The Family Foundation School Catholic Community Bulletin
Pauca Verba (a few words)
The Feast of All Saints falls on a Sunday this year. And did you hear the reading from the Book of Revelation at Mass today?
Then one of the elders spoke up and said to me, “Who are these wearing white robes, and where did they come from?” I said to hm, ‘My Lord, you are the one who knows.” He said to me, “These are the ones who have survived the time of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb.”
The great ordeal? Another translation says: survived the time of the great distress. Still another translation speaks of the great tribulation. What could all of this mean?
Well, first of all, it more than suggests that following Christ is not an easy way. You don’t accomplish the Christian “thing” by making pilgrimages to holy sites but by persevering through a period of testing, of battle, of warfare, or tremendous distress and tribulation with its dangers. Many people are not up to it. By contrast, there are the saints who take it on.
Perhaps the contest is dramatic like the life of August Van Galen, the Lion of Munster who stood up to the Nazi threat. Or the early Virgin Martyrs: young Christian women who said no to arranged marriages to pagan men; who wouldn’t bear children for an emperor who called himself a god and so they paid the price with their lives. Or the great ordeal is engaged in by those who fast from the world to feast on the higher things, the spiritual things of the gospel and its way of justice, mercy, worship, compassion, love for others. Or those who endure the time of tribulation by accepting into their family the baby with disabilities instead of surrendering to the promise that abortive-death will solve the “problem.” How about the tribulation of standing for the principles of this school community when there’s people against you or blowing you off!? You get the picture.
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“Of the last three things you said were wrong with this community – who did you blame?” Sister Joan Chittester, O.S.B.
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There is a Down Syndrome race at each Special Olympics. The gun goes off and the race begins. One boy falls and another sees. He stops to help him get up. The othesr ahead realize what’s happened and go back. They get him to his feet and go on – crossing the finish line together. And we call them retarded! Sad thing is: Down Syndrome is now almost eradicated by abortion. We think it’s so neat and heart-warming to watch at the Olympics – but when it’s in the womb we get rid of it by abortion ASAP. Go figure us.
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Some of us have returned to Mass after the Compline reflections last week. Some might feel under-pressure. Others are open and having second thoughts about staying away for so long. Others have been coming to Mass all along and are re-thinking how they might be physically present but are really blowing off the whole thing. So – those of us who regularly worship here welcome all of you, without judgment – just a welcome. Like coming home.
Get this! When the allied planes bombed Muenster, they picked the steps of the medieval Catholic Cathedral as the epicenter at precisely the hour when Sunday Mass was ending.
Get this! The first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, August 6, 1945, the Feast of the Transfiguration: Jesus standing as the New Moses in a blaze of white light (Mark 9:2-13). The book Hiroshima begins with the priest telling that the morning Mass had just ended.
Get this! On August 9, 1945 the second atomic bomb was dropped on the Catholic city of Nagasaki, Japan, targeting the Urakami Catholic Cathedral, the largest church in Asia!
Do you make anything of this? Could it be that the great contest between good and evil – somehow is focused in or over the celebration of Holy Mass – which is not simply a Last Supper service – but rather the re-presentation and extension of the eternal sacrifice of Jesus at Calvary – his sacrifice of love, made to our heavenly Father for the forgiveness of all human sin – including the bombing of cathedrals and civilians. Think about these things!
