Homilies,

The First Sunday of Advent

For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed;
the night is advanced, the day is at hand.

It is tough being a Catholic. I have to hand it to each of you.

You sit here year after year. You listen to the readings and the Gospel.

After Easter you hear readings from the book of Revelation. Before Advent we read from Daniel. This First Sunday of Advent we hear that the day of the Lord is neigh, He is coming, be prepared.

These readings, these books, and these words all point to the last things. So we wonder, when are they coming?

With the growth in Evangelical Churches in the United States, and with their economic power, we find the religion section at Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and Borders, as well as our local library shelves filled with all sorts of books that want to give us clues about the last days.

We hear about Millenialists in all their shades, premillennialist and postmillennialist, the folks who like the Left Behind series. These are the folks who talk about the rapture and the time of tribulation.

We hear about dispensationalism, and Evangelical Christian support of Israel, not for any political reason, but for the sole fact that by their support of Israel they will cause a cataclysmic Middle Eastern war, the war of Armageddon. They tell us that that war will bring about the second coming of Christ.

And here we sit, Catholics, not all so sure about such things.

Its tough being Catholic, you know, leaving things like that to God. Always being prepared, thinking that we will never be sure about what the next moment will bring.

Evangelical Christianity draws people because it is so self assured, so right on, and inerrant about things. People like certainty.

Of course none of that is true. Within Protestant Christianity there are “over 33,000 denominations” and every year there is a net increase of around 270 to 300 denominations. No one among them can agree on what the Holy Scripture teaches, so all that biblical certainty isn’t so certain.

Even among some Catholics you have tales of visionaries and apparitions foretelling the end of things; the sun spinning out of the sky right toward earth.

As Polish National Catholics we teach Scripture as enlightened by the Fathers, Holy Tradition, and the Unified Councils of the Church. Still in all, that leads to the next honest question: For all the Fathers, Tradition, and Councils, why are we so unsure about the last things?

It is tough to admit, that we do not know, but remember, Jesus admitted the same:

In Matthew 24:36 He is recounted as saying:

“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.

St. Mark records this statement in Chapter 13, Verse 32

—But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.—

My friends,

As Catholics we know no certainty other than the certainty of our hope.

Our hope lies in this alone: We will live with God forever in the Kingdom of heaven. We will rise as Jesus did, and we will be transfigured. We will worship the Lord forever in His eternal kingdom.

Certainty is not a story about Armageddon, fantasies of rapture, scary books, or the fear of getting left behind. Certainty is knowing one thing only.

Brothers and Sisters,

Here is the secret.

Our Holy Church, the Polish National Catholic Church, teaches hope. The Holy Catholic Church teaches hope.

Jesus Christ opened the door for us. He crushed Satan under His feet. We are His children, by our baptism and by our adult acceptance of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

We need only this, to accept our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Based on our acceptance our life is changed. We live in accord and unity with the One we have accepted as our hope.

With Jesus there is no fear of the end. That is why we pray so universally Maranatha, Come Lord Jesus.

We have prayed it since we were children: Thy Kingdom come; Przyjdz Krolestwo Twoje; venga a nosotros tu reino.

The prophet Isaiah saw this hope when he proclaimed:

many peoples shall come and say:
—Come, let us climb the LORD’s mountain,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may instruct us in his ways,
and we may walk in his paths.—

So I tell you. You are here, in the house of the Lord. Listen to His teachings and walk in His paths. Do not be unsure, never loose hope, the Lord will not be long in coming.

Amen.

Christian Witness, Perspective, Political

Prosecuting small Christian communities in Turkey

This just off the RSS feed from the BBC: Turkish Christian priest abducted

A priest from Turkey’s Syriac Christian community has been kidnapped in the country’s south-east, officials say.

Edip Daniel Savci’s car was reportedly found abandoned near Midyat town in Mardin province on Wednesday.

A local clergyman had received a phone call demanding a ransom for his release, the Anatolia news agency said.

Attacks on Turkey’s Christian minority have increased recently. A Catholic priest was shot dead last year and three Protestants were killed in April.

Five men accused of the attack on the Protestant missionaries went on trial in the town of Malatya last week.

Turkish police are working to secure the release of the missing priest, security officials said.

Turkey’s Syriac Christian community numbers an estimated 25,000 people and is based mainly in Mardin, in the largely Kurdish south-east, and in Istanbul.

Syriac Christians are one of the faith’s oldest denominations and are found in modern Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.

Touchstone had a great article about the Suriani in March 2006. It is a small community that has mostly fled the Middle East due to persecution.

This follows on the vandalism that occured at the Halki Chapel of the Transfiguration which is part of the Theological School of Halki (closed by the Turks so that no Orthodox clergy might be trained). See: Halki’s Chapel of the Transfiguration left in ruins from Asia News.

Forest guards began demolition work on the chapel without warning, Only the immediate protest of the prior of Haliki and Metropolitan Meliton avoided its total destruction. A Church in Kadikoy, ancient Calcedonia is also targeted by vandals…

Those Turks – such great democrats, such an open and free society, protectors of the rights of all minorities, and wonderful American allies who fight against participate in terrorism.