The Forerunner prepared the way for the manifestation of the Son of God, for the gospel- for the coming Kingdom. We can think of him like we do the Blessed Virgin. God prepared her from before creation in order to cross the infinite divide and become man, without her fiat there would b no Jesus the Man. God also prepared the Forerunner to prepare the way for Christ to manifest himself and bring the Kingdom of God to us.

I suppose folks just don't want to think about the Judgment, it's so unpleasant and negative, while the birth of the Holy Babe is so sweet and joyful. But this is to misunderstand both the Judgment and the Birth. The Birth in fact begins with the great kenosis, the divine humiliation. Talk about negativity- He crossed the infinite divide, and went down. It then proceeds with the death of the Holy Innocents, moves on to exile, scandal, suffering rejection, trauma, and crucifixion.

The Judgment on the other hand, while being a negative experience for some, is in reality, the great and final victory dance for those who have prepared for it. It is the consummation of the power of God poured out on those who love Him. It is their hope fulfilled, the final destruction of their enemies, and their complete and total perfection brought to completion.

Faithfulness is the brass ring, and the thing that we so often lack. And what is critical to achieving this sturdy faithfulness in the Christian life is Knowledge and understanding of the gospel and grace, followed by obedience to what we have learned.

In the last few verses of our reading St. Paul prays that their love may abound. This is a thematic prayer of St. Paul in his epistles. Our love needs to grow and be perfected. We need to love more, and love better. One of the perennial problems we face is sluggishness in spiritual zeal, pulling up short, atrophy, lolly gagging, coasting, half hearted effort, maybe not going in for that sin whole hog but dancing around the edges, playing with fire- snooze button faith- I told my class the other day whoever invented the snooze button was probably inspired by a demon.

Paul runs with vigor, fights with force, presses on towards the high calling. This is what he earnestly prays for when he prays that our love would abound. If you have been sitting on the sidelines, it’s time to get back in the race.

The whole point of fasting is to override the fleshly hunger, by ignoring it and turning to your true desire which is for God. But this can only be effectively done if you realize what is actually going on in the process, otherwise you may fall prey to the temptation. The enemy is shrewd and powerful, dangerous and threatening... only to those who are ignorant or blatantly disobedient. To those who are aware and lovers of God, he has no more power than a marshmallow.

When we say He is master and ruler to whom we owe obedience, we do not mean despot. He is a benevolent ruler who has laid down his life for us. As King he defeats our enemy and brings peace to his subjects. He then rders our life in harmonious proportion so that it is a content and beautiful life in the kingdom. He provides nurture and sustenance for his subjects. He feeds us a sumptous banquet. And not just in food but in treasure, as king He is a gift giver. Christ the King ascended on high and gave gifts to men.

The Parable of the Wedding Feast is really about the uncompromising nature of God, which is just, good, and holy. And if we're going to enjoy the wedding feast with His Son, we must be clothed with goodness and holiness. Simply because darkness has no fellowship with light. Simply, because light destroys the darkness. This is not a moralism. This is just a metaphysical reality: light destroys darkness.

Would we have God become darkness, so that we might feel a little better about Him in this parable? Would that make Him kinder, gentler, more merciful? If He became a little bit dark? So that this poor old sap didn't get thrown into outer darkness? If He were to become part of the evil? Is this the kind of God we would imagine that would be more loving? Or do we cry out with the holy ones for justice, for God to destroy evil in the world, and in our hearts? To liberate us from the tyranny of sin and death, to set all things in order? To set all things rightly: that is what justice is.

Jesus' answer to the lawyer concerning which commandment was greatest does not devalue or dismiss the Law and Prophets. It actually sets them in the highest order. He says that the law and prophets are in fact all about Love. They have been sorely misunderstood and Jesus gives the key which unlocks their true meaning.

It is only through the lens of love that you will understand the Law and the Prophets, the Divine revelation in the Holy Scriptures. He is not depreciating the Scriptures by his statement but raising them to the highest order.

The context of our existence is time, and the very meaning of our life is revealed in the consecration of time- by making life liturgical. To fully arrive at the sabbath is to be perfected in God. That is the Sabbath over yonder, the Eternal Sabbath post Resurrection. But what is the Sabbath now, on this side?

The Sabbath now is a journey to being fully alive, and we pass through times, and seasons, and cycles of life, in which this journey must be consecrated to God continuously. There are many side ramps along the way which would distract us, so we need something to hold on to that will lead us home: and that is the liturgical life. A major part of us keeping the Sabbath is to prioritize the sacrifice of the Mass and a life of prayer.

We know that Jesus has overcome the power of death, he has restored life and given us a reason to live with hope. And yet he has not removed death from our experience, not yet. He has not removed the stimulus of grief and sorrow and pain in this present life- we still go through it. We still face disappointments and temptation to despair.

We can get angry and resentful and accuse God of all kinds of things, or we can trust in His goodness, and justice, and love, and know that while we still exist in a place where death and sorrow must be passed through, we know through godly hope that Jesus will have the last word, He will be there to say "stop weeping and arise".