48 — THE END OF TIME

Last Sunday after Pentecost

Presence of God. — O my God, who at the end of life will judge me on love, make me capable of growing in it each day.

Meditation

1 — Today’s Mass, last Sunday of the liturgical year, is a prayer of thanksgiving for the year past, a prayer of propitiation for the one that is about to begin, a warning about the fleetingness of the present life and an invitation to keep ourselves ready for the last extreme step that must introduce us into eternal life.

In the Epistle (Col. 1, 9-14), St. Paul prays and gives thanks on behalf of all Christendom: “We cease not to pray for you and to beg that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding: that you may walk worthy of God, in all things pleasing: being fruitful in every good work”. Here is a beautiful synthesis of all the work that, during the entire year, the soul of interior life has striven to accomplish to adapt and conform itself ever better to the holy will of God, indeed to unite itself totally to it and thus, moved in everything by the divine will, act in a way to please the Lord in every thing. Praise be to God if, with His help, we have succeeded in making some step forward in this way that leads in the surest manner to holiness and, making our own the sentiments of the Apostle, let us thank “God the Father, who hath made us worthy to be partakers of the lot of the saints”: the lot of the saints, the inheritance of those who tend to holiness is the union of love with God, down here in faith and in heaven in glory. This inheritance is ours, because Jesus merited it for us with His Blood, this inheritance is ours in Jesus with His Blood, “we have redemption through His Blood, the remission of sins”, so that, purified from fault and clothed with grace for His infinite merits, we too can ascend to the most high and blessed state of union with God.

But if, with divine help, we have succeeded in making some progress, others and greater ones remain to be made and therefore the Church in today’s Collect thus supplicates for us: “Stir up, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the wills of Thy faithful people: that they, abundantly bringing forth the fruit of heavenly works, may by Thee be abundantly rewarded.” Precisely so: the more we correspond to grace, the more the Lord will grant us greater graces; the more we hasten our step toward Him, the more He will attract us to Himself, until from this interlacing of divine succors and of our correspondence will result the sanctification of each one of us.

2 — The Gospel (Mt. 24, 15-35), with the description of the end of the world and the coming of Christ to judge the living and the dead, reminds us that, as the liturgical year passes and ends, so the life of man on earth passes and ends. Everything will have an end and, at the end of everything, there will be the majestic epilogue: “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven: and then shall all tribes of the earth mourn: and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with much power and majesty.” Jesus, who came one day upon earth in poverty, in concealment and in sorrow to teach us the way of heaven and to redeem our souls, has every right to return glorious, at the end of time, to gather the fruits of His work and of His Blood. He will be our judge and, as He Himself said, will judge us on love: “Come, ye blessed of My Father, possess you the kingdom... For I was hungry, and you gave Me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me to drink... As long as you did it to one of these My least brethren, you did it to Me” (Mt. 25, 34-40). His sweet precept of love, love of God and love of neighbor, will be the code on which we shall be examined. Blessed us if we have loved and loved much! “Many sins are forgiven her, because she hath loved much” (Lk. 7, 47), said Jesus of the sinful woman. The greater and more profound our love is, so much the more will it be capable of supplying for all our sins, all our miseries, all those defects into which, despite good will, we relapse each day.

“It is of the highest importance — says St. John of the Cross — that the soul exercise acts of love in this life so that, being consumed in a short time, it may not tarry long in the things of down here that impede it from seeing God” (F. 1, 34). The Saint alludes to the soul inflamed with divine love that anxiously longs for heaven to see its God face to face and to be able to love Him more greatly. In any case, it is always true that only an intense exercise of love can lead to union with God, both down here on earth as in blessed eternity. Happy the soul that, at the end of life, having exercised itself much in love, may without more be admitted to the beatifying union of heaven. Then it will have nothing to fear from the judgment of Jesus, for, indeed, this judgment will be its joy and its gladness for eternity.

Colloquy

“Deign, O Lord, to give me true love, at least before dying. It will be a great comfort to me to think, at the moment of death, of having to be judged by Him whom I have loved above all things. I will come, then, before You with confidence, even with the burden of my debts, persuaded of going not into a foreign land, but into my homeland, into Your kingdom, O Lord, that I love so much and that loves me so much.

“How sweet, O my God, will be the death of him who has done penance for his sins and will not have to go to purgatory! He will begin to enjoy here the glory of heaven, without fear in the soul and in perfect peace” (T.G. Way 40, 8 and 9).

“To You, Lord our God, we ought always to adhere, so that by Your continual aid, we may live holily, piously and righteously. By the weight of our weakness we are drawn downward; but by Your grace we are enkindled and lifted up, we are set on fire and from the deep ascend, setting out ascensions in our heart; thus we sing the canticle of degrees, and we burn with Your holy fire, and we walk toward You.

“Whither do we go? Upward, to the peace of the heavenly Jerusalem, as it is written: ‘I was glad when they said to me: We shall go into the house of the Lord’. There shall the good will place us, that we may wish nothing else, but to dwell there forever. While we live in the mortal body, we are pilgrims toward You, O Lord; we have not here a lasting city, but we seek the city to come, since our dwelling is in heaven. For this, with the help of Your grace, I enter into the secret of my heart and raise to You songs of love; to You, my King and my God!” (St. Augustine).