1. The headlines are filled with the smell of death.
Death is all over. From plane crashes to floods, from exploding gas tanks to knife yielding insane man, from shot drug pushers to girls killed for disgracing their family, from being eaten by a crocodile to drowning for saving someone and, lastly, in this never ending wars.
The ones dying are from all ages, from young to old, from male and female, from healthy to sickly and from the educated to the rude. The universality of those dying makes us a probable subject of dying.
Those dying are caught in their daily routine; either they are engaged in their daily activities or their daily vice of killing other people. What are we driving at? If we study their lives when they died, they were not precisely preparing themselves to die the Catholic way. We cannot blame them since most of them are not Catholics in the first place. But when we read that Catholics are dying, we do not precisely see that they are prepared the Catholic way. Well, in the sense that they are in the wrong places and were not involved in the right activities.
Most other religions or sects do not have any specific way of preparing themselves for dying. But Catholics believe that judgment follows death. And our preparation is not for death but for the judgment that follows. We do not care about dying since there is, really, nothing we can do to prevent or influence it. But the judgment that follows whose consequence is for all eternity is something we should be very prepared for. Only the Catholic religion has a very serious program on how to prepare for death.
2. The five last Sundays in Ordinary time.
The last five Sundays in Ordinary time had been teaching us how to prepare for death wherewith we may expect to have everlasting life.
We had the story of the young rich man and the young lawyer; both of whom asked what they should do to attain everlasting life. And Christ gave the answer; to go home, sell all your things and give it to the poor. And, then, follow Me. This is repeated in this 19th Sunday.
Why did Christ command them to sell all their possessions and give it to the poor? So he can follow Christ. They are supposed to go home and sell all their possessions to be able to transform the proceeds into meritorious good works. It is these merits that they can take alone with them before the judgment seat of God and win for themselves a favourable sentence.
They must use the proceeds of what they sold as means to follow Christ in the form of good works. These good works essentially consist in enabling others to know how to be saved. So it is an act of Charity.
If he does not sell everything, he will possess too many things that will make him do what he wants instead of doing what God wants. With his money he can buy whatever he wants, with his car he can go wherever he wants, with his friends he can talk about anything they want. In short he will be doing his own will which is contrary to doing God’s Will.
This is the purpose of evangelical poverty; to own nothing to enable us to ‘deny oneself.’ With ownership we will not be able to ‘deny ourselves;’ instead we will satisfy all our desires.
Yet, ‘denying oneself’ is prior to ‘taking up the cross’ and ‘following Christ.’ Without denying oneself, i.e by saying ‘NO’ to the desires of the self, we cannot proceed to ‘taking up the cross’ and ‘following Christ.’ Without ‘denying oneself’ we will not be able to prepare ourselves for death.
3. Christ’s answer is; first, go home. Second, sell all your possessions. Third, give it to the poor. And fourthly, come follow Me. The first three steps are to enable you to follow Christ by using what you sold for the conversion of your soul and the conversion of others.
There are three steps in the following of Christ,’ namely, first, to repent. Secondly, to believe; and thirdly, to love God and neighbour (or Charity). The steps, go home, sell all your things and give it to the poor are to enable you to repent, which has three elements; prayer, fasting and good works.
All the above had been taught to us in the last five Sundays. It is all in preparation for death.
In the 19th Sunday in Ordinary time, the Liturgy continues to tell us to be watchful for the master’s return by watching for his knocking at the door which is a symbol of death. And, in fact, the Gospel tells us ‘to open for Him without delay.’
4. At this point we can see if we are prepared or not.
He who opens the door without delay is ready. He who delays in opening the door is not ready.
Let’s begin again. FIRST, believe that you will die and that death will come at the time you least expect it. You will die. And it can be the next minute, next week, or next month. But you won’t know when, so it stands that it can be anytime you least expect it.
This is the truth. Otherwise it is not the truth and almost everybody holds what is untrue. Almost everybody believe they will not die the next minute nor the next hour. Their present state of health makes them believe they will die at 95.
If the truth is believed then one acts wisely. If the untruth, then he believes unwisely. In fact, St. Thomas wrote that if we believe what is untrue, it is a sin. And our actions will be followed by unwise acts.
So the first step is to act wisely and believe that we shall die at a time we least expect it and so we must be prepared now and always. And this death will be followed by a judgement from a Just Judge. We must know the basis for His judgment.
From the very words of Jesus Christ, He said, He will see if we obeyed His commands; to go home, sell all our possessions, use the proceeds to perform good works like giving it to the poor and consequently following Him through a life of Faith, Hope and Charity.
And on this 19th Sunday, Christ adds; ‘and while going through these steps, a.) gird your loins and b.) keep your lamps burning. Do this from the beginning up to the end, so when I come I will find you ‘watching’ with girded loins and with lamps burning.
5. Keep awake.
For watchers during the night, girding their loins and having a light constantly on, help them keep awake. To be awake specially on the third watch is imperative, that hour being old age.
To believe that death will not come at a time we lease expect it is a sin. To believe that God is delaying too long is, also, a sin. The consequence of these two unbeliefs is that you will spend your time enjoying yourself eating and drinking and abusing those under you.
On the other hand, belief on the two above will keep you awake and watching. The night is the symbol of life in the world. We need light to keep us awake. And this light is the light of Divine Revelation as interpreted by the Fathers of the Church and proposed by the Magisterium of the Church. There is no other light than He who called Himself ‘the Light and the Truth.’
And ‘girding your loins’ is obedience to the commands we have learned from the Light. These commands are like girds that limits the movement of the passions and concupiscence. It prevents us from committing adultery, remarrying and receiving Holy Communion.
6. Fearful statement from Christ.
‘When much has been given a man, much will be required of him. More will be asked of a man to whom more has been entrusted.’ More obedience to God’s commands will be asked of Catholics than from Protestants and pagans because more had been given to them; like Scriptures and Tradition. So their disobedience will make them deserving of greater punishment in hell.
The non-Catholics will, also, go to hell but less strips will be given them.
Because the laymen know less than priests and bishops, their disobedience will still bring them to hell but with less flames and less worms. St. Thomas wrote; ‘Our Lord here points to something still greater and more terrible, for the unfaithful steward shall not only be deprived of the grace he had, so that it should profit him nothing in escaping punishment, but the greatness of his dignity shall the rather become a cause of his condemnation.
‘For all things are not judged alike in all, but greater knowledge is an occasion of greater punishment. Therefore shall the Priest, committing the same sin with the people, suffer a far heavier penalty.’
So Pope Francis, because he has Scriptures, Tradition, the Doctors of the Church, the writings of previous Popes, the declarations of previous Councils, the rule of St. Ignatius, the sign of a true Pope by St. Robert Bellarmine….and add the dignity of being a Pope……if he disobeys the commands of Christ will go to the hottest depths of hell with the biggest worms gnawing at him. Won’t anybody help him? Not even one from his own order?
It is time that the cardinals and bishops who are thinking right, like those from Poland, Spain, Mexico, Portugal, Italy, should get a group of their own theologians, sit down and analyse the words and deeds of the present Pope and make a public declaration on him. As a Pope, is he obeying the Papal oath he made after the Conclave? Just answer ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ And do what is next best for the Catholic Church before we completely run out of Catholics…….and before someone is thrown down into the deepest fires of hell with giant worms because ‘much had been given him.’
7. A wrong direction.
The movement in the Vatican today is not directed towards preparing Catholics for death; but towards encouragement towards sin and being complacent while in the state of mortal sin. Such statements as ‘it is alright to abandon your true spouse and children and commit adultery (which is against the 10 commandments),’ ‘it is alright to socialise and eat with sinners (which is against the teaching of St. Paul,)’ it is alright to commit the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah (which are sins that cry out to heaven,)’ ‘it is alright to be an unbeliever (which is against the very words of Christ,)’ ‘it is alright to sin because God understands (which is against todays Gospel), etc.
Catholics are not ready to die at a time death is all around and can come any time. Many wrongly believe that all Catholics who die go to heaven. There is no proof to this allegation. Or the more often wrong belief that we have done enough for the salvation of our souls. The steps just mentioned above is proof ‘there is still many things that is lacking to attain everlasting life.’
We must check our beliefs if they conform to Divine Revelation; especially we are Catholics to whom God had given much. And whose grievous sin is that out of sloth we do not check if we truly are prepared for death. This is a serious neglect to which, St. Thomas wrote, well, we still go to hell but with less fire and smaller worms.
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