As we mentioned yesterday, the Book of Revelation begins
with a vision of Christ walking among seven lampstands—which stand for the
seven churches of Asia Minor. After that inaugural vision, each of those seven
churches are addressed individually. Yesterday’s reading ended, actually, with
a message to the Christians at Ephesus, the place where John to the Blessed
Mother to live with her before her Assumption into heaven.
Today we heard the messages to the Church in Sardis and the
Church in Laodicea, the fifth and seventh churches to be addressed. The
messages share many similarities, the primary one being that Jesus Christ is
aware of the situation in their communities, and that he offers them words both
of comfort and challenge.
As we heard, the situation in Sardis was pitiful. The
Christians were on the verge of losing their faith entirely. Jesus said, “I
know your works, you have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.”
There couldn’t be a stronger rebuke. Could you image? Jesus himself says to our
parish of St. Clare, “You claim to be Christian, you claim to be faithful, but
your faith is dead because your works are incomplete in my sight.”
Jesus speaks here to all the Catholics-in-name-only, here.
He says, fan into flame what little faith you actually have, or else you will
be caught unaware on the day of judgment. Each of us has a responsibility to
help those Catholics-in-name-only members of our community. Jesus is saying
here, you don’t want to be a Catholic-in-name-only on the day of judgment. A
challenge to all of us, to ensure our actions, our choices, are fitting of the
name Christian.
Jesus’ message to Laodicea is nearly just as correctional:
he says, the Christians there are neither hot nor cold for the faith, simply
lukewarm, and it makes him want to spit them out of his mouth. The Christians
had become complacent, and had begun to place more trust in money and politics
than in the teaching of the Church.
Jesus then exhorts them to repentance and greater zeal for
the Gospel, and concludes his message with one of the most beautiful images in
the entire book. Jesus stands at the door and knocks. Jesus stands at the door
of the hearts of all people. He knocks, calling out to us to open our hearts to
him.
Often the doors of our hearts are closed to Jesus out of
fear and pride: fear of what Jesus might be calling us to, fear of what worldly
behaviors and attitudes he is calling us to give up, and pride because we think
we know better than God.
But when we open the door to him, he enters our homes and
dines with us, we get to experience the joy of an intimate friendship with Him.
May we respond generously to the Lord’s correction of our
faults and our lack of trust, so that we may come to experience more deeply the
joy of his friendship for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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