Translation of the Epistle for the 24th and Last Sunday After Pentecost
Brethren: We have been praying for you unceasingly, asking that you may be filled with knowledge of God’s will, in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. May you walk worthily of God and please Him in all things, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God. May you be completely strengthened through His glorious power unto perfect patience and long-suffering; joyfully rendering thanks to God the Father, Who has made us worthy to share the lot of the saints in light. He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved Son, in Whom we have our redemption, through His Blood, the remission of our sins.
Continuation of the Holy Gospel According to Saint Matthew
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples: When you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place – let him who reads understand – then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains; and let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything from his house; and let him who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. But woe to those who are with child, or have infants at the breast in those days! But pray that your flight may not be in the winter, or on the Sabbath. For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, nor will be. And unless those days had been shortened, no living creature would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. Then if anyone say to you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ,’ or ‘There He is,’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will arise, and will show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. Behold, I have told it to you beforehand. If therefore they say to you, ‘Behold, He is in the desert,’ do not go forth; ‘Behold, He is in the inner chambers,’ do not believe it. For as the lightning comes forth from the east and shines even to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. Wherever the body is, there will the eagles be gathered together. But immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give her light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken. And then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven; and then will all tribes of the earth mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming upon the clouds of heaven with great power and majesty. And He will send forth His angels with a trumpet and a great sound, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. Now from the fig tree learn this parable. When its branch is now tender, and the leaves break forth, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, know that it is near, even at the door. Amen I say to you, this generation will not pass away till all these things have been accomplished. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
The Saving Words of the Gospel.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Transcription of Sermon
As we end a liturgical year and begin another one next week, we’re reminded that what Our Lord has revealed to us as the fullness of truth, which is the Catholic faith, that this is a religion of second chances. And so, as we’re ending this year, and we can take stock of it, we can take stock of everything that’s come till now, and take into account things that we didn’t do well, things that we wish we could have done better, things we said and ought not to have done, things that we ought to have done but omitted, as we consider the end and that we will all have to, one day, render accounts, and there will be no second chance.
And so, the Church, as a good mother, gives us this pedagogy of reminders of the end and for those who love Christ, the end is something of great joy. St. Augustine says that when we think of the Second Coming, does it bring us nervousness or joy? And he speaks of a soldier coming from fighting battles far away, coming home to his bride. Was she faithful? Then she rejoices in his return. Was she unfaithful? She’s nervous about what he’s going to find out. And so, we take into account also our own attitude about the Coming of Christ, which we know will happen when He decides.
Well, in light of all of this, we have this beautiful passage from Colossians, from Paul, and he speaks of a couple of fundamental principles, perhaps that we can take into account for next year’s spiritual program. If our last year’s spiritual program didn’t really take, well… we can… don’t blame the program, but it’s good to have a plan, it’s good to have a plan. And he talks about a couple of essentials, and he mentions knowledge, he mentions understanding, he mentions wisdom, and those are human realities. Knowledge as the accumulation of facts. Understanding sees those facts integrally, puts them together, and can distill something from them. Wisdom, then, knows how to act on those things well. But that’s just for human endeavors, and Paul is not speaking of mere human endeavors. He says spiritual wisdom, and understanding, knowledge of God’s will. So, this is a direct reference to the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Every, every virtue that is infused in our souls – the theological virtues, the moral virtues – they all have a corresponding gift of the Holy Spirit. If you think of your soul as a ship and the virtues are the sails, well, the sails don’t really work if there isn’t any wind. And so, the gifts of the Holy Spirit are the wind that impels the entire vessel. And for each sail, for each virtue, there is a corresponding gift of the Holy Spirit. And Paul refers to those gifts of the Holy Spirit that correspond, that support, that promote, that impel the theological virtues.
Knowledge is the gift of the Holy Spirit that supports us in the theological virtue of hope, because what does hope do? Hope is a virtue which regards something as of yet unfulfilled, a future glory, but it’s anchored in the past. This is why Thomas says that man is in statu viatoris. We are wayfarers. We’re on the way. So, there’s an inner tension with hope because there’s a past promise, and there’s a future fulfillment of it, and we’re somewhere in the middle. We’re supposed to be anchored in the past striving for the future. Well, to do that well we have the Holy Spirit because He comes to us not only with His own personal presence but with His gifts. And this gift of knowledge then helps us to regard the future, and current, present, created realities in light of that. And so, we see the passing, transitory nature of created things for what they are; their means to be used or be rejected, but their means. And so, hope then is supported by this knowledge, this gift of the Holy Spirit; knowledge.
Faith, on the other hand, which regards invisible present realities, invisible because you know faith is lived in the darkness, although at the same time, there’s a certain light of faith that’s that the theologians identify. So, it’s a certain semi-light that we receive of the truths of the faith. The faith is revealed to us in its fullness by the Church. Our virtue of faith, to grasp it, is supported by the gift of understanding; to delve into, to grasp, to make our own those truths that have been revealed to us from on high.
Wisdom, on the other hand, is the gift of the Holy Spirit that supports charity. Charity is the Queen of All Virtues. Without charity, there’s no salvation. Charity is not being nice and giving donations – although we will take them. Charity is, above all, divine presence within us. It’s a theological term. It’s a reality; a personal reality. And wisdom then, is the gift of the Holy Spirit that helps us to participate in the mind of Christ. And so, participating in the mind of Christ, we regard things from on high. It’s like the opposite vantage point of hope.
And this is what Paul starts. He tees it up with all of that, and then he talks about these things that we’re going to need in order to be men of faith, hope, charity. And he speaks of patience and longanimity – long-suffering. These are two expressions, two ways of carrying the cross. So, patience, as distinguished from longanimity, patience allows us to be virtuous in those punctual, those momentary crosses that come our way unexpectedly, or, he says, in the other expression, when the good that we long for is not present. So, those are the two ways of living the carrying the cross with patience. Patience comes from the word for passion, patio – to suffer. Longanimity, on the other hand, is a different type of suffering. It regards a long-drawn-out suffering. It could be a difficult relationship, it could be a long illness, or it could be a repeated provocation, or attack, that comes, and comes, and comes and doesn’t seem to go away. So, these are the two types of suffering that Paul says that await us.
And he says, Joyfully rendering thanks to God. “Wait a minute, I thought you were talking about suffering, Paul?” Well, he was talking about suffering, and he’s talking about doing it joyfully. Thomas Aquinas tells us there are three ways to live patience and longanimity. Number one, for beginners, this is lived out as accepting them without complaint. That’s for beginners. So, if we complain, we’re not even beginners. For proficient, for those who are advanced in the spiritual life, he says this way of carrying the cross, patience and longanimity, is expressed in seeing the value of the crosses and taking advantage of them by offering them up and making something out of them; being solution oriented. He says, For those who are very advanced in the spiritual life, those who are on the path to holiness, they ask for crosses, and when they come, they have even material joy in receiving them and carrying them. And so, this is what Paul is talking about, joyfully rendering thanks to God for your suffering, for your longanimity, for those crosses that we receive.
Now as we take those basic essentials for the spiritual life, it’s good to take into account you know what are the ordinary means of salvation. Well, we have sacramental grace, we have prayer, and we have virtue. Not two of those, and not one of those. All three of those, those are the three legs of the stool. If there’s one of those legs missing, it doesn’t work. All three; sacramental grace, prayer, and virtue. It would be good, as we think about what we’re going to do this next year in Our Lord, what we’re going to do to render Him the debts that we owe Him, the One who has rescued us, as Paul said, from darkness and made us participate in the light of the saints.
Well, that comes with a certain price, and the price is everything because He is a jealous lover. He doesn’t want to be number one in a series of loves. He wants to be our only love that encompasses all the others, that elevates all the others so that they’re not at odds with Him, so we don’t compartmentalize them and Him as different sections of our life. That’s called self-imposed schizophrenia. That’s not a healthy way.
And in this passage, Paul gives us a way out, so we’re not oppressed by the crosses, so we don’t think of this as something that is just too much for me. He says, May you walk worthy of God and please Him in all things. What a beautiful… that in itself is already a spiritual program; to please Him in all things.
It’s common for people to ask the question, you know, “Is this a sin?” That’s a necessary question, but you know, you would hope that there were subsequent questions, because just to say, “Yes, that’s a sin and no, that’s a sin.” “Okay.” “Then, I guess I’m not allowed to do it.” “All right.” Well, that’s not a really healthy way of seeing God’s will. If you’re married ask your spouse if that’s really going to work for a long-term relationship. “If I do this, will you leave me?” That’s not a healthy way to proceed. So, Our Lord wants to be pleased by us. And Paul says, May you please Him in all things. So, when the question is not “Is this a sin?,” but, “Does this please you? Does this give you joy? Does this give you glory?” Well, it changes everything. We really do participate in the wisdom, in the mind of Christ helped by wisdom, because we start to see what it is that pleases the Father.
The question has to be asked frequently and answered quickly. We ought not hesitate and complicate things with what Paul calls carnal prudence. “Yeah, but what will that cost me? How difficult will that be? Et cetera.” It should be answered quickly and act. This is when we truly participate in the mind of Christ. “What will please the Father?” This. I do it. “No. Why am I wasting my time? Why am I wasting God’s grace on it?” So, just some thoughts about what we can do for ourselves and for Our Lord’s glory in this year to come so that on the day when we have to render accounts, He can say, Well done, good and faithful servant. Come into the kingdom of your Father.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, the Holy Ghost. Amen.
~ Fr. Ermatinger