Tuesday in the 33rd Week of Ordinary Time, November 15, 2022

Revelation 3, 1-6; 14-22

I, John, heard the Lord saying to me: “To the angel of the Church in Sardis, write this: “‘The one who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars says this: “I know your works, that you have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Be watchful and strengthen what is left, which is going to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Remember then how you accepted and heard; keep it, and repent. If you are not watchful, I will come like a thief, and you will never know at what hour I will come upon you. However, you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments; they will walk with me dressed in white, because they are worthy. ‘The victor will thus be dressed in white, and I will never erase his name from the book of life but will acknowledge his name in the presence of my Father and of his angels.
Whoever has ears ought to hear what the Spirit says to the church’s.’ ”

“To the angel of the Church in Laodicea, write this: ‘The Amen, the faithful and true witness, the source of God’s creation, says this: “I know your works; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, ‘I am rich and affluent and have no need of anything,’ and yet do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I advise you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich, and white garments to put on so that your shameful nakedness may not be exposed, and buy ointment to smear on your eyes so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and chastise. Be earnest, therefore, and repent.  Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me. I will give the victor the right to sit with me on my throne, as I myself first won the victory and sit with my Father on his throne. Whoever has ears ought to hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’ ”

Many of the Lord’s acts recorded in the Gospels are signs of the end of time.  In today’s Gospel Reading (Luke 19, 1-10), Jesus visits the tax collector Zacchaeus.  In outline, we see the approach of the Lord; Zacchaeus, who wants to see Jesus, climbs a tree; the Lord speaks to Zacchaeus; the tax collector repents of his sins; the Lord eats in his house.  This shows us how the Lord came once in history, many people repented and climbed the tree of virtues in order to see the Lord in heaven; the Lord eats with them in the eternal banquet in heaven.

So important is the message of the last days that the Lord goes beyond what he teaches in figure and in word in the Gospels by giving us an entire book of visions that tell us in deep and sometimes searing images of the times in which we live now and the times to come, during which all of creation will be disassembled in a way that mirrors how it was all assembled in the first book of the Holy Scriptures, Genesis.  The Book of Revelation continues to mirror Genesis.  Human history is shown to begin in Genesis and end in Revelation with humans in Paradise.  The devil tempts the first humans to sin and they are expelled from Paradise; he is totally defeated in Revelation and humans enter Paradise.  The central character in Genesis, Abraham, leaves his homeland in obedience to God, who makes a covenant with him; in Revelation, the central character is the Beast which comes out of hell to fight against God.  This mirroring can be shown to continue further.  There are also signs in Revelation that we can use to check ourselves to see how faithful we are to God’s words.  These can be found in the form of the Letters to the Churches found in chapters two and three.  While these were actual letters dictated by the Lord to John for him to forward to their respective destinations, we can also see them as telling us about ourselves.  Various of these letters pertain particularly to certain times in Church history.  The First Reading for today’s Mass contains two of these.

The first is directed to the Church in Sardis, a city in western Asia Minor.  The Lord speaks very directly to the people there: “I know your works, that you have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.”  That is, they have done much charitable work but have not maintained their faith.  They work out of the desire for praise from other people but not from God.  All they are doing then is mere social work.  The Lord tells them, “Be watchful and strengthen what is left, which is going to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.”  How did they come to this state?  It is simple.  They wanted to be like their fellow citizens. They began as stalwart Christians, living a radically different life from their countrymen, and then began to allow themselves to be re-assimilated by their society.  They sold out.  They have “fallen asleep” in the complacency which their newfound security within the community allowed, but the Lord’s return will catch them flat like “a thief in the night”.  A very few have continued to live the radical life of Christ, and these the Lord promises to acknowledge “in the presence of my Father and of his angels.”

The second letter is directed to the Church is Laodicea.  The believers there have also become mediocre: “I know your works; I know that you are neither cold nor hot.”  That is, they are not cold as though done by unbelievers, but neither are they hot as done by those on fire with the Faith.  These will be very difficult to resuscitate because they do not see anything wrong with what they do.  They go to Mass, they baptize their children, they do a good work now and then, but their belief in Christ overall does not affect their public behavior.  They are not converting their fellow citizens.  They do not pray.  Their condition is dire: “Because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth,” the Lord tells them.  Their belief that they can take care of themselves masks their vice: “I am rich and affluent and have no need of anything,’ and yet do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.”  They are wretched in their inability to know how far they have slipped from God; they are pitiable because once they thrived as Christians; they are poor in that they do not have lasting treasure in heaven; they are blind in that they only see the things of this world and do not look up for heavenly realities; and they are naked and not clothed in good works.  The Lord does not give up on them: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.”  He stands at the door of their souls and st the door of their Church, and seeks entrance.  

How many parishes have given way to existing merely as social clubs, therapy centers, or social welfare societies!  This has happened even on the diocesan and national level.  The worship of God has turned into self-reliance and worship of self there.  But this can be turned around through the desire to serve God: “If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me.”  

Let us take stock of ourselves and of our parishes so that instead of being vomited out of the mouth of the Lord, so that we will be victors in heaven, having overcome the world as he did before us (cf. John 16, 33).