For a week or so, there was a scripture bouncing around in my head--something about shortening the time so that we could endure. Finally, I looked it up, and it is Matthew 24:22:And if those days had not been shortened, no one would be saved; but for the sake the elect they will be shortened.Mark 13:30 is almost exactly the same.
This passage comes in the middle of Jesus's description of the end of the world. I want to be clear that I'm not saying that this is the END OF THE WORLD, but there are passages in the Bible that, while having one definitive meaning, also speak to other times and events in very specific ways. For instance, the massacre of the Holy Innocents reverberates throughout history.
Also, the world ends in different ways. The Civil War, for instance, was the end of the world of the 19th century South. And 9/11 was the end of our world in that ever since then, we have lived in a different sort of place. It stripped away our image of the United States as a safer sort of place than elsewhere. In our current situation, it's hard to see how we could get back to where we were six weeks ago.
As many people have noted, the onset of the virus in the United States was concurrent with the observance of Lent, and now we are in the middle of the strangest Easter week ever, a celebration of Passover that surely elicits more questions than the usual four, and remote liturgies for the end of the Orthodox Holy Week. We are also in the middle of the novena in preparation for the Feast of Divine Mercy on April 19, next Sunday.
I am not going to go into an explanation of what the Feast of Divine Mercy is all about. There are lots of places online that tell about the messages of Jesus to St. Faustina and explain the picture above and and the feastday if you need more information, e.g. this one, click Basic from the masthead. The one message that I am going to quote from St. Faustina's diary is this:
I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls, and especially for poor sinners [all of us]. On that day the very depths of My tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the Fount of My Mercy. . . . On that day all the divine floodgates through which graces flow are opened.So, getting back to that original scripture, what I have been praying for, and will particularly be praying for this Sunday is that the days will be shortened, and in a way that will be obvious. I am praying for a miracle.
AMDG
