Postscript to Sunday Reflections. Do we choose or reject Jesus for all eternity?

 

Christ Cleansing the Temple

Luca Giordano [Web Gallery of Art]

And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer’; but you have made it a den of robbers" (Luke 19:45-46; Gospel).

I featured the painting above in Sunday Reflections for yesterday in connection with the Gospel for the Traditional Latin Mass for the Eighth Sunday After Pentecost. That Gospel and Luca Giordano's painting show a side of Jesus that is not particularly emphasised these days.

But the longer form of yesterday's Gospel for the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A, shows something of that side of Jesus: Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. So it will be at the close of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

God does not desire that anyone choose that place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth for all eternity. But God has given each of us free will and the ability to choose evil. The daily news shows us how many do so, often to an utterly depraved degree. And each of us knows only too well how often we choose to do what is wrong in 'smaller' things, what we call venial sins.

However, St Paul tells us: But [the Lord] said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

Blessed Rupert Mayer SJ

23 January 1976 – 1 November 1945

[Photo]

Blessed Rupert Mayer SJ was a German Jesuit who lost a leg while serving as a chaplain in the German army during the First World War. He was imprisoned in German before and during the Second World War in a number of places, including a concentration camp, because of his opposition to Nazism. He had a heart attack while celebrating Mass on All Saints' Day 1945 and died shortly afterwards.

Today is the feast of St Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, and Magnificat has for its Meditation of the Day an extract from Blessed Rupert, written when he was in prison. The last part of the meditation really struck me: The ancients in their time used to say that it is sweet to die, likewise to suffer, for one's native land. I have been granted this latter experience in bounteous measure, and I should not wish to have lacked it in my life. But it is even sweeter to suffer for the holy faith, and also to die for it. It is this that fills me with happiness here in prison, and that in turn is fortifying so many thousands of young people in Germany in their Catholic faith. That too fills me with happiness.

Blessed Rupert could see the goodness in the hearts of so many young people in Nazi Germany, even though the country was immersed in evil at the time. He experienced in his own life the truth of the words of St Paul: For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

May the young people attending World Youth Day in Lisbon this week see and experience what Blessed Rupert did and find true happiness in knowing our Lord Jesus Christ. May they choose to follow him for all eternity.

Prayer of Rupert Mayer

Composed by Manoling Francisco SJ

Performed by Himig Heswita

Jesuit Music Ministry, Philippines