“One will be taken, and one will be left.”
About 40 years ago my aunt and uncle, Marion and Jack, who lived at the Jersey Shore, went to NYC for a Broadway play. After the play, Jack went to the parking garage to get the car. He never returned to pick up Marion who waited in increasing anxiety in front of the theater. It took a number of hours, but the FBI found out that Jack had dropped dead of a heart attack in the parking garage. “One will be taken, and one will be left.”
Today’s Scriptures say it very succinctly: “Stay awake for you do not know on which day the Lord will come.” On this 1st Sunday of Advent we are invited to take a serious look at how well we are prepared to meet the Lord whenever He comes for us, for we “know not the day, nor the hour.”
Practically speaking, then, how are we to think about the end of our lives, or the end of the world. Are we to live in fear? Well, if you’re a big time sinner, yes. The fear of the loss of heaven has motivated very many souls to reconcile with God.
I’d like to take a more positive tack, however. One of the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit that we were given when we were Confirmed is called “the fear of the Lord.” Sometimes it has been translated as “wonder and awe in God’s presence,” but I think that is a weak translation. I like to think of the fear of the Lord this way: assuming you don’t need to be sacred to death to get your life back in tune with God, the fear of the Lord is much more positive. It comes from a profound awareness of how loved I am by God. And having been caught up in a conviction of this ineffable, mysterious love of God, I dread, fear, or do not want to do anything to jeopardize that love. Not that God would stop loving me, He will never stop loving me. Rather I realistically can look at my life and know that my faith could be shaken, my morals could be compromised so that I could become so dull, by making bad choices that, yes, I could lose my desire for the love of God.
Our 1st reading today comes from Isaiah’s prophecy that is fulfilled in Jesus, the Messiah who would usher in the Kingdom of God. In that long delayed Kingdom of God, “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again.” That Kingdom of God is long delayed because each of us delays in putting into effect the saving grace of our Messiah and Lord. There are wars out there because there is still not yet enough of the love, joy and peace of the Kingdom of God in the followers of Christ. Sometime during Advent go to confession. The sooner the better so as to jump start us all on our journey toward Christmas, on our journey towards the Kingdom of God. And if by the grace of the Sacrament of Penance, I recognize that I do not want to stall the progress of the Kingdom of God in any way, then I have an appropriate fear of the Lord.
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