May 20, 2011
Friday of the Fourth Week of Easter
Reading 1 Acts 13:26-33
When Paul came to Antioch in Pisidia, he said in the synagogue:
“My brothers, children of the family of Abraham,
and those others among you who are God-fearing,
to us this word of salvation has been sent.
The inhabitants of Jerusalem and their leaders failed to recognize him,
and by condemning him they fulfilled the oracles of the prophets
that are read sabbath after sabbath.
For even though they found no grounds for a death sentence,
they asked Pilate to have him put to death,
and when they had accomplished all that was written about him,
they took him down from the tree and placed him in a tomb.
But God raised him from the dead,
and for many days he appeared to those
who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem.
These are now his witnesses before the people.
We ourselves are proclaiming this good news to you
that what God promised our fathers
he has brought to fulfillment for us, their children, by raising up Jesus,
as it is written in the second psalm,
You are my Son; this day I have begotten you.”
Jn 14:1-6 Gospel
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Do not let your hearts be troubled.
You have faith in God; have faith also in me.
In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.
If there were not,
would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come back again and take you to myself,
so that where I am you also may be.
Where I am going you know the way.”
Thomas said to him,
“Master, we do not know where you are going;
how can we know the way?”
Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.”
……………..
What a perfect Gospel reading for this last day of classes and to look forward to exams and past that to the summer. Jesus tells us: Do not let your hearts be troubled.
Of course you already knew that today is the last day of classes for the 2010 - 2012 school year. But I have just this week come to learn that it is the last day of classes ever, and that you won’t have to worry or take the time to study for exams.
That’s right. You should party tonight like it’s 1999, as the artist formerly known as Prince said or sang.
One of Father Ambrose’s favorite theologians from the Bible Belt, Harold Camping, by using a scientific mathematical system of studying the Bible, which he developed, has learned when the end will come and he wants everyone else to know.
So I am here to tell you that this retired scientist and engineer has conclusively proven to himself and his followers that at about 6 pm Pacific Time, that is 8 PM here, tomorrow, Jesus Christ will come down with a band of trumpet blaring angels to commence the Final Judgment. This preacher theologian calculates that 2 per cent of the world's population will be immediately "raptured" to Heaven; the rest of us will get sent straight to the Other Place.
I think that means about 8 students will be raptured and maybe one of us monks, likely Br. Dunstan, and one of the lay teachers, probably Mrs. Tumminia. Personally, I’m hoping that our Priory family will turn out to be a random statistical cluster and that most of us will be enraptured. Still, 2% of the world’s population is 12,000,000, which is a lot better than the 144,000 others waiting for the rapture have calculated.
Not that it will matter to us, but in case you have real estate, on October 21st, the physical world and the universe will be destroyed by fire.
All the recent disasters like the earthquakes in Japan, New Zealand and Haiti, are signs of this impending doom, as are all the changes in social values and the general good run sin is having these days. "All the stealing, and the lying, and the wickedness and the sexual perversion that is going on in society is telling us something," he says.
You might want to hedge your, bets however. Once before this mathematical theologian calculated the end would come on September 6, 1994. On that date, He and several dozen of his followers got together for a rapture party waiting to be raptured, but nothing happened.
I don’t bet, but if I did, I’d bet my life savings – if I had any, which I don’t – on Mr. Camping being dead wrong. And he’s a perfect example of how too much mathematics can lead to trouble.
Earthquakes, tsunamis, tornados, volcanoes, these things have always coexisted with human life. Social values have always been changing and adapting, and sin has always been a cheap, easy & popular alternative to holiness
Jesus tells us…don’t worry. If you have faith in God, you must have faith in Him.
In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.
If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself.
But Jesus also tells us in The Gospel of Luke :
When Asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he said in reply, "The coming of the kingdom of God cannot be observed, and no one will announce, 'Look, here it is,' or, 'There it is.'
For behold, the kingdom of God is among you."
Then he said to his disciples, "The days will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it.
There will be those who will say to you, 'Look, there he is,' (or) 'Look, here he is.' Do not go off, do not run in pursuit.
We will not know the day or the hour. I think Mr. Camping’s rapture party-goers will be quite disappointed tomorrow. We don’t need Jesus coming on the clouds with trumpeting angels. If and when that happens, it will be on God’s timing.
We don’t need that because Jesus Christ is here today and his kingdom is within and among us.
Jesus Christ is in that tabernacle. And he will shortly be on this altar, saving us again. At communion time He will be renewed once again within you.
Jesus Christ is present within this community of much more than 2 or 3 gathered in his name, seeing Christ and being Christ.
I am the way and the truth and the life, Jesus tells us, and we know that.
We do not need blaring trumpets, cloud riding or the magic tricks of raptured disappearances.
We have the way, the truth and the life. Living in Christ we can have our true rapture here as well as when God calls us home to him.
We have the Holy Spirit to keep us true and wise, to protect us from false prophets and distracting sideshows.
We have the Holy Spirit to inspire us to build up the kingdom of God here in this world, in this nation and state and city and school.
We do not need the scriptures or mathematics or anything to calculate the end of things. We need all our sciences and skills to be about the beginning of things, co-creating with God new and more life born of water and the spirit, of blessings flowing down to the least of our brothers and sisters.
We need to be about the beginning of new ideas and structures in our world, which then will more faithfully mirror the God’s plan of justice and happiness for us all.
The word from Jesus in the Gospels is insistent. Don’t worry, don’t be afraid. Be loving.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.
Eternal life is what God wills for us and offers us. Eternal life is not that which happens when our body dies. Eternal life is not that which happens after our resurrection, or after the final judgment. Eternal life does extend into those created divisions of time, But eternal life is now, it begins here in this life, IF we accept this gift and live it now.
If we don’t get the hang of eternal life here and now, we surely won’t after our death, resurrection or the end of the world.
Eternal life begins with our baptism and is the process of conforming our lives to the pattern of Jesus’ life, in love of all those for whom Jesus died and in love of God, in selflessness, compassion and forgiveness and effort in building our part of the kingdom of God.
That’s why Priory is here, why we monks are here, to build ourselves and to help you learn & start to build up your part of the kingdom, that part which God knows only you can build. Our most important reason for this school is to get all our eternal lives moving and growing in a way you can continue and accelerate after you graduate.
I don’t know what I’ll be doing at 8 PM tomorrow night. I don’t expect to be taken up in a rapture. I’ll probably listening to music or thinking up challenging questions to put on the final exam for the juniors.
But in some way, shape or form I’ll be thinking about you. I’ll be following the instructions of Saint Benedict to pray always. I’ll be praying for you, thanking God for all of you, and thanking God for his gift of the ability to look forward to many more days of eternal life in His kingdom.
So let us pray for the energy and wisdom of the Holy Spirit to conclude righteously this school year, to use wisely our summer to rest, to grow and prepare for the next school year.
Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful
and kindle in them the fire of your love.
V. Send forth your Spirit, and they shall be created.
R. And You shall renew the face of the earth.
Let us pray.
O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit,
did instruct the hearts of the faithful,
grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise
and ever enjoy His consolations.
We ask this through Christ Our Lord,
to whom be all honor, praise and glory. Amen.
| 
