Looking to the Lord who Comes to Judge the Earth, 34th Tuesday (II), November 27, 2018

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Visitation Mission of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan
Tuesday of the 34th Week in Ordinary Time, Year II
Memorial of Our Lady of the Miracle Medal
November 27, 2018
Rev 14:14-19, Ps 96, Lk 21:5-11

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:

• Throughout the month of November, but especially in this last week of the liturgical year, the Church has us ponder the four last things. Today the Church puts before us lessons on the first two last things, death and judgment. The lesson is for us to prepare well for it, to prepare correctly, to prepare as true Christians.
• Many of us, perhaps even most of us, when we think about death and judgment we can be filled with fear, anxiety, even dread. On the surface today’s readings might buttress those trepidations. In the first reading, the Book of Revelation describes the time of judgment as two angels and someone looking like a son of man coming out with sharp sickles in their hand to reap the harvest of judgment, being instructed to use that sickle to “cut the clusters from the earth’s vines, for its grapes are ripe” and then throwing them into the “great wine press of God’s fury.” In the Gospel, Jesus describes how all the stones and votive offerings in the resplendent Temple of Jerusalem will be thrown down, how there will be impostors coming and saying deceptively “I am he” and the “time has come!,” how there will be wars, insurrections, earthquakes, famines, plagues and “awesome sights and mighty signs” from the sky. All of this can make us think that death and judgment will be straight out of a Stephen King horror movie in which we’re not playing victims but have become them.
• But fear is not supposed to be our reaction. Jesus tells us in the Gospel, “Do not be deceived,” “Do not follow them!,” and “Do not be terrified.” He’s describing these events so that we can be at peace while they occur. We see it in St. Matthew’s parallel version of today’s Gospel. After he describes what will happen at the end of time he says, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” He wants us to build our lives on his word as the foundation of rock that will keep us secure even when the earthquakes, wars, insurrections, famines and plagues happen. Everything else is like building on sand (Mt 7). The proper reaction is likewise summarized by the Responsorial Psalm, in which we prayed four times, “The Lord comes to judge the earth!,” and we added, “Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice; let the sea and what fills it resound; let the plains be joyful and all that is in them! Then shall all the trees of the forest exult before the Lord, for he comes; for he comes to rule the earth. He shall rule the world with justice and the peoples with his constancy.” We’re to focus more on the Lord than we do on these events and we’re supposed to focus on him both now and in anticipation of that moment. As long as we’re not being deceived by impostors but living by the Lord’s truth, as long as we’re not following the pretenders but following the Good Shepherd, as long as we’re not focusing on terrors but recognizing that the Lord seeks to tell us, “Do not be afraid, it is I!,” then there’s absolutely no reason to fear death and judgment. In fact, we should look forward to them. It’s only when we’re not really living as the Lord wants in the present that we begin to become afraid.
• And so the real lesson of today’s readings is for us to live today how we would want to be found by the Lord if today were the day of the Lord. It’s to live without fear, following him in truth, walking by faith, loving him and others as he taught us. In the image from the Book of Revelation, it means living in such a way that we’re becoming ripe, that our grapes are maturing with Jesus’ own juice poured out in love for God and others leaving nothing back, which happens naturally when we’re living as branches attached to Him the Vine (Jn 15). If we’re living as wild grapes producing sour wine, that will be obvious to everyone, to God and to us in the judgment of the great wine press Revelation envisions; if, on the other hand, we’re living as we ought, as branches on the vine, we know that the wine we produce will be greater than anything produced by the best vineyards at vintage time.
• One person who lived this fruitful, vigilant, peaceful way and is praying for us to live similarly is the Blessed Virgin Mary. Today the Church celebrates her under the feast of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, who on November 27, 1830, appeared to St. Catherine Labouré at the Daughters of Charity Convent on Rue du Bac in Paris. When Mary came to St. Catherine, she asked her to have a medal struck with the words, “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.” Recourse means to “run-back,” and those who run back to Mary in distress will find her always compassionate, no matter the circumstance. If we are frightened when it comes to thinking about death and judgment, we should run to her who is the Consolation of the Afflicted and the Gate of Heaven. In the image that St. Catherine saw and had struck that Mary revealed to her, Mary had rings on her various fingers that were as radiant as the sun, but a few of the rings were dull without light. St. Catherine asked why some were resplendent and others not. Mary replied that the luminous rings symbolized the graces that God had flow through her hands for those who had recourse to her; the dull rings were graces that God would have given through her but people never asked. She wants to give more, to each of us, than we actually ask for. In our life, we’ve made some of her rings shine and others remain dull. Today’s feast is an opportunity for us to remember this truth and to run back to her help often, not only so that all her fingers shine but so that she can strengthen our faith so that, with her, we might shine forever in the Lord’s kingdom. We run to her to ask her for her help so that we might live attached to the Blessed Fruit of her womb, the Vine, and live with him in his kingdom on earth so as to live with him in his heavenly kingdom forever.
• Each day at Mass, Jesus gives us his body and blood and attaches us ever deeply as branches to Him who is the Vine, so that his very sap, his lifeblood, flows through us, making it capable for us to spend ourselves without reserve for God and others united to Christ who gave everything he had down to the last drop of his blood. Jesus described elsewhere in the Gospels that the judgment will be like a harvest that will take place “when the grain is ripe and at once he goes in with his sickle” and how the wheat will be separated from the chaff (Mk 4:29; 13:24-30, 37-43). He wants us to be every ready for that judgment so that when the harvest comes we might bear fruit that comes from our union with him. Today at this Eucharist he reminds us, as he did his first followers during the Last Supper, “Remain in me, as I remain in you. … I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit. … Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.” It’s through the Eucharist more than any other means that we abide in Christ and he in us. It’s our union with him here that gives us the faith and constancy we need to spend ourselves fully, not to be afraid, but to follow him in a life of bearing fruit. He promises us that if we remain in him and the words he has given remain in us, then we can ask the Father anything and it will be done. Today we ask the Father through Christ the Vine to give us the grace  to remain faithful and fruitful in life and faithful and fruitful in death so that we might have the joy of sharing her eternal price in that place with the angels will lift their sickles in triumph. This is the grace that doubtless would make Mary’s rings shine most brilliantly. And so let us offer the fruit of the vine and the work of human hands and ask Jesus, through her intercession, not just to transform this matter into himself but through it make us ever more, like Mary, eternally fruitful branches.