obey the law. Pressed to answer a question about eternal life, many people would say, “Of course, I’ll go to heaven – along with my family, friends, dogs, and cats. What a silly question!”
The Bible and our Catholic tradition is not as sanguine about our redemption. During November, this penultimate month of the year, before the Christmas season begins, we traditionally recall “death and judgment, heaven and hell.”
Perhaps we remember the Latin phrase, “Memento mori” (Remember Death!) and the Latin epitaph on many tombstones:
"Eram quod es; eris quod sum."
"I was what you are; you will be what I am"
While Jesus promised eternal bliss to his anxious and suffering faithful, he told very serious parables about those who presume they should be saved. You remember his tale of the darling little girls whose oil lamps had burned out before the bridegroom arrived. While they went searching through the markets in the middle of the night to buy oil, at whatever price,
“...the bridegroom came and those who were ready went into the wedding feast with him. Then the door was locked.
And when the girls finally returned with the oil and their lambs burning brightly, they said,
‘Lord, Lord, open the door for us!’
But he said in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, I do not know you.”
I don’t know you or your dogs and cats.
In that same 25th chapter of Saint Matthew, he told a more chilling tale of all the nations gathered by militant angels with fiery swords into an enormous meadow where they separated the sheep from the goats, the innocent from the guilty. And when all was ready the Lord God of All appeared before them and said, “Whatever you did to the least of my people, you did to me!”
Neither the innocent nor the guilty could remember exactly when that happened, and both groups asked,
“When did we see you Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?
When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?
When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’
And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’
The virtuous – the sheep of his flock – had welcomed the Judge of all the nations in the poor, the naked, the homeless, the sick, and the imprisoned; but the guilty – the goats – had not. And to them he said, “Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”
November is the time to remember death and judgment, heaven and hell; and not the time to imagine eternal comfort among the angels and saints. November and December are months to make our confessions, do penance, and prepare for the coming of the King. The Lord God wants the world to be a place safe for babies and old people, and those the world neglects.
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I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.