Last Sunday after Pentecost 26 Nov 2017 Sermon

Last Sunday after Pentecost 26.11.17 Warnings

At the end of the year we talk about the end of the world, rewards and punishments, the final judgment, and any related themes.

This is what it all comes to. We get used to things going on the same way, but there will be a distinct ending. History is not circular but linear. Time is running out. There will be a day of reckoning.

This fact does not have to be terrifying. The hope is that we would be aware of our need to be ready to face judgment; and that will remove most of the terror.

Admittedly we would have to be at least a little terrified about some of the cosmic events prophesied (such as stars falling from heaven).

But we will have a basic security in being united with Our Lord. We will be glad to see Him, rather than terrified.

The ‘threat’ passages (such as today’s Gospel, Mt 24) are a wake-up call to any who are not ready to meet their final end.

There must be a great many people who are not ready, if the general way of the world is any indication.

The Bible, taken as a whole, communicates to us God’s desire to unite us with Himself forever in Heaven. This is certainly good news.

The overall theme is a happy one. But it gets murky in the details. When sin enters the picture a great deal of trouble follows.

And that is where these threat passages come in.

God does not want to harm us, not so much as by one fiery missile, but He sees that often a wake-up is necessary.

The difficulty is how to get people to repent.

The fear factor is necessary sometimes. As with human affairs, health authorities will scare us with all the negative effects of a certain behaviour (such as taking drugs). If we weigh up those effects we will stay away from the dangerous behaviour.

This is the same in the spiritual order, only that the damage done by sin is not so easily traceable as in physical matters.

If we say: Don’t smoke - because it will do this and this to your body, even more so do we say: Don’t sin - because that will do far more damage.

Sometimes people need frightening, if it will save them from a greater evil.

It is an unpleasant necessity to warn people they might go to Hell. We would rather speak of more cheerful matters, but we have to keep beating this drum while so much of the world refuses to repent.

Punishment by God is not new. He has been doing it all along, beginning with Adam and Eve, expelled from the Garden; Cain sent wandering the earth; the great Flood. All this is in the very beginning.

When God punishes it is always for our good; only we do not always grasp the point.

So the punishments keep coming, with threats of even worse ones to follow.

If the punishments are simply to wake us up, let us be awakened! And we can make it a lot easier for ourselves.

We can remove the terror from the impending Judgment by making sure we are ready to meet the Saviour.

And we busily do all we can to help others to be saved.

As the Fatima prayer puts it: Save us from the fires of Hell. Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who most need Thy mercy.

As God does not want to punish people, nor do we want them punished.

If enough people would repent, and align themselves with God, there would be no need for the terrors prophesied for the last times.

With a healthy fear, and a great deal of hope, we ask the Lord for mercy, and to bring to completion His plans for the human race.