Ephesians 2:14-22
Psalm 90:1-17
Luke 12:16-21
The first time we heard the proclamation, "Eat! Drink! Be merry!" no doubt, a great positive was etched upon our young imaginations. As at the house of Chaucer's squire, where it "rains food and drink," we hear, hospitality, a gathering of friends and family, and the warmth of hearth and home. It is sobering in our mature years, therefore, to discover that the origin of this phrase has no positive feelings attached to it at all. Rather, it is rooted in the most negative connotations possible. Not family revels, but rather grief and mourning. And far worse, for the scene depicts not merely a happy (we pray) departure to the greater life, but rather eternal death.
The wealthy plantation owner must face his Eternal Judge. The gravest event of his life has begun to unfold. Yet, he is in a godless state of mind, even a giddy state of soul. In effect, he sits in his counting house and will drink many toasts to himself before dawn for attaining his great personal goal, which is independent wealth. And then he climbs into his bed and then ... out of the world.
Perhaps you have heard the story of the "village idiot"
and
the king.
It is an ancient story set in the days of city-states,
before nations existed.
One poor fellow in a kingdom is picked out
for mockery and derision.
His simple mind has become a source for constant amusement
in the dog-pack mentality of the public square
(before the word bullying was invented).
One day the king passes by and joins the others.
Seeking to top his subjects in wit and clever insult,
he hands the poor man a walking staff
saying,
"Travel the world!
If you can find a fool greater than yourself,
give him this staff."
Predictably,
the obedient subject takes the command of his king literally
and departs through the city gate with his staff
setting off a general hilarity.
The poor man travels from kingdom to kingdom
obediently
seeking a man yet more simple than himself,
yet always departing with his staff.
After many years, he finally arrives back to the kingdom
from where he had begun his longtime journey.
The king, he is told, lies ill.
He is upon his deathbed,
and
the poor man is given leave to visit the royal bedside.
When the king sees him,
he sighs
and
says,
"I fear that I too am about to depart on a long journey.
It is, by far, the most important mission of my life.
And I find, at the point of departure, that I have not prepared for it."
Hearing this,
the fool extends his staff and says,
"Then take this, sire, for truly you are the greatest fool I have met
in all the world."
How ironic! For the Western Christian calendar had intended the opposite. All Hallows E'en, as it was once called, was for centuries an occasion for reflecting on the greater life. We were asked to reflect on the inescapable arrival of our death on earth. All Hallows E'en was said to be a day when the dead stirred from their sleep reminding us that we belong to an unimaginably vast human family who once lived on earth. The ones now living? They are but the tiniest fraction ... who must soon join the great majority. The next day is All Hallows Day, a day to celebrate the greater life and the heroes who have preceded us in the world. And the day after that we honor All Souls Days, when we pray for souls whose eternal fate is unknown to us but who might profit from our prayers. After this, Western Christians embark upon the season of Advent and thence to Christmastide to worship the Son of the God, whose offer of friendship and whose victory over human death continues to stand as the only great and abiding security in our lives ... for which (we might add) you do not have to build larger barns.
That such a long season, should have devolved into a prolonged, wearisome occasion for feasting, drinking, and conspicuous consumption is surely a dark victory, affirming very different divine figures: fallen angels running rampant in a fallen world. Perhaps their high and holy feast is "Black Friday" — a phrase made of two words that inevitably call to mind the martyrdom of God's Son. Yes, I know its historical meaning celebrates the day when retailers are "in the black," enjoying huge profits. But isn't it ironic that the co-incidence of these words, Friday and Black, inescapably touch upon the greatest tragedy in human history, which is the rejection of God and the murder of His Son? It is the one day in the year that I take out a chasuble whose color is black.
Please tell me, Is this not a sign from sign from Heaven? A marker in our divine journeys that we would be foolish to disregard? The rationalist, for whom human reason is king, would dismiss this dark co-incidence as being meaningless. But such a person also rejects the existence of spiritual warfare, of angels and demons, of Heaven and Hell, and of God Himself. I recall a conversation about ten years ago when the Roman Catholic bishop who was my ecclesiastical authority expressed surprise that I believed in the devil. I replied, "Who does not notice Him, Excellency ... and witness his objectives: marriage, our children, the Church — checkmate." He looked stunned but said nothing.
We must never forget that a core principle of the Christian faith, going back to the Apostles, is that literal facts and events have an allegorical meaning just as our lives have an allegorical meaning. That is, the biography of each person is also a deeper story with hidden meanings telling a spiritual tale. And the same is true of any history of a culture or civilization. Yes, each sets out a chronicle of persons and events, but inevitably it is also a spiritual story, with deeper, allegorical meanings, leading to a spiritually significant conclusion. For each is either a godly story or it is tragedy, a tale of alienation from God, even rejection of God. There are no facts more basic than these in the life of any Christian.
Nearly a half-century ago I began to study languages and literatures as I prepared to become a medievalist, a specialist in the English Middle Ages. During that time I studied occultism and learned more about "black arts" than I ever wished to know. I learned that by ancient tradition, the fallen angels have no prayers or liturgies of their own. The essence of Satanism is to take what is holy and turn it on its head. Holy prayers are said backwards. Holy practices are reversed. And as the Creation is rooted in the Logos, which is God's Real Name, the saying of God's Real Name backwards would, Satanists believe, pull asunder the good world itself, destroying all that God had made. For goodness alone is God's (Mk 10:18).
The day after Thanksgiving Thursday, the Orthodox Catholic world begins the forty-day Nativity Fast. (Monks and other devout Orthodox in the U.S. began on the fast on Thanksgiving itself.) This most ancient practice bids us rein in feasting and drinking and conspicuous consumption. Living each day on the slenderest of food stuffs — vegetables and leafy greens without dressing, bread without butter, water, not milk.
Yes,
the holy worlds of the Apostles and the Early Church could not have foreseen
Black Friday
and
the orgy of self-indulgence that precedes and follows it.
It could not have foreseen the erosion of the Four Freedoms that Americans once cherished,
including Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Fear.
But happily the Nativity Fast has the effect of reminding us each day of
great imperatives that cannot be dislodged from the sober mind
and
goodly human breast:
this life will not last,
this world is not our home .... and is also disintegrating,
and
God alone and the guidance of His saints will alone lead
us to the place where there is no want, no tears, no oppression.
Let us,
then take up the Great Fast,
for it is manna from Heaven
and
a daily reminder that we depend alone on God.
For He alone is dependable.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.
Amen.