Springtime

Credit: Ed Serecky

As I walked into Mass yesterday,  I noticed that there were a few more folks than usual there. It was daily Mass, so there wasn't any music, we didn't even attempt to sing something. Mass went by without the slightest notice that yesterday was meant to be something more. A feast, a celebration, and yet it still was, even in its regularity.

The Catholic Church is supposed to be universal. A large majority of the Church celebrated something yesterday, while a majority of the AmChurch didn't. I felt an emptiness, but not sadness. There was longing, but not despair. I couldn't put my finger on it, but it was almost as if I could hear singing of in the distance, so faint that it was constantly interrupted by the wind. That same wind caused the chill on my skin, and yet the sun that shined was waging war with the cold and warming me faster than the wind could chill me. I know that their are a lot of folks that are pretty apocalyptic about our culture, and I know that there are a lot of problems in the Church - especially the AmChurch, but I felt the sun of the 'Springtime of the Church' yesterday.

As I sat there, stood there, and kneeled there, I was a little upset. Everyone knows that bloggers of my ilk, complain incessantly about Ascension Thursday Sunday. By moving the feast, we have co-opted a piece of our Catholic culture, our identity, and we have weakened our faith. That is what I was thinking about, and praying about; "God restore your Church, strengthen it, revitalize it!" I will be honest, I was pretty apocalyptic when I walked into Mass yesterday. But then the Gospel was read, which I hadn't read ahead of time, and I changed my mind and really my heart.

John 16:16-20 -

Jesus said to his disciples:
“A little while and you will no longer see me,
and again a little while later and you will see me.”
So some of his disciples said to one another,
“What does this mean that he is saying to us,
‘A little while and you will not see me,
and again a little while and you will see me,’
and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?”
So they said, “What is this ‘little while’ of which he speaks?
We do not know what he means.”
Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them,
“Are you discussing with one another what I said,
‘A little while and you will not see me,
and again a little while and you will see me’?
Amen, amen, I say to you,
you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices;
you will grieve, but your grief will become joy.”

I sat there with goosebumps on my arms. Why had I never really thought about this verse as it relates to the state of the Church right now? Maybe it was ironic, no, symbolic of our state of affairs. I didn't realize it, because that is the point. God was speaking to me through the cracks in the foundation of his Bride - the Church. The cracks don't exist because it is weak, but because we put them there and rather than prevent them He is using them in His infinite wisdom.

We don't see Christ right now the way that we should. We have relegated Him to Sunday, both figuratively and literally in the case of the Ascension. We have modernism run rampant in our parishes, we have forgotten tradition and truth for the sake of novelty and relevance. We walk into churches and see no sign of our Catholic culture let alone the sacred. Sometimes it is hard to even see God in our Mass, our Church, or our brothers and sisters. Abortion, Same-Sex Unions, cries for 'womyn priests', and all sorts of culture infections within the AmChurch. We bemoan these changes, we weep, we moan. Yet, He has promised that we will see him again.

That is when I became inspired. His explanation is not only a sign of Faith & Hope, but one of Love. He will not leave us, we will not be orphans!

Amen, amen, I say to you,
you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices;
you will grieve, but your grief will become joy.”

Link

Isn't this the truth?!? The world is rejoicing in its debauchery, its victories, its depravity. This is exactly what is happening! So that it hope, that is our signal! That is our springtime! Because what comes next is that the grief will turn to JOY! We must go through this process because it is TRUTH. We know there will be joy, we know it! We know it because He said it to be so - and therefore it will come to be! And we know it will become from our grief! He doesn't say how, so why not through the acknowledgement that it is to be so?

Like those moments in movies where the hero is almost defeated and then they flip that switch and turn the tide, maybe we need to decide to be joyful. Maybe we need to take back our faith, our culture, and the Church! It will be like a wave, starting as just a small notion that something is occurring until the swell engulfs the shore and wipes away all the sadness and grief. We can turn this grief into joy and happiness, we can make these empty feasts into a preparation for the Summer of our Joy!

So let's become that drop in the ocean that creates the tidal wave. Let's turn our tears of sadness into the raindrops that sprout the flowers of springtime. Let's turn our sadness into a cause for revolution. Let's pray our Rosaries, go to Adoration, request the TLM, get involved at our parish, give of our time, talent and treasure to that which builds up His Bride. Let us rejoice in all that is good and sacred and let's revel in the Springtime that is promised to us. So let not the emptiness be a sign of despair, but one of expectation. Let us see it as a hidden sign of the great things to come.

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