Now we are fasting.* Now we are simplifying our lives. Now we give to those in need what we save by fasting and simplifying our lives.
Now we examine our consciences in peace. Now we confess and repent
of our own sins. Now we are reconciled with God and with the Church. Now we do
penance.
Now we remove distractions and keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. Now
we strip away what does not matter and give ourselves over to the one thing
that does.
Now is the time.
Now we pray. Now we try to learn what it means to pray
unceasingly. Now we spend less time watching television and more time reading
scripture. Now we come more often to the church to pray and worship God.
Because now our lives are demanded of us.
God will say to those unprepared to stand in his glory, “Fool!
This night your soul is required of you.” (Luke 12:20). It does not do to make
preparations for this passing life while neglecting to prepare for the
everlasting life that is to come. Pope Benedict XVI observes, “This life is not
everything. There is an eternity. Today it is very unmodern to say this, even
in theology.” But it remains true, and the weight of the eternal is infinitely
greater than the weight of all the years of our earthly life.
How can we prepare for that limitless life and the unfathomable
glory of God? He has made the way simple for us. He is the way.
The Philip’s Fast, which we have now begun in preparation for the
Nativity of Jesus Christ, is a season of preparation for the coming of the Lord
into the world. The Lord is coming into the world.
One morning, we will wake up and it will feel like Christmas
morning when we were children, because the Lord will have come into the world.
Anyway, that’s how it will feel if we have prepared for him. Either way, that
day is coming.
This Philip’s Fast is another chance to prepare. I had the
opportunity this week to meet up online with several of my old seminary chums.
It was a group video chat, so I could see all of them as well as talk to them,
even though we were all over the country. Such technological marvels we live
among these days. Real life is like an episode of Star Trek. Anyway, unlike the
rest of them, I didn’t have a camera, so they couldn’t see me like I could see
them. All they could see of me was a photo taken a few years ago. So, I pointed
out that I’d gained about 20 lbs. since that photo had been taken. Fr. Lewis
chided me, “That doesn’t sound very ascetical, John.” And so I affably
retorted, “Well, it’s a good thing we’re starting the Philip’s Fast now. Thank
God there’s always another chance to repent.”
“Yeah,” said Fr. Dcn. Tom, “until there’s not.”
There won’t, in fact, always be more time. “The great day of the
Lord is near – near and hastening fast” (Zeph 1:14). This Philip’s Fast is another
opportunity to prepare and repent. Let’s not squander this chance. How many
more will there be? What we do as a Church in these fasting seasons teaches us
how to live our lives in preparation for the last things and the everlasting
things.
Here’s the thing: the day is coming when we will stand in the
glory of the Lord. This is true whether or not we prepare for that glorious
day. If we do not prepare (by living the life of God and cooperating with his
grace) our experience of that glory will be painful – like staring straight
into the sun. But, if we first allow ourselves to be transfigured, little by
little, by God’s own energies, then we will truly live this life he is giving
us, and, on that day, we will be the
glory of God.
“The glory of God is man truly alive,” as St. Irenaeus says. Jesus
says to his Father, “I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may
be one, as we are one” (John 17:22). You see, this glory of God makes us one
with one another just as God, who is three Persons, is one.
What unifies us is the same as what unifies God: love. God is love
(1 John 4:8). So, the way to prepare to stand in the glory of God, the way
to become the
glory of God, to become one as the Persons of God are one, is to love one another.
This is the simple way.
We all want to be loved, and that’s as it should be, I believe. Even God wants to be loved. And he made all of us lovable. All of us. You are lovable and God loves you. Love one another as he loves you (John 13:34). Then you will be prepared to stand in his glory and receive his love not as a searing fire but as a transfiguring light.
✠
*Author’s note: For Byzantine Catholics, The Philip’s Fast or Nativity Fast in preparation for Christmas begins on November 15th, the day after the feast of St. Philip.
image: Adam Jan Figel / Shutterstock.com
