by Father Anthony F. Raso
IN THE FIFTH GRADE in Our Lady of Angels School, my best friend was Frankie. In many ways, Frankie and I formed a kind of “opposites attract” friendship: I was the second-smartest boy in the class (Yeah, “second-smartest” … I don’t think I’ve ever recovered from that. Anyway…) and Frankie, well, kind of struggled academically. Outside of school, however, he was the smartest, shrewdest, wisest kid you’d ever met. He had a devastatingly smart answer for everything, but not in the classroom.
Therefore, it surprised everyone, not excluding Sister John Marie, when one day in late 1958, she asked the class what they thought was in the “Secret of Fatima,” a very hot topic at the time. No one, and certainly not I, raised his or her hand — except Frankie, whose hand was usually never raised at all.
“Frank?” said Sister, “you (YOU?) know the answer to that?”
“Yes, Sister,” he replied. “The secret is that, when the pope opens the letter, it will be the end of the world.” Then he smiled with the utmost satisfaction, having had the greatest moment of his academic career. I don’t remember what the good Sister replied but, I assure you, for the next year and a half, I never again had a full night’s sleep, knowing that when John XXIII opened that letter, it was going to be all over for everyone, and especially boys like me who occasionally punched their little brother Christopher (albeit not without eminently good cause at the moment).
It seems now like I was crazy, but I can testify to the fact that every girl and boy in that class turned white as a sheet when Frankie pronounced the end of times, including, I noted with a gulp, Sister John Marie.
Why did we have that sort of a reaction? I think it had to do with the fact that the term, “fear of the Lord,” was at that stage in Church history, understood as being just what it sounded like, namely FEAR of the Lord. Of course, nowadays we’re much more wise and sophisticated about such matters. Or are we? Remember, earlier in the year when some old guy announced that on a certain day the world was going to end? People gathered in, among other places, Times Square, and when the appointed hour came and went and Times Square was still there, there were smiles of relief. I think that we still cast a suspicious eye Heavenward every now and then, even in the year of Our Lord 2011.
But why? Our religion is based upon the Holy Scriptures and the traditions that have their roots in them. However, as our readings today on this Second Sunday of Advent clearly tell us, the “tradition” of being frightened by God is something we certainly do not get from the Bible. Quite the contrary, in fact.
I love — absolutely love — our first reading today from Isaiah: “Comfort, give comfort to My people… Speak tenderly… A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the Lord!”
In the seminary, I was in the choir and one of the hymns we sang was taken from this passage in the Scriptures, these words set to equally beautiful music, and rightfully so. This is God speaking to us in His own voice, sending us His most heartfelt message of all: “Fear not! Here is your God. Like a shepherd, He gathers His lambs.” To be in any way afraid of God may have been mistakenly in the air in 1958 in the fifth grade but now we should just listen to Our Father speaking so clearly and so lovingly to us. He is coming again with His gift of love. Should we run away from Him? Hardly. We should spend our lives running toward Him, to meet Him on the road.
Our Gospel today from St. Mark offers us the same message. John the Baptist appears in the desert with a very definite message: A baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The One coming after Him, he says, will baptize us with the Holy Spirit. A time of rejoicing has come. The night is over. The sun is rising and the Light of glory is beginning to shine at last.
Of course, in our second reading, St. Peter, who knows plenty about such matters, tells us this world is indeed passing away and that “the Day of the Lord will come like a thief.” If we are wise at all, we should use this holy season to prepare ourselves for that day and be ready for the Lord when He comes. We should, He wisely says, be “eager to be found without spot or blemish.” If we do so, then the day of the Lord will be nothing to fear. It will be a glorious day for everyone who belongs to the Kingdom of God on earth.
Like St. Peter, we all have a bit of a checkered past, sin-wise, but — also like St. Peter — if we repent as he did and prepare ourselves as he did, then the day is coming soon when we will take our place with all of the Apostles in the House of Our Father.
Fear of God tomorrow is nonsense if our hearts belong to Him today. We should all believe that in our hearts and count on it, even if we were only the second-smartest boy in the fifth grade.[hr] Readings for the Second Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 40: 1-5, 9-11
Psalm 85: 9-12, 13-14
2 Peter 3: 8-14
Mark 1:1-8[hr] Father Anthony F. Raso is the pastor of St. Sylvester’s parish, City Line
