Disconnected Thoughts

First, I’ve neglected the blog for a week or so because our elder daughter and her five children have been visiting. One, the eldest of the five, had to leave us to return to his job in Charleston, but the others remain to delight our lives. After they flew in from Boston, we spent several days in Orlando and then headed for our home in The Villages. Unfortunately, one of the family also brought us a gift: a bug that left the rest of us, including Diane and me, with rather nasty head colds. It’s left Diane and me very tired, with runny noses and mildly sore throats, but thanks to meds from Walgreens we’re on the mend…slowly. We hope to be all healed and soon up to our usual slow speed.

Second, I’ve also neglected my dear Bible Study regulars, now numbering almost 100 parishioners, and it’s been nearly a month (perhaps longer) since I’ve written one of my study guides. Diane and I went off on a few little trips during April and May, followed by the arrival of daughter and grandchildren, so I suppose I have an excuse. I hope to get busy on a new one next week. In the meantime, you can always reread one of the existing study guides posted on our Bible Study Website.

Anyway, as I recover from this pesky common cold, I’ve been thinking about lots of odd things, mostly about our world and how its rational inhabitants largely ignore the God who created them. At the risk of boring you all, especially those few stalwarts who occasionally read a post or two, I decided to share some of these thoughts.

A few years ago I read The Christians as the Romans Saw Them,  a wonderful little book by Robert Louis Wilkin, Professor of the History of Christianity at the University of Virginia. Surprisingly, although the Romans had quite a lot to say about Christians, they had very little to say about Jesus. Most of the Romans who mentioned Christians despised them and their teachings. And because Christians refused to worship the Roman gods, but instead worshiped a man who was crucified as a criminal, they were thought to be atheists. Reading what the Romans had to say, one would think Christianity just sprang up out of nowhere and it’s founder, a nobody from a minor province, wasn’t worth mentioning. Of course, from the world’s perspective, that’s exactly who Jesus is: a nobody. I suppose most educated Romans considered Jesus Himself simply unworthy of much mention. This really shouldn’t surprise us, since Jesus is the very font of the humility He preached to His disciples. How did St. Paul put it?

Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross [Phil 2:6-8].

The Son of Man lived in the world, and lived in the deepest humility. The world, in which Satan thrives, cannot comprehend humility and will always try to ignore Jesus or, failing that, attack and belittle Him. We see this today among the self-proclaimed elite and especially among the politicians who endlessly proclaim their Christianity while openly ignoring Jesus and the Magisterial teachings of His Church. We who claim to be Christians ignore Jesus at our peril. As St. Paul continued in his hymn-like teaching to the Philippians, Jesus, the Son of Man, is far more than a humble, itinerant preacher, for He is also Son of God:

Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father [Phil 2:9-11].

Yes, indeed, “Jesus Christ is Lord,” but many tongues do not yet confess this truth. As Paul reminds us, “…at the name of Jesus every knee should bend.” Every knee should, but so few do. 

Not long ago, a parishioner and Bible Study regular told me she was sure Jesus would convert the world before He returned. I told her I hoped she was right but didn’t believe that would happen. I referred her to something Jesus asked, a series of questions that has always caused me to question the depth of my own faith:

Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them? I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? [Lk 18:7-8]

It’s that final question that gives me pause, and leads me to what Jesus had to say about those final days:

Many false prophets will arise and deceive many, and because of the increase of evildoing, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the world as a witness to  all nations, and then the end will come [Mt 24:11-14].

I suppose we haven’t yet preached the gospel to everyone throughout the world, but we’re getting close. There’s certainly been an “increase in evildoing” while the love of many, sadly even many Christians, has grown very, very cold. 

Will the entire world experience a mass conversion in a big kumbaya hug with the returning Jesus? Jesus doesn’t tell us that. He tells us to “persevere…and then the end will come.”

Because I have no idea when that end will come, I refuse to be consumed by worry or fear. But in the meantime you and I should certainly pray for our nation and our world, and pray for the conversion of all. But we must also realize that the end days will be preceded by some very difficult times that call for our perseverance.