St. Joseph of the Lakes

Whether I am reciting the Nicene Creed at Mass or reciting the Apostle’s Creed while praying the rosary I find that while I spend a great amount of time thinking about the earliest parts of the creed: I believe in God…. And slide quickly through the last parts of it: I believe in the holy Catholic Church. It is almost as though I am climbing a mountain of prayer: the front slope a reflection on God the Father; the peak Jesus Christ and his work for our salvation; and the descent: the Church, the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.

November, as it begins with All Saints and All Souls Day is a great pause to slow the “descent” of the creeds and spend some time thinking about what we say we believe. The Nicene Creed proclaims that “I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.” The Apostle’s Creed closes with the declaration that “I believe in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.” As we close out the Church’s liturgical year with Mark’s vision of the end times: And then they will see the ‘Son of Man coming in the clouds’ with great power and glory, and then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of the sky.” we are invited to look forward to the moment that is coming.

For Christians the end of known time is not the end limit of our existence, it is the transition moment into what we are to become. In the natural world our best image of this moment is the butterfly that undergoes an unbelievable transition from caterpillar to chrysalis and finally to a beautiful creature that delights us with it’s beauty even as it flies about. St. John writes in his letter: “ beloved, we are God’s children now, what we shall later be has not yet been revealed. (1John 3:2). The end time is what we hope for, as we profess that we are looking forward to the life of the world to come.