Time is Running Out

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for September 10th, 2014

Liturgical texts here

THERE was an expectation in the early Church that Jesus was going to return soon. Thus Paul says to the Corinthians in today’s first reading that “time is running out.” Because of “the present distress”, he offers advice on marriage, suggesting that those who are single remain celibate. And he goes further…

From now on, let those having wives act as not having them, those weeping as not weeping, those rejoicing as not rejoicing, those buying as not owning, those using the world as not using it fully. For the world in its present form is passing away.

Essentially, Paul is teaching his listener to live in a spirit of detachment. His advice is timeless, because we all know that life indeed “flies by” and that the world and all that is temporal truly does fade… decaying, breaking, rotting… nothing remains, except the eternal soul.

His words may appear moribund to some—a killjoy. But that is why I wrote that we desperately need Wisdom ^[1]cf. Wisdom, the Power of God so as to perceive that which is truly valuable in this life. And the answer is the Kingdom. To “lose” this life is actually to gain it back, with eternal dimensions.

Blessed are you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours. (Today’s Gospel)

This is why priests and religious wear collars or habits: as outward signs that there is a greater Gift than the empty promises of happiness this earthly place offers. In prayer the other day, I sensed the Lord say:

When you give your life for My Kingdom, you receive your life back 30, 60, a hundredfold. Child, give your all for Me, and I will provide all for you.

This is what St. Paul is getting at: live for Christ; this life is passing; do not cling to any creature or thing; consider all things as rubbish compared to knowing Jesus Christ… ^[2]cf. Phil 3:8 This does not mean that one should treat one’s spouse as rubbish, but rather, to see that even one’s beloved is only for a time. There is only one love that does not tarnish, and it is that of the Holy Trinity. To love God first is the greatest commandment, and consequently, the greatest treasure man can find. To renounce this world, to be “poor… hungry… weeping” is to take the narrow road toward supernatural joy and peace rather than the wide and easy road of temporal pleasure that is a dead end.

But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. But woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep. Woe to you when all speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way. (Today’s Gospel)

All that said, we also need to pay attention to the signs of the times.

I do exhort all the communities to an “ever watchful scrutiny of the signs of the times”. This is in fact a grave responsibility, since certain present realities, unless effectively dealt with, are capable of setting off processes of dehumanization which would then be hard to reverse. —POPE FRANCIS, Evangelii Gaudium, n. 51

Indeed, there is coming a generation in which time will run out, in which the great distress will come. Taking all things into consideration from the signs in nature, the strong apocalyptic statements of the popes, ^[3]cf. Why Aren’t the Popes Shouting? the clear signposts in Scripture—and for me, proclaiming what I have been compelled by the Spirit to write and preach the past eight years—I think we are a convincing candidate for that generation. I don’t care if I’m wrong. Paul didn’t care if he was wrong. What was important to him and to me was to prepare the reader for “the present distress.” Listen carefully to St. Peter who eventually recognized that God’s timing was different than the budding early Church expected.

Know this first of all, that in the last days scoffers will come to scoff, living according to their own desires and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming?… But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. The Lord does not delay his promise, as some regard “delay,” but he is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. (2 Pet 3:3-1)

If I am hearing the Lord correct, Time is Very Short and there is So Little Time Left. Why? Because we are indeed on the threshold of the “day of the Lord”, which is not the end of the world, but the beginning of a new era, what the Church Fathers pointed to in the symbolic “thousand years” of Revelation 20. ^[4]cf. Two More Days And it is coming like a “thief in the night.”

But do not be afraid of the necessary “judgment of the living” that is upon us. ^[5]cf. The Last Judgments It is not the end of the world, but the beginning of something beautiful: the “day”, not “night” of the Lord. Let us live then as St. Paul said, in that spirit of the beatitudes where, emptied of the world, we can be filled with the Spirit of Jesus. This is what Our Lady is preparing us for: the coming of Jesus ^[6]cf. Dear Holy Father… He is Coming! to reign in our hearts as a flame of love. ^[7]cf. The Rising Morning Star

Let us make haste to make room for Him…. for time is running out.