From the Book of Wisdom, Chapter 2:

 

For they have said, reasoning with themselves, but not right: The time of our life is short and tedious, and in the end of a man there is no remedy, and no man hath been known to have returned from hell...the breath in our nostrils is smoke and speech a spark to move our heart.  Which being put out, our body shall be ashes, and our spirit shall be poured abroad as soft air, and our life shall pass away as the trace of a cloud and shall be dispersed as a mist which is driven away by the beams of the sun...and our name in time shall be forgotten...Come, therefore, and let us enjoy the good things that are present...let no meadow escape our riot...Let us oppress the poor just man, and not spare the widow...He boasteth that he hath the knowledge of God, and calleth himself the son of God.  He is become the censurer of our thoughts...and he abstaineth from our ways...But the souls of the just are in the hand of God; and the torment of death shall not touch them...In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: and their departure was taken for misery...

 

Book of Wisdom, Chapter 3

 

God hath tried them, and found them worthy of himself...as a victim of a holocaust he hath received them: and in time there shall be respect had to them.

 

I found these wonderful words quite by accident.  I wanted something from the Book of Wisdom, but I had also wanted Blblical prophecy about Christ, so I turned to a book on the subject.  But the book was Protestant, and did not even have the Book of Wisdom, since it is not in the Protestant canon.  I never knew that the Book of Wisdom was a book of prophecy about Christ; I thought it was largely known for its poetic qualities, as in the lovely imagery above about death.

 

Who is this "poor just man"?  It could mean Christ himself, who called himself a son of God.  What is this victimhood about, but perhaps what I was writing in my latest blog before this one.  God is known to chastise the just man, to test him and fire him like gold to improve his worth.  In Chapter 3, it says:

 

As gold in the furnace he hath proved them, and as a victim of a holocaust he hath received them...

 

And in summary and as a final note:

 

Book of Wisdom, Chapter 3

 

And though in the sight of men they suffered torments, their hope is full of immortality.

 

This is meant for a prophecy of Christ, but also what all of us who try to be just and holy can expect - immortality.  And we can all call ourselves sons and daughters of God, made in his image and likeness; indeed, as Psalm 81 or 82, depending on the Bible, we can call ourselves gods and goddesses.  We are by no means equal to him.  There is a long way from God to god, an infinitely long way.  But even on our small level, we can do great things, and when we get our glorified bodies, we shall alwauys be doing miraculous things.

 

The censurer of our thoughts?  I have often wondered about this passage.  Christ was known to be able to read minds and know the hearts of men; he did it several times with the Pharisees and that was perhaps the reason why he kept being able to walk right through them without being caught.  Yes, Christ is the censurer of our thoughts, and some mortals have been gifted with a far lesser ability to do so, as was someone like Pade Pio, now a saint.  It is a special gift given to holy people and it is very rare.

 

Immortality!  That concept I have rarely seen in the Old Testament.  It is a given in the New Testament, indeed, it is part of the spiritual contract.  As the rock group REM said, "See you in Heaven if you make the list...yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!"

The word anchoress is derived from a word meaning to withdraw.  The anchoress withdraws from ordinary human society into a cell which is both a womb, or antechamber into Heaven, and a grave, where she will meet her end.  Why does she withdraw?  To fight off the devil, the flesh and the world, and to concentrate upon God in mystical contemplative prayer, lectio divina, work and meditation.  There, she lives a life of penance, fasting and subjecting herself to certain rigors.  I often turn off the heat in my apartment and endure the cold.  I only eat two meals a day, with maybe two small snacks.  To keep myself healthy, however, I keep liquids going.  I do certain penances including a series of mortifications which I try to keep hidden from the eye.  In the old days, anchoresses wore hairshirts, itchy and stinging inner garments, and afflicted themselves with scourges, or whips.  The latter two my spiritual director won't permit.  From time to time, I have slept on the floor in the summertime behind my couch, but my spiritual director put an end to that, also.  However, I can always give alms, and I try to give to those who need it most.

 

A spouse of Christ is in a mystical marriage with the Lord, not based on sexuality and physical fecundity, but based on a meeting of minds and souls.   The only union of the body occurs in ingesting the Eucharist, and that is done reverently and chastely.  In Heaven, all souls will be married to the Lord and live like angels, outside of ordinary marriage.  Spouses of Christ live out the Heavenly way on Earth.  It is just that sacramental marriage is usually one of the most intense of loves, and it is the intensity alone that is similar between espousal to the Lord and espousal to an ordinary man.

 

God comes to dwell within us in the Sacrament of the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, and we are actually, like the Blessed Virgin Mary during her pregnancy, Arks of the Covenant.  We must be very holy to receive Christ, fresh out of confession, or at least in a state of passionate repentance.  We strike our breasts during the Confiteor to assess blame to ourselves and pray for mercy, and we receive it.

 

The spouse of Christ becomes a representative of Christ on Earth, and participates in an intimate way with his Passion and sufferings on Earth.  I have suffered a lot like Christ in my life and that has deepened our bond.  Priests and monks are also representatives of Christ on Earth, and thus wear certain clothes, as do nuns and anchoresses and hermits often, in order to make them into walking icons of the Church, and often, targets for comments and abuse.  That is part of the victimhood of the priest and religious, to be victims of His Divine Love.  This victimhood is very fruitful and saves many souls that otherwise be lost.  As Abraham tried to save Sodom and Gomorrha based on merely five good men living there, so do religious and priests hold back the wrath of God in their worlds.

 

And, so we see that certain supernatural realities affect the world - this mysterious victimhood, the enclosure of the anchoress, which is still there even if she is not in her anchorage, this concept of our being Arks of the Covenant.  In future writings, I will explore these idea further in the light of my own vocation.

Churches are places where believers come together to praise the Lord.  As long as it is not an obligation, it is a beautiful thing.  When it is not just to avoid mortal sin, it is the ultimate in prayerful thanksgiving for the things God has freely given us.  For some, church can be a release from the grind of daily living out the often tedious battle against the world, the flesh and the devil.  When church provides no relief, but is just a continuation of the struggle, no wonder people stampede to get out.

 

But if we make it a place of love and light, a place freely entered into, a place where we come together in the Lord, it is no longer tedious.  It is pure joy. 

 

So, go to church because you really long for it.  If people pressure you into it, it is just as tasteless as pablum.  But if you go because, like a deer yearning for running streams, you crave the Lord and the full communion with his people, then it is bliss on Earth.  Everything looks so beautiful inside, the people are no longer just in the way of what you might have done that day, but are indeed, brothers and sisters, closer than friends, and thus highly to be treasured.

 

Go to church because you want to, and it will be worth it.