The End Times Are Here? Are You Ready?

Jesus said to his disciples:
"In those days after that tribulation
the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light,
and the stars will be falling from the sky,
and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

"And then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in the clouds'
with great power and glory,
and then he will send out the angels
and gather his elect from the four winds,
from the end of the earth to the end of the sky.

"Learn a lesson from the fig tree.
When its branch becomes tender and sprouts leaves,
you know that summer is near.
In the same way, when you see these things happening,
know that he is near, at the gates. 
Amen, I say to you,
this generation will not pass away
until all these things have taken place. 
Heaven and earth will pass away,
but my words will not pass away.

"But of that day or hour, no one knows,
neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."

Back in the late 1960's Bob Dylan wrote us a song that assured all of us that the times were "a changing."  Today one just has to look at the news to see that there are earthquakes, many wildfires, political chaos, with inflation, discord, lack of faith,  with a lot of religious persecution, rejection of morals, and other things that we associate with the end of time.  Can all of these things mean anything else but the imminent return of Jesus?  Well, first let me say that I believe that Jesus is going to return to judge the living and the dead and that His kingdom will have no end.   I also believe that as a Christian, that I will see these things when they happen. I just have to say that I do not think that the time is now.  I really do not know when the return of Jesus will be.  There is no one in heaven or on earth that knows when the end of time will happen. Jesus tells us of that day or hour no one knows, not the angels, nor the Son, but only the Father.

With that being said, we always have to remember that the end times are as near as our next breath. We are not guaranteed to live another minute in this life.  We can be called home to give an account of ourselves at any time.  In this respect, the end IS near because even if we live late into our nineties or even past one hundred when you stack it up against eternity it is almost no time at all. 

Above we see a fallible prediction that man has made of when the end of the world will come.  Remember the Aztec calendar?  It was predicted that the Aztecs knew something that we did not know and that is why they stopped their calendar at a particular date because it was assumed that they knew that no day would follow that last day on their calendar.  Actually, I believe that they got bored with the whole thing and decided that they had a bit of time before the calendar would go out of date so they gave the stone carvers a day or two off. 

When someone tells you that they know the date of the end of the world and that you better get ready for it, well, smile at them, thank them and walk away.  You are not going to convince them that they are wrong.  It appears that they do not know their Bible as good as they think they did.  In the meantime, while we wait, do not waste time.  Remember what Jesus said: "Love one another as I have loved you."  Get on with it - the end of the world is coming! 

Pray for the poor souls in Purgatory this week. 

Always ON, Always CONNECTED - Your Mobile Hot Spot

Gospel	Luke 18:1-8

The parable of the unjust judge

Jesus told his disciples a parable about the need to pray continually and never lose heart. ‘There was a judge in a certain town’ he said ‘who had neither fear of God nor respect for man. In the same town there was a widow who kept on coming to him and saying, “I want justice from you against my enemy!” For a long time he refused, but at last he said to himself, “Maybe I have neither fear of God nor respect for man, but since she keeps pestering me I must give this widow her just rights, or she will persist in coming and worry me to death.”’

  And the Lord said ‘You notice what the unjust judge has to say? Now, will not God see justice done to his chosen who cry to him day and night even when he delays to help them? I promise you, he will see justice done to them, and done speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find any faith on earth?’

We live in a cell phone world.  Whatever we want is available to us with the manipulation of a few buttons we can summon information, order food to be delivered, talk to someone half of a world away, all of these things while playing a game of "Shoot the Bad Guy."  If we forget our precious phone or heaven forbid, break it or lose it, well then we are lost, hopeless, alone, and cut off, truly a caricature of our former powerful self.  How sad that many of us judge our worth based on the power of the phone we carry. 

Regardless the state of your wireless network, you are always connected to God.  He is there with you every moment of every day looking out for you, sending you graces to live life better, waiting to hear from you, not over a smartphone but through prayer.  God will always answer your prayer.  His answer may not always be the one you want to hear, but he will answer.  In God's eyes, you are worth more than all of the gold, silver, and Apple X cell phones in the world.  We know this because He sent His only Son to die for you. 

 As a beloved adopted son or daughter, we have immediate access to the throne of God. He is our Father and He will take care of us and be there for us from the rising of the sun to its setting and all through the hours of the night. He wants us to share our lives with Him, to share our secrets, to share our wants and desires and our fears and troubles.  For this, we need to have faith in Him. 

 According to Steven Curtis Chapman, a great Christian singer, faith is "standing in the pouring rain and knowing that the sun will shine again."  Without faith, we do not pray.  Without prayer, we do not receive.  We demonstrate our faith in the promises of God by our persistence in prayer.  Being persistent shows that we know that a God is there and He is listening.  Whenever you pray, be ready to be overwhelmed with the answer you receive.  Even if God answers "no," the graces you will receive will make you a stronger person and more in love with God than you were before. 

So, if your network indicator says, "no service" or your screen is cracked so bad that when you try to use it your fingers bleed, always remember that you are permanently connected to God and the signal strength is always five bars and He will always respond to you as a loving Father, granting you all that you need to be with Him in his house forever.   

PLEASE READ!

May I please ask for a favor from you please.  I have a friend who will be undergoing serious surgery on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving Day.  May I ask that you offer a prayer for her and pray also that her family, who is estranged from one another, come together at this time to offer their support and love.  I am not listing her name out of respect for her privacy. Just call her "Michael's friend,"  God will know who you are talking to Him about! 

( Evil + Evil ) / Christ = Love Love = God

First reading	Titus 3:1-7

It was purely by his own compassion that God saved us

Remind your people that it is their duty to be obedient to the officials and representatives of the government; to be ready to do good at every opportunity; not to go slandering other people or picking quarrels, but to be courteous and always polite to all kinds of people. Remember, there was a time when we too were ignorant, disobedient and misled and enslaved by different passions and luxuries; we lived then in wickedness and ill-will, hating each other and hateful ourselves.

  But when the kindness and love of God our Savior for mankind were revealed, it was not because he was concerned with any righteous actions we might have done ourselves; it was for no reason except his own compassion that he saved us, by means of the cleansing water of rebirth and by renewing us with the Holy Spirit which he has so generously poured over us through Jesus Christ our savior. He did this so that we should be justified by his grace, to become heirs looking forward to inheriting eternal life.

Can you imagine that?  Part of being a good Christian is to be a good citizen, to obey the officials and representatives of the government and to be ready to do good at every opportunity.  But what if you have a government that is evil such as the government that afflicted Germany in the first half of the twentieth century?  Do you obey them?  Do you sign up your sons into the youth organization that the government demanded?  Do you enroll your daughters as well into their sorority that promoted evil?  Do you go along with a government that preaches the need to eliminate a people solely because of their religion?  What about in our time.  Do we remain silent while the government mandates birth control, forcing The Sisters of Charity to become a distributor of birth control pills and devices?  Are we expected to agree with the notion of same-sex marriage? Paul, it would seem, has gotten it wrong. But, look at what his people were going through.  They were being rounded up and being tortured and killed for professing the Name of Jesus.  Was he blind, did he not see the evil that the Romans were doing to the Christians?  Of course, he saw what was going on. Yet, he was telling his people that so far as it is possible, obey those that are over you and be a good example as to what a citizen should be.  It was the turn the other cheek principle that we were to use.  We should not return evil for evil but rather show the good that can come out of being a follower of Christ. 

Please remember the Poor Souls in Purgatory today.  Remember that your next breath is not guaranteed and tomorrow might find you in close fellowship with some of those that you arr praying for today!

Duty

Gospel	Luke 17:7-10

You are merely servants

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Which of you, with a servant plowing or minding sheep, would say to him when he returned from the fields, “Come and have your meal immediately”? Would he not be more likely to say, “Get my supper laid; make yourself tidy and wait on me while I eat and drink. You can eat and drink yourself afterwards”? Must he be grateful to the servant for doing what he was told? So with you: when you have done all you have been told to do, say, “We are merely servants: we have done no more than our duty.

On rare occasions sometimes these reflections write themselves.  Today is such an occasion.  Remember the old song "What So Ever You Do?"  It reminds us that whatever we do for others, we do for Christ. While this is an important lesson for us to learn, it does not need much comment from me.  So do it and that's it. 

Give a listen...

Bread and Oil - Leftovers or First Fruits - your Choice

First reading                                                                                                               1 Kings 17:19-16

'Jar of meal shall not be spent, the jug of oil shall not be emptied'

Elijah the Prophet went off to Sidon. And when he reached the city gate, there was a widow gathering sticks; addressing her he said, ‘Please bring me a little water in a vessel for me to drink.’ She was setting off to bring it when he called after her. ‘Please’ he said ‘bring me a scrap of bread in your hand.’ ‘As the Lord your God lives,’ she replied ‘I have no baked bread, but only a handful of meal in a jar and a little oil in a jug; I am just gathering a stick or two to go and prepare this for myself and my son to eat, and then we shall die.’ But Elijah said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, go and do as you have said; but first make a little scone of it for me and bring it to me, and then make some for yourself and for your son. For thus the Lord speaks, the God of Israel:

“Jar of meal shall not be spent,

jug of oil shall not be emptied,

before the day when the Lord sends

rain on the face of the earth.”’

The woman went and did as Elijah told her and they ate the food, she, himself and her son. The jar of meal was not spent nor the jug of oil emptied, just as the Lord had foretold through Elijah.

First, a bit of background to help you put what is going on in our reading into context.  At the time Elijah met this widow there was a drought which resulted in a famine throughout the land.  Elijah had told the people that there would be no dew or rain in the land unless he said so.  This was because the people of Israel and Judah had turned away from God.  The Jews had separated into two groups.  The first group lived in the south, they were called Israel and the group who resided in the north were living in the land of Judah.  Now, both of the kingdoms were in trouble with God because they had wandered off on their own path but those in Judah took it to the extreme because they had descended into paganism, worshiping idols.  So, the widow and her son were not the top-shelf people, they were pagans. Imagine if a man came to your house during a drought and famine and demanded that you give him some water and some bread.  It appears that she had enough water because she immediately started out to get some for the prophet, but then the prophet demanded some bread.  This caused her to stop and tell Elijah that she had only enough oil and flour left to make a small cake for her and her son.  Notice she said, "As the Lord YOUR God lives...?"  It was not her god, it was his God. He told her that she should first make something for him and then for herself and her son because she would not run out of flour or oil.  She placed her faith in what the prophet of God said and she ate for a year, that is until the drought and famine were over because of the faith she placed in the promise of God that the prophet had revealed. 

She did not give to the prophet from her large surplus of flour and oil.  For all she knew Elijah was a flim-flam man who was out to steal her last bit of food.  But, he wasn't and she was rewarded for giving all she had.  Her story is much like the story of the widow's contribution from today's Gospel reading.  The widow gave to the temple not from her surplus funds, leftover after she met all of her needs, she gave her all, everything that she had. 

Think about what you give to God and I do not mean just money.  Do you give to God from your surplus after all of your needs are taken care of or do you give from your first-fruits?  If we give to God from our first fruits, his response will be greater than what we gave to Him.  Donate money, of course, but also donate your time for God's kingdom.  Give Him your best and He will take care of the rest.   

Two Master to Serve - Can it Be Done?

Gospel	Luke 16:9-15

Use money, tainted as it is, to win you friends

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘I tell you this: use money, tainted as it is, to win you friends, and thus make sure that when it fails you, they will welcome you into the tents of eternity. The man who can be trusted in little things can be trusted in great; the man who is dishonest in little things will be dishonest in great. If then you cannot be trusted with money, that tainted thing, who will trust you with genuine riches? And if you cannot be trusted with what is not yours, who will give you what is your very own?

  ‘No servant can be the slave of two masters: he will either hate the first and love the second or treat the first with respect and the second with scorn. You cannot be the slave both of God and of money.’

  The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and laughed at him. He said to them, ‘You are the very ones who pass yourselves off as virtuous in people’s sight, but God knows your hearts. For what is thought highly of by men is loathsome in the sight of God.’

I normally do not make political comments on my blog, but today's Gospel reading and what is going on in our country seems to prove one of the points that Jesus is making here, namely, that we cannot serve two masters.  Thus enters our dearly beloved president, a man of genteel manners and obviously having the highest moral values as befitting a President of the United States of America. Early in his beneficent rule, he appointed a man to be attorney general of the United States.   When this appointee did the right thing and recused himself from a case in which he was a stakeholder, the Donald get mad at him and eventually fired him.  The president then put in the first man's place another who had spouted loud and long using words that indicated that he agreed with the president.  (This is something you have to do if you want to work for the Donald.)  Now, the new man finds himself in the same predicament that the previous AG was in.  But for him, there is no problem.  He says he can supervise the investigation where he is a stakeholder impartially.   We shall see.  

Now, political niceties aside, the first man is an example of a person torn between two poles.  He could not entertain the choice of giving the appearance of impropriety and so he did what was right while the second man chose the other path.  Neither one of them, as you can plainly see, were able to satisfy both masters and the former chose right and the latter chose to ignore what was right and to step into the muddy swamp of Trumpist Politics.     

We face the same choices every day of our lives.  If we were brought up well and if we want to do the right thing the path to take will be quite obvious.  We will love God and do what is right in God's eyes as He gives us light to see it.  I do not know what will happen in the political realm but I do know what will happen when we choose to follow the right master in life, we will be happy in life and attain heaven where we will be happy forever.  

Please Pray For The Poor Souls in Purgatory

Righteous Anger

Gospel	John 2:13-22 Destroy this sanctuary and in three days I will raise it up

Just before the Jewish Passover Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and in the Temple he found people selling cattle and sheep and pigeons, and the money changers sitting at their counters there. Making a whip out of some cord, he drove them all out of the Temple, cattle, and sheep as well, scattered the money changers’ coins, knocked their tables over and said to the pigeon-sellers, ‘Take all this out of here and stop turning my Father’s house into a market.’ Then his disciples remembered the words of scripture: Zeal for your house will devour me. The Jews intervened and said, ‘What sign can you show us to justify what you have done?’ Jesus answered, ‘Destroy this sanctuary, and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews replied, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this sanctuary: are you going to raise it up in three days?’ But he was speaking of the sanctuary that was his body, and when Jesus rose from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the words he had said.  

This is not the Jesus we are used to reading about in the Bible.  Jesus is normally thought of as meek and mild.  Today we see Him explode in anger.

To be honest, the vendors set up on the temple grounds served a useful purpose.  Work at the temple would grind to a halt without them because of this.  First, the temple was in the business of blood sacrifice and while you could bring your own animal, it would be carefully inspected for any blemishes.  If any imperfections were found, you are your animal could be turned away.  Sacrificing an imperfect animal to God was not permitted and the animals sold on the temple grounds were all guaranteed to be free of any taint or imperfection, perfect specimens to be used in sacrifices to God.

  Then, of course, there were the money-changers. People had to pay the temple tax but there was a problem.  The coins issued by the Romans were unclean, they had the picture of the emperor on one side and a false-god on the other.  These coins could not be brought into the temple.  So, to guard against any chance of the treasury being defiled, it was required that the temple tax was to be paid for in temple shekels. So, for the convenience of the patrons, there were on duty money changers to change filthy roman and Greek coins into temple shekels.  There was a small charge for the conversion of course.  The high priest and his family controlled who could and could not ply their trade on the temple grounds and collected a fee from those so blessed!.

So when Jesus entered the temple on that fateful day he heard the tinkle of coins being changed, saw and smelled the animals, and He knew that this was an outrage to His Father.  He overturned the money changer's tables and drove the animals away.  This act probably was the tipping point that earned Him the everlasting anger of the high priest.  It was this act that forced Caiphas to act for Jesus was taking bread from his house and money from his coffers. 

Jesus did not care what the high priest thought.  His Father was being dishonored by those that were running the temple and this was His challenge to them.  He threw down the gauntlet and they picked it up.  They began to plot against Him.  

Did we see Jesus sin in this story?  He was angry and he acted on His anger. Jesus did not sin.  The insult to His Father was too great for Him to ignore.  Also, there was the fact that the people were being overcharged for the animals and paying large fees to change their money. He could not ignore injustice. 

We too might see injustice.  Do we see prejudice against another person being committed?  Is there someone who is taking advantage of another person?  Are the weak and powerless being trampled underfoot?  Then we to are permitted to have righteous anger and we should use this anger to redress the wrongs we have seen.  We have to be ready to pay the price for the action we take just as Jesus did.  We cannot sit idly by and watch injustice in our world.  We have to harness our anger and do something about it.

Please remember to pray for the Poor Souls in Purgatory.