A Scene Change is Coming
January 17, 2024
Fr. John Riccardo
“I tell you, brothers and sisters, the time is running out. From now on, let those having wives act as not having them, those weeping as not weeping, those rejoicing as not rejoicing, those buying as not owning, those using the world as not using it fully. For the world in its present form is passing away”
(1 Corinthians 7:29-31)
A friend of mine just lost his father recently. His dad, like mine, belonged to the suddenly few remaining members of “the greatest generation.” I’m wondering how he’s going to react when he hears St. Paul this coming Sunday.
I remember as if it was yesterday, the time when I lost my father and brother within two months of each other. I realized that everything I thought I knew about grief was more or less rubbish. By the time I buried them, I had buried hundreds and hundreds of other people, cried with many dear friends who were saying goodbye to loved ones, and anointed and prayed with more men and women than I can count as they prepared to breathe their last. Priests are around death constantly. I thought I knew a fair amount about weeping and grief. And then I realized I didn’t know much at all.
As disciples of Jesus we know that Jesus has conquered Death, and that it cannot hold us anymore because of His glorious victory for us on the cross. We profess week after week in the Creed that we believe in the communion of saints, and that between us and our loved ones is a very thin veil which one day shall be parted. We know that we will see each other again in that Kingdom where there is no sickness, no sorrow, no tears, and no death (cf. Rev 21:4). We know that God will make all things new!
And yet…we still weep.
Is Paul somehow telling us not to be human? When someone is grieving, even though they know they will see their loved one again, it doesn’t take away the sadness, the tears, or the incredible ache that abides in that person’s heart. Paul knows this. He is anything but a roboton. He’s not telling us to turn off our emotions. So, what is he telling us?
The line that I am personally dwelling on this week is the last one: “The world in its present form is passing away.” In other translations it says, “The form of this world is passing away.” The Greek word Paul uses, sometimes translated as “present form” sometimes as “form”, is schema. It seems like what Paul has in mind here is an image from the theater. In a typical play, there are a number of “sets” that are created as the backdrop for the action. They’re very real, to be sure, and behind them are more sets, also real, which will be used for later scenes.
Paul seems to be drawing on this imagery as he talks about life here and now. Life here is real, it matters, we’re supposed to enter into it and engage with it, for God created this world and it is very good! And yet it’s not the final scene. Like those sets on the stage, this is real, but there is another “set” coming, one that will never pass away.
Some dear friends of mine are very involved in the theater. One directs plays and the other does, well, everything to help make them come off with excellence. I keep thinking of them as I pray with this passage from I Corinthians. They know, in a way that the average person in the audience doesn’t, what’s coming next, the set behind the one currently visible on stage and, most importantly, how the play finishes. Even though there might be a terribly tragic scene on stage in the play, they know there is a glorious, grand finale coming. God is like that. Not that we’re playacting – we’re not! But He is the Director of the drama that is creation and history and He will not be outdone by Shakespeare, Chekhov or Arthur Miller.
This life is real and it matters, so very much, and for so many reasons – we will be judged after all by how we live our lives here and now. It’s not the last set, though. Life here and now is like a stage that is quickly about to change, we just don’t know when. There really is a spectacular scene about to envelope us all, just out of view, and beyond our wildest imaginations. That’s a promise. From the God who does not lie. Because of this we can weep, and yet weep as those who know one very real day there will be no more weeping. Or maybe there will be, but on that day they will be tears of inexpressible joy!
ACTS XXIX Prayer Intentions
Protection for us, our mission and our families.
All the Bishops, priests and lay leaders we are ministering to this month.