{"id":31899,"date":"2017-11-15T15:20:45","date_gmt":"2017-11-15T21:20:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/?p=31899"},"modified":"2022-11-11T15:59:35","modified_gmt":"2022-11-11T21:59:35","slug":"judgment-of-the-living","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/judgment-of-the-living\/","title":{"rendered":"Judgment of the Living","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
\nfor November 15th, 2017
\nWednesday of the Thirty-Second Week in Ordinary Time
\nOpt. Memorial St. Albert the Great<\/p>\n

Liturgical texts\u00a0here<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"“FAITHFUL AND TRUE”<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

EVERY <\/strong>day, the sun rises, the seasons advance, babies are born, and others pass away. It is easy to forget that we are living in a dramatic, dynamic story, an epic true tale that is unfolding moment by moment. The world is racing toward its climax: the judgment of the nations<\/em>. To God and the angels and saints, this story is ever-present; it occupies their love and heightens holy anticipation toward the Day when the work of Jesus Christ will be brought to completion.<\/p>\n

The climax of salvation history is what we call the “Day of the Lord.<\/a>” According to the Early Church Fathers, it is not a 24 hour solar day but the “thousand year” period St. John foresaw in Revelation 20 that would follow the death of Antichrist\u2014the “beast.”<\/p>\n

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Behold, the Day of the Lord shall be a thousand years.<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014Letter of Barnabas,\u00a0The Fathers of the Church,\u00a0<\/em>Ch. 15<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The purpose of the “Day of the Lord<\/a>” is multi-faceted. Primarily, it is to bring to completion the act of Redemption begun on the Cross of Christ.<\/p>\n

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For the mysteries of Jesus are not yet completely perfected and fulfilled. They are complete, indeed, in the person of Jesus, but not in us, who are his members, nor in the Church, which is his mystical body.<\/b>\u00a0\u2014St. John Eudes, treatise \u201cOn the Kingdom of Jesus\u201d,\u00a0Liturgy of the Hours<\/i>, Vol IV, p 559<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What Jesus desires to bring to completion is the “obedience of faith” in His Church, which is essentially to restore in man the gift of living in the Divine Will<\/a> that Adam and Eve enjoyed in the Garden of Eden <\/em>before the fall.<\/p>\n

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Just as all men share in the disobedience of Adam, so all men must share in the obedience of Christ to the Father\u2019s will. Redemption will be complete only when all men share his obedience.<\/strong> \u2014Servant of God Fr. Walter Ciszek, He Leadeth Me,<\/em> pg. 116-117<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

But in order for this restored grace<\/em><\/a> to be fully realized, Satan must be chained, and those who follow and worship the beast, judged and literally wiped from the face of the earth. Imagine a world<\/a> where the constant accusations of the devil are silenced<\/a>; where the warmongers<\/a> are gone; where the princes of the earth who oppress men<\/a> have vanished; where the purveyors of violence<\/a>, lust<\/a>, and greed<\/a> have been removed…. this is the Era of Peace<\/a> that the book of Isaiah, Ezekiel, Malachi, Zechariah, Zephaniah, Joel, Micah, Amos, Hosea, Wisdom, Daniel, and Revelation spoke of, and then the Church Fathers interpreted according to Apostolic teaching:<\/p>\n

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A man among us named John, one of Christ\u2019s Apostles, received and foretold that the followers of Christ would dwell in Jerusalem for a thousand years, and that afterwards the universal and, in short, everlasting resurrection and judgment would take place.<\/strong> \u2014St. Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho<\/em>, Ch. 81, The Fathers of the Church, Christian Heritage<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It will truly be a “rest” for the Church from her labors\u2014a kind of seventh day “sabbath” before the “eighth” and eternal day.<\/p>\n

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\u2026when His Son will come and destroy the time of the lawless one and judge the godless, and change the sun and the moon and the stars\u2014then He shall indeed rest on the seventh day\u2026 after giving rest to all things, I will make the beginning of the eighth day, that is, the beginning of another world.<\/strong> \u2014Letter of Barnabas (70-79 A.D.), written by a second century Apostolic Father<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This “seventh day” is preceded by the judgment of the living<\/a>. <\/em>We pray in our Creed that Jesus\u2026<\/p>\n

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\u2026will come again to judge the living and the dead<\/strong>. \u2014Apostle\u2019s Creed<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In Scripture, we clearly see this Judgment of the living<\/em> and the dead<\/em><\/a>\u2014but separated in St. John’s vision in Revelation 20 by that “thousand years”, which is symbolic of an extended “period of peace.” What comes before the Era of Peace <\/em>is the judgment of the living at the time of Antichrist; then afterward, the “everlasting resurrection and judgment” (see The Last Judgments<\/a><\/em>). At the judgment of the living, we read of Jesus appearing in the heavens as a Rider upon a white horse, He who is “Faithful and True”. Revelation says:<\/p>\n

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Out of his mouth came a sharp sword to strike the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod, and he himself will tread out in the wine press the wine of the fury and wrath of God the almighty…\u00a0 (<\/span>Revelation 19:15)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

We read that the “beast and the false prophet” and all those who took the “mark of the beast” are destroyed by this “sword.” [1]<\/sup><\/a>cf. Rev 19:19-21<\/span><\/span>