A 24th Sunday after Pentecost Thought to Start the Week Off Right
The 24th Sunday after Pentecost marks the end of the year in the traditional liturgical calendar. In the Novus Ordo Calendar, today is the Feast of Christ the King, also marking the end of the year in the liturgical calendar. As we approach the end of the liturgical year, both calendars focus our attention on the end of the world.
One year ago, we began our project of observing each Sunday of the Liturgical Year by referencing that wonderful work published at the beginning of the 20th century, The Inner Life of the Soul. This Sunday completes that project. We hope you derived some spiritual benefit from our references to The Inner Life of the Soul each week, and encourage you to obtain a copy for future reference. It's freely available online, if you prefer a digital version. We'll likely reference it again from time to time as we enter the new Liturgical Year.
On a personal note, this year found our family's life unexpectedly changed in a profound and terrible way. When we began our project last year, our oldest son was alive and thriving, married with a young child, building a "country" life for his young family away from the city in which he was raised. He had so many plans, so many dreams. On December 15th, all of those dreams and plans ended. He was felled by a massive stroke and died 18 days later on January 2nd.
During those 18 days, my wife and I traveled to the hospital ICU unit where our son lay in a medically induced coma, clinging precariously to life. The doctors who operated on him within 24 hours of his stroke gave him little chance of survival. Aside from the aneurysm that burst inside his brain, he was a young man in reasonably decent health. So his body fought what would be the inevitable visit from the Angel of Death. The ups and downs that marked each day were both harrowing and exhausting. On an emotional level, the delay did allow his family and friends to - at least in some small way - process what was happening. It also afforded our son the time to receive the Last Rites.
Most importantly, at the instigation of friend, he received a visit from a priest who had knowledge of the Apostolic Blessing, also known as the Apostolic Pardon. This blessing, which any priest can give (but of which many are sadly unaware), relieves the dying person from all the punishment due to their sins. We wondered if such a blessing could be effective for a person in a coma. But we learned that if the person had demonstrated a serious devotion to our Catholic Faith, the blessing could indeed have its intended effect. We knew our son well enough, witnessed his life before the stroke, to have solid assurance that he took his Catholic faith seriously and in did strive to lead a good life, a life informed and strengthened by the sacraments. So to this extent, we have strong grounds to believe his soul was in a state of grace, and grounds to believe that, with the Apostolic Blessing, his soul was welcomed into God’s loving arms at the moment of his death. We have grounds to believe that his individual judgment before Our Lord resulted in him “walking” through the Gates of Heaven. While we may not know with absolute certainty, we have strong reasons for our belief.
And so, as we reach the end of the Liturgical Year, with its focus on the awesome and awful day of the Last Judgment, we found particular consolation in this passage from today's entry in The Inner Life of the Soul. After describing in great detail the nine choirs of God's Holy Angels descending on a world having reached its end times, we read:
"Behind the angelic army, who are these? what are these? Spiritual presences of most ethereal loveliness, brighter than the sunbeam, purer than the snow, noiseless, unfearing, expectant, press with holy desire to a long looked for meeting; the souls of the redeemed, for ages safe in heaven, go down to meet their bodies uprisen from the tomb. Those twelve times twelve thousand from the tribes of the sons of Jacob, - those multitudes unnumbered from the nations everywhere, - those coming out of great tribulations to the joy that has no ending, - pass on to an ecstatic joy unfelt as yet, of the union, never again to be broken, with the bodies that once were the temples of the Holy Ghost. We have no words, here, subtle or delicate enough to describe that rapturous meeting, when soul and body wed again; it is a future delight to be thought upon in the stillness of meditation, without any 'noise of the words.'"
A vision such as this has lingered in my mind ever since we consigned our son's body to the earth. While we will inevitably relive the shock, as well as the sorrow and suffering of those terrible days as we approach the first anniversary of his stroke and ultimate death, this vivid description lifts my spirits. Our belief in the Resurrection of the Body which we proclaim in both the Apostle's Creed and the Nicene Creed consoles us even as it encourages us to persist in our daily efforts to grow closer to God during the days that remain for us in our lives on earth. We look forward to that wonderful day when we will together reclaim the union of a now-glorified body with our soul, a union rent asunder by the death that will inevitably come to us all.
Until that day, we turn to God, our Father, begging His mercy and forgiveness for our sins. We turn to Jesus, Son of God, Who has proven His love for us in His Passion and Death, and pointed the way to our eternal happiness in His Resurrection. We turn to the Holy Spirit, that infinite Love between Father and Son that exists in some mysterious way as a Person. He will guide us through the precious few days left to us, that we may seek to do His Will. His grace will give us the strength to desire to do His Will rather than seek to follow our own desires.
We conclude our year-long project with these words in The Inner Life of the Soul to end the Liturgical Year:
"In that immense multitude, gathered before the throne of judgment in the Valley of Jehosephat, composed of the entire human race, none absent, none by any possibility forgotten - you and I must be. In that tremendous day, will come for each one of us one supremely tremendous moment, when you - and you - and I - must stand, in full view of all that throng, its centre, and alone. The actors in that transcendentally unique drama, only once to be enacted, shall rise, tier upon tier, in the gigantic amphitheatre; and all eyes, good or evil, of angel or devil, saint or sinner, saved or lost, shall be fastened, for one most awful moment, only upon you or me. Then, whether we will or not, all the secrets of each heart shall lie bare before the universe; earth's mysteries will be solved, all riddles read, God's justice vindicated, man's real merits or demerits known. The veil of deceit will be torn from all eyes, once and forever; and each of us will pass, with perfect precision and most perfect order, to his endless and most just doom.
Each in his turn must stand there, Mary Immaculate and Mary the sinner, John and Judas, David and Cain, and you and I. O Thou true Man, Jesus Christ, Who sittest on that throne of judgment, our God and our Brother! look then with Thy human eyes upon us, Who knowest our frame, and rememberest we are but dust!"
One year ago, we began our project of observing each Sunday of the Liturgical Year by referencing that wonderful work published at the beginning of the 20th century, The Inner Life of the Soul. This Sunday completes that project. We hope you derived some spiritual benefit from our references to The Inner Life of the Soul each week, and encourage you to obtain a copy for future reference. It's freely available online, if you prefer a digital version. We'll likely reference it again from time to time as we enter the new Liturgical Year.
On a personal note, this year found our family's life unexpectedly changed in a profound and terrible way. When we began our project last year, our oldest son was alive and thriving, married with a young child, building a "country" life for his young family away from the city in which he was raised. He had so many plans, so many dreams. On December 15th, all of those dreams and plans ended. He was felled by a massive stroke and died 18 days later on January 2nd.
During those 18 days, my wife and I traveled to the hospital ICU unit where our son lay in a medically induced coma, clinging precariously to life. The doctors who operated on him within 24 hours of his stroke gave him little chance of survival. Aside from the aneurysm that burst inside his brain, he was a young man in reasonably decent health. So his body fought what would be the inevitable visit from the Angel of Death. The ups and downs that marked each day were both harrowing and exhausting. On an emotional level, the delay did allow his family and friends to - at least in some small way - process what was happening. It also afforded our son the time to receive the Last Rites.
Most importantly, at the instigation of friend, he received a visit from a priest who had knowledge of the Apostolic Blessing, also known as the Apostolic Pardon. This blessing, which any priest can give (but of which many are sadly unaware), relieves the dying person from all the punishment due to their sins. We wondered if such a blessing could be effective for a person in a coma. But we learned that if the person had demonstrated a serious devotion to our Catholic Faith, the blessing could indeed have its intended effect. We knew our son well enough, witnessed his life before the stroke, to have solid assurance that he took his Catholic faith seriously and in did strive to lead a good life, a life informed and strengthened by the sacraments. So to this extent, we have strong grounds to believe his soul was in a state of grace, and grounds to believe that, with the Apostolic Blessing, his soul was welcomed into God’s loving arms at the moment of his death. We have grounds to believe that his individual judgment before Our Lord resulted in him “walking” through the Gates of Heaven. While we may not know with absolute certainty, we have strong reasons for our belief.
And so, as we reach the end of the Liturgical Year, with its focus on the awesome and awful day of the Last Judgment, we found particular consolation in this passage from today's entry in The Inner Life of the Soul. After describing in great detail the nine choirs of God's Holy Angels descending on a world having reached its end times, we read:
"Behind the angelic army, who are these? what are these? Spiritual presences of most ethereal loveliness, brighter than the sunbeam, purer than the snow, noiseless, unfearing, expectant, press with holy desire to a long looked for meeting; the souls of the redeemed, for ages safe in heaven, go down to meet their bodies uprisen from the tomb. Those twelve times twelve thousand from the tribes of the sons of Jacob, - those multitudes unnumbered from the nations everywhere, - those coming out of great tribulations to the joy that has no ending, - pass on to an ecstatic joy unfelt as yet, of the union, never again to be broken, with the bodies that once were the temples of the Holy Ghost. We have no words, here, subtle or delicate enough to describe that rapturous meeting, when soul and body wed again; it is a future delight to be thought upon in the stillness of meditation, without any 'noise of the words.'"
A vision such as this has lingered in my mind ever since we consigned our son's body to the earth. While we will inevitably relive the shock, as well as the sorrow and suffering of those terrible days as we approach the first anniversary of his stroke and ultimate death, this vivid description lifts my spirits. Our belief in the Resurrection of the Body which we proclaim in both the Apostle's Creed and the Nicene Creed consoles us even as it encourages us to persist in our daily efforts to grow closer to God during the days that remain for us in our lives on earth. We look forward to that wonderful day when we will together reclaim the union of a now-glorified body with our soul, a union rent asunder by the death that will inevitably come to us all.
Until that day, we turn to God, our Father, begging His mercy and forgiveness for our sins. We turn to Jesus, Son of God, Who has proven His love for us in His Passion and Death, and pointed the way to our eternal happiness in His Resurrection. We turn to the Holy Spirit, that infinite Love between Father and Son that exists in some mysterious way as a Person. He will guide us through the precious few days left to us, that we may seek to do His Will. His grace will give us the strength to desire to do His Will rather than seek to follow our own desires.
We conclude our year-long project with these words in The Inner Life of the Soul to end the Liturgical Year:
"In that immense multitude, gathered before the throne of judgment in the Valley of Jehosephat, composed of the entire human race, none absent, none by any possibility forgotten - you and I must be. In that tremendous day, will come for each one of us one supremely tremendous moment, when you - and you - and I - must stand, in full view of all that throng, its centre, and alone. The actors in that transcendentally unique drama, only once to be enacted, shall rise, tier upon tier, in the gigantic amphitheatre; and all eyes, good or evil, of angel or devil, saint or sinner, saved or lost, shall be fastened, for one most awful moment, only upon you or me. Then, whether we will or not, all the secrets of each heart shall lie bare before the universe; earth's mysteries will be solved, all riddles read, God's justice vindicated, man's real merits or demerits known. The veil of deceit will be torn from all eyes, once and forever; and each of us will pass, with perfect precision and most perfect order, to his endless and most just doom.
Each in his turn must stand there, Mary Immaculate and Mary the sinner, John and Judas, David and Cain, and you and I. O Thou true Man, Jesus Christ, Who sittest on that throne of judgment, our God and our Brother! look then with Thy human eyes upon us, Who knowest our frame, and rememberest we are but dust!"
Happy Sunday!
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