“29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. The Lesson of the Fig Tree 32 “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. 33 So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates. 34 Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. No One Knows That Day and Hour 36 “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. 37 For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, 39 and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. 42 Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. 45 “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? 46 Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. 47 Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. 48 But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’ 49 and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, 50 the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know 51 and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matt 24:29-51 ESV)

The sound as things ratchet into place, the ticking of a perennial clock, ghost stories and near Encounters: sadly, calmly, boldly we Enter the Now of witness. Afraid, no, but near anyways to impossible odds, the fear of some shameful fall from grace or of Something too strong for the blood of Christ to assail, assuage, heal. No, we are not smug, either: we do not try and “go severe” in our initial penitence, just for “good luck”.

That is, we adopt Humor and Certainty, that Christ will up the ante Himself to our in-the-field Levels of Sin Encountered. We are soldiers of a pluck and clear-sailing Day, notwithstanding the near misses and what-ifs. We shall overcome; we shall Learn, to self-police a bit (had we chosen the humbler route of life with the poor); to distinguish between the Call to educate and the call simply to Lead. We are to Teach, and that right reverently, but also we are to Allow at times, wipe the mist from our eyes, to bequeath to our supplicants, some Token of Authority, some Instruction, some Daring Foray into the world of Authority and of Duty.

As soldiers we are dutiful to that dull plink-pluck-plank of ratcheting gears, guns locked and loaded, shields because we are facing a Tomorrow of whirlwind and desert storm, clouds of billowing sand and dust harassing and obliterating any preciousness, any efforts to Absolve ourselves minus Jesus’ Blood, we are in the thick of it and we are Floating on Wings and a Prayer. Because all sin will be engulfed by His Armies, by His Determined High Table, by His progeny and spiritual offspring.

Because to the meek it is said, give Glory to God: and a thankless job it can be. To point, not to our own vain fantasies of Authority, but to something Higher: we literally mourn that individual forays each of them, aren’t posed in a “question-response” mode so we can address with humor, with levity, with contrition as needed, the Matter of the Hour. Why, wasn’t each word we whispered, some legal Promise or Contract? Forgive the amateurs in the room, these were just stories, and those right flattering: stories of a life past, of moments Memorable for some Sooth Witness or Priest or Rabbi or Imam. Not a carte blanche Demand or License to “move into the neighborhood”.

Only this, that don’t all of us have the right to free associations and to “move into the neighborhood”? Of course we do, a free society and all. We drink from a higher fount and that called Christ. All apologies, all demure reminders: please don’t hear in this a threat; please tell me if the orders from on high are still in place; please Realize, all of us Sinners, the sin of running from our duty Jonah-like. But this not to hide the other sins, the hour so precious when the High Table becomes manifest like some Promise from His Cross. The high table of our woeful unrepented-of experiences past: not just Repentance needed, but a sympathetic and loving Presence. God somehow Removing Himself so as to unsully and untarnish the fabric. By dying on a Cross.

The point of Christ’s Sacrifice is to give back the free-fall and sailing winds through and via the Possibilities of Sin, of Scandal, of mourned-over Mistakes. We still, decades into a conversion story perhaps, cannot Vaccinate ourselves (intake a little of the sin to innoculate) against any and all mournful Denouement. We cannot swear high and mightily on Christ if it is some Escapism or Refusal to get down-and-dirty with what Life challenges us with. Christ of this nature will not Resurrect quite as much as Christ of the poor, the poor indeed invited to bring Suit and Complaint of abuses and compromised situations, to the rich Body of Faith. We love to brandish His Name, but we also must take up His Cross and Wounds. Battle Wounds. Near Misses with scandal and ruin. Anything being up for grabs, if it spells scandal or the ruin of our enemy or—let’s face it—anyone we have a few bones to pick with. We can do this; the battle is ours, the Legions are immediately and Surrounded by Forgiveness. So they may fight. So they may Die honored. So they may be Valued and Cathartized as God’s Chosen People, no matter the disrepute or bland shame of being “at war”. We love one another, as much as we are the wounded and unshowered, “coming in” from the front.