The Catholic Calendar for Saturday, December 31, 2005
The Seventh Day in the Octave of Christmas
St. Sylvester I, pope

Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
1 John 2:18-21
Psalm 96:1-2, 11-12, 13
John 1:1-18

A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:

"Children, the final hour has come"

What a wonderful post for the last day of the year! We approach the final hour of the span of time we call a year and wait anxiously for it to tip over into the next year. Anticipation is not so great now as it was at Christmas time, but a great many people will sit up at night waiting for that “ball” to fall at midnight and to enter the new year.

And it makes a good time to think about the end of all hours. That end will come for each of us in its due time, and in coming will transform us into new life and new light. We need not worry about the things some of our protestant brethren are wrapped up in. "End-times" theology is not for Catholics, at least not as it is articulated by some.

Savor this time of endings and realize that there is no ending without a new beginning. This hour ends, a new one begins. Our life ends (or seemingly so) and a new one begins. This age ends, and a new one begins. God extends into eternity and in eternity renews our minutes, hours, and days. And one day He calls us to Himself. Today is a good time to remember this because we need not fear the ending, either of the age or of our own time, because God is there to renew, to revive, and to welcome.

- JuandelaCruz
(sriddle415 at yahoo dot com)

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