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On the Saturday of Meat Fare
the Gospel Lesson speaks of the coming of the Son of man and the cosmic
disasters which will precede that coming, (St. Luke 21:25-28).
Jesus tells of the signs that will portend His coming because He had previously
for-warned His disciples, "Take care not to be deceived because many
will come using my name and saying; 'I am He' and 'the time is near at
hand.' Refuse to join them. And when you hear of wars and revolutions
do not be afraid for this is something that must happen but the end is
not so soon. Then He said unto them, nation will fight against nation
and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes and plagues
and famine here and there. There will be frightful sights and great signs
from heaven," (v. 8-11). I think that we may be witnessing some of
the sights and signs from heaven today, but I also think it would be safe
to say that men and women throughout history have seen sights and signs
which they have interpreted as being prophecies of the end of time. But
Jesus says, "the end is not so soon." In other words He is saying
no man knows when that end is going to be, therefore no man can prophecy
the end. Only the Son of God knows. But Jesus is compassionate and He
knows that we are governed very much by the human condition and that our
faith is not always the faith that is consistent with being His disciples.
He says there is really a very simple formula for us to follow if we are
really worried about the end of time. He said, "Watch yourselves
or your hearts will be coarsened with debauchery and drunkenness and the
cares of life and that day will be sprung on you suddenly, like a trap,
for it will come down on every living man on the face of the earth. Stay
awake, praying at all times for the strength to survive all that is going
to happen and to stand with confidence before the Son of man," (v.2
8).
I love that last statement, "To stand with confidence before the
Son of man." Not to stand there like craven cowards fearing to make
an account of our lives but, knowing that we have really tried, I mean
really tried to live a life of commitment and dedication, a life worthy
to be called His disciples, that we approach Him, as we say in the Liturgy,
"With boldness that we may dare to call upon Thee, our heavenly Father."
In this age of end of time theology, in this age when people are coming
forward and saying "Lo He is here, or Lo He is there' or The end
is coming soon". I must insistantly caution you that no real Christian
has anything to fear regarding the end of time. Indeed, although our bodies
may die, we know that our souls will live in Christ forever because our
souls have already died once, and having died in Christ once they cannot
die again. They died and were buried with Him in Baptism and when we were
lifted out of that burial of water we were raised in His resurrection
and we have confidence that we can stand before His judgment seat, that
we can withstand by His grace all temptations and trials.
I don't worry much about the end of time. I think I can withstand all
of that. What bothers me, and I think what Jesus is warning us against,
are the more subtle destructive forces by which we are surrounded and
by which we can be corrupted. The temptation to practice immorality, to
forget about those who are less fortunate than we are. Those are the subtleties
that can literally destroy us and divorce us from the presence of God.
The end of time theologians are very fond of quoting from the 6th and
7th chapters of the Book of Revelations. Can you imagine that since the
creation of the world with all of the hundreds of millions of people that
have been born that only 144 thousand would be saved. Does that impress
you as being the judgment of a just and merciful God? I think not. But
what the end of time theologians refuse to tell us is what follows immediately
in the ninth verse of the seventh chapter of Revelations . . . "After
that (after the 144 thousand) I saw a huge number, impossible to count,
of people from every nation, race, tribe and language that were standing
in front of the throne and in front of the lamb, dressed in white robes
and holding palms in their hands. They shouted aloud, victory to our God
who sits on the throne and to the lamb. And all the angels who were standing
in a circle around the throne surrounding the elders and the four animals
prostrated themselves before the throne and touched the ground with their
foreheads worshiping God with these words. . . 'Amen. . . praise and glory
and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength to our God
forever and ever, Amen.' One of the elders then spoke and asked me, 'do
you know who these people are dressed in white robes and where they have
come from?' I answered him…"you can tell me my Lord,' then He
said, 'these are the people who have been through the great persecution
and because they have washed their robes white again in the blood of the
lamb they now stand in front of God's Throne and serve Him day and night
in His sanctuary, and the one who sits on the Throne will spread His tent
over them. They will never hunger or thirst again. Neither the sun nor
the scorching wind will ever plague them because the lamb who is at the
throne will be their shepherd and will lead them to springs of living
water, and God will wipe away all tears from their eyes."
Beloved who can fear the end? Who can succumb to end of time preaching
when we read in the Book of Revelations promises for those who remain
steadfast? These latter people of whom Revelations speak are those people
who endure the persecution and you've heard me say that the persecution
is now, in the communications media, in the hands of special interest
groups who would deny us our human and religious rights, in the hands
of those who would tempt us to fall away from worshiping our God, in the
hands of those who say that formal religion no longer has any place in
our society, and those who try to convince our young people that the Church
is no longer meaningful or necessary. The persecution is in the hands
of those who tempt us to turn on to drugs, to drop out of society, to
live a life of irresponsibility. That is how we are being persecuted,
you and I, and we either succumb to that persecution and all the other
subtleties of which I have spoken, and the many that I cannot mention
due to time, or we remain steadfast, we stand upright knowing that in
the end we will be able to look Christ right in the eye and say, "Lord,
I am your servant and I approach Thee in Thy judgment seat with confidence."
From Word
Magazine
Publication of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North
America
March 1984
p. 16
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