Sequel of the holy Gospel according to Matthew 24:15-35
When therefore you shall see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place: he that readeth let him understand. Then they that are in Judea, let them flee to the mountains: And he that is on the housetop, let him not come down to take anything out of his house: And he that is in the field, let him not go back to take his coat. And woe to them that are with child, and that give suck in those days. But pray that your flight be not in the winter, or on the Sabbath. For there shall be then great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world until now, neither shall be. And unless those days had been shortened, no flesh should be saved: but for the sake of the elect those days shall be shortened. Then if any man shall say to you: Lo here is Christ, or there, do not believe him. For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders, insomuch as to deceive (if possible) even the elect. Behold I have told it to you, beforehand. If therefore they shall say to you: Behold he is in the desert, go ye not out: Behold he is in the closets, believe it not. For as lightning cometh out of the east, and appeareth even into the west: so shall the coming of the Son of man be. Wheresoever the body shall be, there shall the eagles also be gathered together. And immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven shall be moved: 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. And he shall send his angels with a trumpet, and a great voice: and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the farthest parts of the heavens to the utmost bounds of them. And from the fig tree learn a parable: When the branch thereof is now tender, and the leaves come forth, you know that summer is nigh. So you also, when you shall see all these things, know ye that it is nigh, even at the doors. Amen I say to you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done. Heaven and earth shall pass, but my words shall not pass.
Several times, during Advent, we meditated on the
circumstances which are to accompany the Last Coming of Christ our Lord; and,
in a few days, the same great teachings will be again brought before us,
filling our souls with a salutary fear. May we, then, be permitted, on this
last Sunday of our Liturgical Year, to address ourselves, in a prayer of desire
and praise, to our adorable Lord and King, the solemn hour of whose Judgment is
to be the consummation of his work, and the signal of his triumph.
O Jesus! who then art to come to deliver thy Church, and
avenge that God who has so long borne every sort of insult from his creature
man, that day of thy coming will indeed be terrible to the sinner! He will then
understand, how the Lord hath made all things for himself, all, even the
ungodly, who, on the evil day, is to show forth the divine justice. (Proverbs
16:4) The whole world, fighting on his side against the wicked (Wisdom 5:21)
shall then, at last, be avenged for that slavery of sin, which had been forced
upon it. (Romans 8:21) Vainly will the wicked cry out to the rocks to fall upon
them, and hide them from the face of him that will then be seated on his
throne: (Apocalypse 6:16) the abyss will refuse to engulf them: in obedience to
him who holds the keys of death and hell, (Apocalypse 1:18) it will give forth,
to a man, its wretched victims, and set them at the foot of the dread tribunal.
Jesus, how magnificent will not thy power then appear! The heavenly hosts will
also be standing around thee, forming thy brilliant (Apocalypse 19:14) court,
and assembling thy elect from the four quarters of the earth.
For we also, we thy redeemed, who had become thy members by
becoming the members of thy beloved Church, — we are to be there on that day,
and our place, O ineffable mystery! is to be the one thou hast reserved for thy
Bride, — it is to be thy own throne, (Apocalypse 3:21) where seated, we shall
judge the very angels. (1 Corinthians 4:3) Even now, all those blessed of the
Father, (Matthew 25:3) all those elect, whose youth, like that of the eagle,
has been so often renewed by their receiving thy precious Blood, (Psalm 102:5)
have they not had their eyes fitted to gaze, and without being dazzled, on the
Sun of Justice, when he shall appear in the heavens? The tediousness of their
long exile has given such keenness to their hunger, that nothing will have power
to stay their flight, once the sacred prey of thy divine Body shall be shown
them! What hindrance could be strong enough to check the impetuosity of the
love, (Song of Solomon 8:6) which will bring them all together to the banquet
of the eternal Pasch? The trumpet of the Archangel, which will ring through the
graves of the just, is to be a summons calling them, not to death, but to life;
to the sight of the old enemy’s destruction; (1 Corinthians 15:28) to a
redemption, which is to include their very bodies; (Romans 8:23) to the
unimpeded passover to the true Land of promise; in a word, to the Pasch, and,
this time, quite real, and for all, and forever. What will not be the joy of
that true Day of the Lord! (Psalm 117:24) What joy for them that have, by faith,
lived in Christ, and loved him without seeing Him! (1 Peter 1:8) Identifying
themselves with thee, O Jesus, notwithstanding the weakness of the flesh, they
have continued here below, thy life of suffering and humiliation: what a
triumph, when, delivered forever from sin, and vested in their immortal bodies,
they shall be borne aloft before thy face, that they may forever be with thee!
(1 Thessalonians 4:6)
But, their chiefest joy on that great Day, will be to assist
at the glorification of their most dear Lord, by the manifestation of the power
which was given to him over all flesh. (John 17:2) It is to be then, O
Emmanuel! that, crushing the heads of kings, and making thine enemies thy
footstool, (Psalm 109) thou wilt be shown as the one Ruler of all nations.
(Psalm 2) It is to be then, that heaven, and earth, and hell, will bow their
knee (Philippians 2:10) before that Son of Man, who, heretofore, appeared on
earth as a slave, and was judged, and condemned, and put to death between two
thieves; it is to be then, dear Jesus, that thou wilt judge the unjust judges,
to whom, even in the midst of all the humiliations they put on thee, thou didst
foretell this thy Coming on the clouds of heaven. (Matthew 26:64) And when,
after the irrevocable sentence has been passed, the wicked shall go to
everlasting torments, and the just to life eternal, (Matthew 25:46) thy Apostle
tells us, that having conquered thine enemies, and been proclaimed undisputed
King, thou wilt consign to thy eternal Father this thy Kingdom won over death;
it will be the perfect homage of thee, the Head, and of all thy faithful
members. (1 Corinthians 15:24-28) God will thus be all in all. It will be the
perfect accomplishment of that sublime prayer thou taughtest mankind to make,
(Matthew 6:9) which they daily offer up to the Father who is in heaven, and say
to him: Hallowed be thy name! Thy Kingdom come! Thy will be done on earth, as
it is in heaven! O blissfully peaceful Day, when blasphemy is to cease, and
when this poor earth of ours, cleansed by fire from the filth of sin, shall be
turned into a new paradise! Where, then, is the Christian, who would not thrill
with emotion at the thought of that last of all the Days of time, which is to
usher in beautiful Eternity? Who would not despise the agonies of his own last
hour, when he reflects that those sufferings have really only one meaning in
them, that is, as the Gospel words it, that the Son of Man is nigh even at the
very doors!
O sweet Jesus, detach us, every Year, more and more from this world, whose fashion passeth away, (1 Corinthians 7:31) with its vain toils, its false glories, and its lying pleasures. It was thine own foretelling, that, as in the days of Noe, and Sodom, men will go on with their feasting, and business, and amusements, without giving any more thought to thy approaching Coming, than their forefathers heeded the threat of the Deluge, or of the fire, which came upon them and destroyed them. (Luke 17:26-30) Let these men go on with their merrymaking, and their sending gifts one to the other, as thine Apocalypse expresses it, because, so they will have it, Christ and his Church are then to be worn-out ideas! (Apocalypse 9:10) Whilst they are tyrannizing over thy holy City in a thousand varied ways, and persecuting her as no past period had ever done, they little think that all this is an announcement of the Eternal Nuptials, which are nigh at hand. All these trials were the fresh jewels, which the Bride was to have on her before all her beauty was complete; and the blood of her last Martyrs was to incarnadine her already splendid robes with all the richness of royal crimson. As for us, we lend an ear to the echoes of our home above; and, from the throne of our God, we hear going forth the voice heard by thy beloved Prophet of Patmos: Give praise unto our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, little and great! Alleluia! For the Lord our God the almighty hath reigned! Let us be glad and rejoice, and give glory unto him; for the Marriage of the Lamb is come, and his Wife hath prepared herself! (Apocalypse 19:5-7) Yet a little while, till the number of our brethren be made up; (Apocalypse 6:11) and then, with the Spirit and the Bride, we will say to thee, in all the ardor of our souls that have long thirsted after thee: Come, Lord Jesus! (Apocalypse 22:17) Come, and perfect us in love, by Union eternal, unto the glory of the Father, and of thyself the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, forever and ever! Dom Prosper Gueranger.
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