“Zla vremena, teška vremena, to je što ljudi govore; ali živimo dobro, i vremena će biti dobra. Mi smo vremena: takvi kakvi smo mi, takva će biti i vremena.”
Sv. Augustin
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.
My dearly beloved in Our Lord,
Holy Church gives us to read the Apocalypse of St John in the Breviary, during this week. And Our Lord speaks about the “short time”, “a little time” before the Apostles will see him again.
“Short is this entire time in which the present world is passing”, comments St Augustine.
Therefore we should always consider the shortness of time, if we want to make sure our being chosen for eternal life. For it is dangerous for a traveler to consider himself a resident; as it would be very foolish for someone staying in a place for a night or two, to go out and buy new furniture for the place in which he is only going to stay for a little while!
Time is short because the lifespan of humans has been cut down drastically by God. The early generations of mankind lived on for centuries, as Holy Scripture teaches. Later, as men started behaving more and more wickedly, God limited our lifespan to 120 years. The Psalms say that we only live for 70 or 80 years, and even during this lapse of time we endure much labor and pain: “The days of our years in them are threescore and ten years. But if in the strong they be fourscore years: and what is more of them is labour and sorrow.” (Ps 89:10)
Therefore Christian wisdom teaches us that we must make good use of the relatively little time which we are granted. All the time we should try to do good, and progress in virtue. If we have spent a long time offending God, we must make up for this time by regretting our sins ever more carefully and more deeply, by a true contrition of heart and by worthy works of penance!
Time is short because we have no assurance of any kind with regards to the length of our life. All too readily we consider that the average lifespan often indicated in statistics, is the minimum age to which we will live. But of course this is not true! Our life can end today, tonight or tomorrow.
Therefore we need to make ourselves ready to die and to give an account of all our thoughts, words and deeds to God, our Creator and our Redeemer. The art of dying a holy death and going to Heaven, consists in living up to the present moment, and to serve God now as if it were our last hour. St Augustine also reminds us of this when he comments on the “little time”: “Therefore the same Evangelist says in his Epistle: ‘It is the last hour’.” It is great time, therefore, to take care of our soul.
People today want to have a “great time”. But in their understanding this means enjoying themselves, as they say. A Catholic has a “great time” scrutinizing what God wants him to do, and then to execute God’s holy will.
It is of little interest for a Catholic to know whether the present crisis in Ukraine will spell “the beginning of the end”, a worldwide conflagration leading to the death of many. Or whether the warming of our globe will lead to the consequences portrayed in the liveliest colors day and night by the media. All this is but a distraction from the fact that we have to die, and that we ignore when. We know with unfailing certainty that we need to be ready and prepared to die, and to be judged!
The days are bad because we live badly. “Bene vivamus, et bona sunt tempora! - Let us live well, and the times are good!”, St Augustine said. When the Hebrews had been led into captivity in Babylon, they lamented and longed to be back in Jerusalem, which only happened after 70 years. But no sooner had they reached the holy places given by God to their ancestors, that they started offending God again. How few among them lived and died in the true faith and expectation of the promised Redeemer!
The danger of secularization is nothing new on the face of the earth. It has only become institutionalized over the last few centuries of humanism and revolution. It goes more and more unchallenged by those who have, or pretend to have the true faith. This is the true dilemma and a great evil, that even the good care little about God’s glory, His sovereign rights and our duties towards Him.
Even among Catholics – conservatives, traditionalists… – most lament and wish for “better days”. Many are, or are becoming wary of the duration of the evil which has befallen them: No true Pope for over five decades. But what are five decades, compared to centuries of turmoil caused by Arianism? What are five decades compared to over a century of barbarian invasions into the Christian heartland? All these ages have known many saints, and after the long agony of the Western Roman Empire God has called St Benedict to establish Christian Europe and to begin the great era downplayed by “modern history” as the “Middle Ages”. In all truth the roughly 1.000 years of Catholic civilization stand out from barbarism – that of the decadent Romans before and that of pagan rebirth (Renaissance) afterwards.
St Augustine sets our thoughts straight when he says in his comment of today’s Gospel: “What he is adding: ‘And again a little while, and you shall see me’, he promises the entire Church. In the same manner he has promised the entire Church: ‘Behold, I am with you until the consummation of times.’ The Lord does not put off his promise. A little while, and we shall see him, where we will no more demand from him, ask him no questions, for there remains nothing to be desired, nothing will be hidden what could be the object of questions. This little while seems long to us, for it is still ongoing; when it will be over, then we will understand how short it has been.” (Tract. 101 in Joan.)
In the mean time – in this relatively short time of wait – we shall not rejoice in the manner of the world; we shall not seek peace as the world gives it. But we shall rejoice in our trials because they make us similar to Our Lord suffering; we shall glory in our humiliations because they teach us to imitate him who has humiliated himself unto death, even death on the Cross. We shall not envy those who live in a resemblance of peace, but are not in peace with God; but we are happy possessing the true peace of soul and mind, which only God can grant us.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.
P. Arnold Trauner (paterarnold@hotmail.com), njemački i engleski.
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