What's Ahead; for mankind - for our souls!

What’s Ahead; for mankind - for our souls!

Should we stop and consider the future that all of us must face;  Is it what each one will encounter in our education, choice of occupation, or even a decision that may be a ministry for God?  Or should we concern ourselves with what the real future is; heaven or hell?  

In less than 2 weeks we shall enter the Season of Advent and the time to discern just what effect will the Sundays and the Liturgies at Holy Mass have on us?  The thoughts of many may encompass a boring one hour in Church (for people who look on this as a close encounter with the Lord it is an hour or more that can be precious).  The readings will change from last year’s Lectionary and we might just listen attentively.  It can become laborious for some preachers to make an impact on the congregation using repetitious homilies from the previous year.  Here is where the people in the pews must not turn their heads and nod at something they’ve heard before.  Listening can be super-encountering with the truth of Christ.    

Picking up the Catechism of the Catholic Church it is possible that with patience one can ascertain the real message of what lies so close to our being able to understand what our Creator allowed us considering the real discernment of heaven or hell.   

In the sacramental economy the Holy Spirit fulfills what was prefigured in the Old Covenant.  Since Christ’s Church was “prepared in marvellous fashion in the history of the people of Israel and in the Old Covenant,” the Church’s liturgy has retained certain elements of the Old Covenant as integral and irreplaceable, adopting them as her own.  (CCC 1093).

For this reason the Church, especially during Advent and Lent and above all the Easter Vigil, re-reads and re-lives the great events of salvation history in the “today” of her liturgy.  But this also demands that catechesis help the faithful to open themselves to this spiritual understanding of the economy of salvation as the Church’s liturgy reveals it and enables us to live it.  (CCC 1095).

This scenario places our human understanding in a crucible that sometimes may become the very pressure of determining what our most important path we must follow.  I use the term “must” rather than “could” because the choice between heaven or hell is a crisis decision that will determine a future that lasts forever.

Why do we need the Church and her Liturgies, especially during Advent, Lent, and the Easter Vigil, since we can rewind our memory to the year before?  Because we need to be rewound in our thinking and what we heard before may not have sunk in like what we shall encounter this time.  We can not refashion the words or Holy Mass on what was, but on the Omnipresence of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

All of this brings another aspect of what is happening in our secular world which promises to affect all true believers in Christ.  The influx of Communism into our nation and the very damage it will have upon our grandchildren and great grandchildren in the near future.  

NYC has elected a Socialist Mayor as well as Seattle.  Another American city or State is declaring that Socialism is their choice for government.  Keep in mind Socialism as a governing entity will soon take over what is presently written in the Constitution of the United States of America and we will no longer have a say on how our nation shall be run or organized.  How we determine what our choice between heaven or hell will answer our quest for eternity, so will the choices of keeping a Judeo/Christian attitude and a free society that is for the people and by the people is essential for life here and in heaven.

Keep this in mind during Advent and just what the Incarnation of Christ is all about.  Freedom to choose our faith and the righteousness of the Church’s people.  

Ralph B. Hathaway