Our Catholic Identity

by Ed Beckett '78, Assistant Principal for Spiritual Formation

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There was a very prominent prediction that the world was to end on May 21. May 22 dawned and, mirabile dictu, the world was still here. I, for one, am happy about that. However, I know that the delay of the Second Coming has left us in a “between time.” The Kingdom is both “now” and “not yet fulfilled” – this is the heart of the mystery we celebrate in every Eucharist, indeed, in every sacrament.

Make no mistake; the Christian faith is rooted in the hope that “what is ultimately real will be ultimately realized.” The purpose of creation will be fulfilled. And what is that purpose? As Monika Hellwig wrote, “The destiny intended by the creator for every human person is to find ultimate happiness and the final resolution for the quest of life in intimate and essentially indescribably personal communion with God, and in God with all creation.” This is the heart of our Christian hope. We trust in God and God’s purpose knowing that no matter how often we may fail God, God does not fail us.

There is implanted within the human spirit a striving for the future beyond our present. This is no surprise to Christians or to other religious believers. The hunger for justice and our love for the imperiled and impaired creation that we experience as a world of wonders points towards an unrealized aspiration that, more often than not, brings out the best in us. It serves to motivate us to embrace good and reject evil. It inspires us to seek to understand and do God’s will.

The problem is when some folks affix their own subjective certainty about “the end” with an objective certainty that is not open to question. All too often, it is buttressed by selective readings and interpretation of Scripture. It may be a surprise to some, but John’s Apocalypse (Revelation) was not written to foretell future events. It is a prophetic judgment on his age borrowing familiar symbols and themes from Jewish sources such as the book of Daniel, Ezekiel, Zechariah and Enoch concerning faithfulness to God in the midst of oppression and hardship. It is directed against the emperor Domitian, who declared himself a god, outlawed Jewish religious practice, and declared any subject who refused to worship the emperor an “atheist” at the end of the first-century AD. Christians were persecuted as atheists because they refused to participate in the imperial cult! Faced with exile, banishment, alienation of property, torture and execution, John’s message is meant to inspire hope in a people oppressed by unjust persecution.

It is not difficult to understand why reading a text like Revelation might move some to proclaim it as a blueprint for these times. Wars, rumors of war, terrorism, economic hardship, political corruption, scandals, and declining vocations, boarded up schools, vacant parishes, along with the apparent prospering of evil seem to point to this age being worse than any other. The answer of Revelation and other New Testament texts dealing with the end of the world is clear: “no one knows the day or the hour”, so we are called to be “faithful witnesses” to Christ and exercise patient endurance in the face of all difficulties. We know what Jesus taught us: love your enemies, do good to those who persecute you, welcome the stranger, put away your sword, do not worry about tomorrow, and love one another as I have loved you. How often do we apply these teachings to our own lives? It is not easy to “put away your sword” in a family grudge. It is very difficult to love the enemy within you, those parts of you that must be healed if you are to be whole. It is an enormous challenge to welcome those whom we feel threatened by, those who are different or somehow make us uncomfortable.

Yet Jesus couldn’t be clearer concerning the terms of his judgment, “Whatsoever you do to the least of your brothers and sisters that you do for me.” That means those nearest and dearest to us, as well as those everywhere in need. It also means us. Sometimes we are the beggar at the door asking for mercy. Are we brave enough to admit it, as well as embracing the challenge to be poor in spirit, merciful peacemakers faithful to the source of all mercy and compassion? “Where your heart is, there too shall your treasure be” – so, where is our heart? We don’t need to wait until the end of the world to ask ourselves that question.