Rv 20:1-4, 11-22 / Lk 21:29-33
Walking through the decayed parts of an older city, or sauntering down the hallways of an Alzheimer’s clinic, or even taking a look at the picture on our driver’s license can fill us with a powerful sense of the finite and mortal nature of everything that is — even these bodies of ours, which seem to be so much our own. It can fill us with a tremendous sadness, and could even push us over the edge into despair, were it not for our faith.
St. John spelled it out for us in the apocalyptic language of the book of Revelation. He was writing at the end of the first century in a time of brutal persecution, when it seemed to many as if God had abandoned His people. “I saw new heavens and a new earth. The former heavens and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no longer….”
John was not predicting the shape of things to come, for that he could not see. He was predicting, with a confidence that was founded upon his deep trust of the Lord, that there was more to come and that it would be worthy of the love with which God has always cherished every one of His people. Not a one would be lost or unaccounted for. All would be welcomed to His house.
Few if any of us will ever have to face dreadful persecutions like those of the first century, but we will all face those moments when the world seems defined by death and not by life. Those are privileged moments of opportunity, special chances for us to reconnect to the Lord on a deeper level that we’ve never known before.
Don’t be afraid of those moments, and don’t waste them. Only a limited number of them is allotted to each of us in this life. Seize the moment and grow large on the inside.
