“Be Encouraged”

Time is racing by… the leaves have turned and the temperature is dropping. November is the last month of the church year, ending with the feast of Christ the King on November 26^th.  December 3^rd is the first day of Advent, the first day of the new church year. Wow, it seems like time accelerates as you get older. 

I would like to mention a bit more of the wonderful readings from November…a time in the church that points toward our future home… the transition from this life on earth to our eternal life. It can be a bit tense as we ponder this most important transition; it dwarfs any transitions of this earth…. woe, “death, judgement, heaven, or hell”. No one on earth has been thru this transition. I use to get nervous taking a final exam in school….yikes. 

Yet for those of us who have become friends of Christ, we should have confidence in this transition. The final judgment is not meant to freak us out. The Lord loves us tenderly and is looking forward to welcoming us to our heavenly home when we pass away. Listen to some of the encouraging words from the church:

• “If he were not expecting the fallen to rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead. But if he did this with a view to the splendid reward that awaits those who had gone to rest in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. (2 Mc 12:44-45) 
• The Lord greatly desires to bring the souls in purgatory into full union with him in heaven.
• “O precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his faithful.”(Ps. 116)
• “I know that my Vindicator lives, and that he will at last stand forth upon the dust; Whom I myself shall see: my own eyes, not another’s, shall behold him, And from my flesh I shall see God;/ my inmost being is consumed with longing. (Job 19:25-27)
• If we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection. (Rom 6:5)
• God raised him up, releasing him from the throes of death, because it was impossible for him to be held by it. (Acts 2:24)
• “God of life eternal, we place all our hope in you: hear our prayers in our last hours, and bring us to heaven with you.” (Intercession- Magnificat 11-14-23)
• “ When we have done all that we have been commanded, we are to say, “We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.” Such humility preserves us from lethal presumption and makes us “just.” And Godfinds the just “worthy of himself”; “the faithful shall abide with him in love.” “The just are in the hand of God.” (Ibid)
• “But the souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them. They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead;/ and their passing away was thought an affliction and their going forth from us, utter destruction. But they are in peace. For if before men, indeed, they be punished, yet is their hope full of immortality; Chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed, because God tried them and found them worthy of himself. As gold in the furnace, he proved them, and as sacrificial offerings he took them to himself. In the time of their visitation they shall shine, and shall dart about as sparks through stubble; They shall judge nations and rule over peoples, and the Lord shall be their King forever. Those who trust in him shall understand truth, and the faithful shall abide with him in love.” (Wisdom 2:23-3:9)

These words should give us courage and hope as we contemplate our passing to the next life…eternal life with God. Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his faithful ones. The Lord loves us and is helping us now as we turn our hearts and mind to him. He’s not out to trick us. We are precious to him. So let us continue to turn our hearts to him….. and all will be well with our soul….now and forever. And that is Good News.