Last Sunday we walked out of Mass uplifted, at least I did, refreshed in mind, body and spirit and then on arriving back at the Compound, pouring a glass of the right stuff and clicking on Drudge, things didn't seem so good.
There it was, Devin Kelley had killed 26 people and wounded at least 20 in an act of murderous, irrational, rage. "Why," asked one hardened LE Officer, "was it Satan?" Good question. Try phrasing the act another way. "A man of iniquity, full of bestial wrath, blasphemously profaned the Temple with the blood of the martyrs."
Satan
Put that way, Kelley's massacre sounds apocalyptic and it was, quite literally, for his victims; they met their last day. As such, Sutherland Springs serves as a partial type or prefigurement of the Apocalypse. What does this look like? We know the broad outline because Christ tells us, in Matthew 24.
Wars and rumours of war, earthquakes and false Messiahs. Here we find the birth-pains of the second Advent. Then follows the birth-crisis, the triumph of paganism and the setting up of idolatrous cult, the abomination of desolation on Mount Zion, accompanied by ferocious, such as the world has not yet seen, persecution of the Church.
Virgins Wise And Foolish
The Apostle Paul and St. John The Divine add to the mystery, telling us that this phase of blasphemous ascendance is led by a man, the son of perdition, or Antichrist, who is endowed with supernatural ability to "deceive the very elect." At this time there will be a great "falling away" or apostasy.
Then after the travail comes birth itself, the second Advent of the Son of Man, presaged by cosmic upheaval, who appears on clouds of divine glory to vanquish evil and vindicate the faithful. At last the Bridegroom returns. In the onrushing face of this, where do we stand?
A Typical Wise Virgin
Hopefully like the wise virgins who had the sense to stock their lamps with oil. Herein lies a symbol. The lamps represent faith, which holds the light of good works, of mercy, love, forgiveness and compassion, all fueled by the oil of love and the indwelling presence of the Spirit who is the personification of love.
The message, then, is simple. We must be filled with the fire of divine love, as light shining in the darkness and then, when the Bridegroom finally appears, we will see Him and He us, granting us admittance into the marriage feast of the Lamb.
Bad Virgins!
To return to Sutherland Springs; those people, knowingly or not, were prepared for their apocalypse. They were loving God in worship.
May God grant us grace to do the same. And, not to put too fine a point on it, if you're licensed, carry.
Your Old Pal,
LSP
Those who prepared, both spiritually and physically were prudent and were accepted. Those who didn't, weren't. Life presents a sifting. One parishioner with a firearm (or maybe two or three) would have ended Kelly's murderous rampage. But they were unprepared to do anything but behave like Jews being rounded up and slaughtered by Nazis. The lesson is to be both spiritually and physically prepared (enough oil and the sense to keep your lamp full)...because you can be wheat or tares/sheep or goats both in the sense of physically prepared and in the spiritual sense.
ReplyDeleteFollowing the example of Jesus Christ and reading his words helps us do both things.
LL, as you say, the spiritual must go hand in hand with the temporal. In this case, it's too bad that so many were shot last Sunday.
ReplyDeleteIf everyone had been carrying as licensed? Different story.
Of course some would argue that law abiding citizens shouldn't have guns. Sutherland Springs says no to that.
Amen.
ReplyDeleteI send that, Linda.
DeleteWhen seconds count, the police are minutes away. It's a simple fact of life.
ReplyDeleteWell said, LL. And I've updated the post to reflect that wisdom.
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