On this Twenty-Fourth Sunday After Pentecost, we are reminded that our purposes in life, the telos of each one of us, is not bound to this age alone. The exceprt from II Thessalonians reminds the readers that "the day will not come" right away, no matter what they may have heard. And Jesus speaks quite forthrightly of an end time where the dead "cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection." This time between All Saints' and Christ the King perhaps ought to be its own season, because it tends to be when the Church focuses at least somewhat on the "dead who die in the Lord" and what that means. Even the Daily Office lectionary appoints the Book of Revelation for late October and early November in both years.Of course, we also celebrate that Christ is not just Lord of the dead, but of the living. He comes to us every time we proclaim his death until he comes again (how's that for a little paradox!) in his Body and Blood. It puts new meaning into the verse, "The Word is very near you" indeed! (Extra credit for whoever can identify where this verse comes from....)
RFSJ
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