Aloha Friday Message – November 28, 2025 – Going, going, GONE!

2548AFC112825 – Going, going, GONE! ← PODCAST LINK 😀

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Isaiah 2:3 –
³     Many peoples shall come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
    to the house of the God of Jacob;
that he may teach us his ways
    and that we may walk in his paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,
    and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

(See Also Michah 4:2-3) (↔ Music Link, not Scripture Link)

Psalm 122:1 –
¹ I was glad when they said to me,
    “Let us go to the house of the Lord!”
℟. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord! (↔ Music Link)

Romans 13:11 ^c – For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers (↔ Music Link)

Matthew 24:40-41 – ⁴⁰ Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. ⁴¹ Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. (↔ Music Link)

May the God of Peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ as we anticipate the celebration of his birth during this season of Advent. I’m going to include this image in each post just to help us remember what each of the Advent Candles represent. The Key Verse icons will be the same colors as the vesting and liturgical linens – this first Sunday will be violet. The Key Verse logos are all AI generated using CoPilot. *

Now, let’s get right into the readings. We recently mentioned Psalm 121 – Let us go up to the house of the Lord – and this passage in Isaiah is the connection for that verse. It is important to remember that going up to the house of the Lord was not merely an annual religious exercise but also, and especially, a time to learn. It says “That he may teach us his ways.” We might ask why it is important to be repeatedly taught. The answer appears frequently here: We forget. We require frequent reminders about God’s stipulations for us, and those requirements boil down to being able to “walk in his paths” i.e., to be obedient. And then the Psalmist tells us, For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

Ah-Ha! There is the messianic Prophecy in this passage. The Word, the Logos, will go out from Jerusalem and instruction will come forth from Zion, Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, the location of the Temple, the house of the God of Jacob. This is a foreshadowing of Jesus’ mission to “do the works of my Father.” Recall that he often told his followers that he did only what the Father told him. “The Father and I are One.” We indeed need to remember to keep going up to the house of the Lord. sometimes it is and uphill Struggle to get up that hill to the temple, but we must not forget to go so that we will not forget God.

Fittingly the responsorial song is Psalm 121. I’ve included the response which is “℟. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord! There’s a point here for a short digression. We often hear things like’ “there are two kinds of people in the world.” One of my favorites goes like this:

• There are two kinds of people in the world – Christian and non-Christian.
• There are two kinds of Christians in the world – Catholic and non-Catholic
• There are two kinds of Catholics in the world – Active and dormant
• There are two kinds of active Catholics – happy and unhappy.

The happy Catholics go to Church because they love to be in the presence of God as part of the body of Christ who are all worshipping with other Catholics (happy and unhappy!). The unhappy Catholics go to church because it is their only way to fulfill their Sunday obligation. Most of you know that I grew up a very happy non-Catholic, but in 1968, the Lord lifted me up out of a dissipated life and put me into metanoia mode. He shuttled me out of the Draft, and into the USAF where I was warmly mentored by a whole group of happy Catholics. My heart and my mind had already begun the initial process of conversion, and being in their fraternal care concluded it. In April of 1969, I received three wonderful Sacraments – Baptism, first communion and – two Weeks later, matrimony. To this very day I marvel at how God managed to re-form my life, especially when I regard my lovely wife Crucita.

The reason for all of that is found in today’s Key Verse from Romans: For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers. I can never remember a time when I did not know that my life would continue after my time on earth. All I can really remember from my childhood about the afterlife is that everybody talked about it as if it’s always going to be there. I have never had any reason to believe anything less. If you’ve been a reader here for some time you know about my decision to give my life to full-time Christian service at age 10. Even at the lowest points in my life I have never given up that promise, because I know with absolute certainty that today I am closer to ending this life and beginning the next than I was yesterday. How about you?

In fact, as do many of you, I often reflect on that moment by moment … except when I forget! And, some may think this to be creepy, but my screen-saver is

Some of you may recall the incident (← Check it out!) when our Parochial Vicar at St Catherine of Alexandria Catholic Church, Fr. Rex Rilveria, started his homily by asking, “How many of you want to go to Heaven?” Scores of people raised their hands. “Very good,’ he said, “most of us want to get there! How many of you are ready to leave NOW?” Can you guess who was the onliest guy in the entire assembly to raise a hand high? This is not morbid thinking; it is cautious humility guarding Hope. We hear all the time – “Ya never know …” Even Jesus said in Matthew 24:36-37 – ³⁶ “But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ³⁷ For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. And in Acts 1:7 he said, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.” Jesus voluntarily RESTRICTED HIS KNOWLEDGE as God until that Time when the Triune and Only-Living God acts. Good enough for me! My bags are unpacked and I’m ready to go – which is purely my Pride talking isn’t it? God alone will decide when I’m ready to go, and then he will call me. As near as I can tell he still has quite a lot of work to do to finish me up. That brings us to the Gospel Key Verse.

The passage I chose is one of those controversial passages that people love to debate about. Some of you may have read the book series Left Behind. Once I caught onto the premise behind the series, I elected to just pass by without really getting into it. It’s based on a very common theological point that I don’t quite agree with; but then I’m not a theologian either am I? Here’s the reason Jesus made it vague, I believe. It is because the Trinity foreknew that it would be better to keep all of that out of our hands. They’d already seen what we could do with the Tree of Knowledge and decided to take away The Tree of Life. Giving us a little bit of a guess about what’s gonna happen first seems to fit the pattern. The question is who really is going to go first.

The book series of course was based on the that the righteous would be taken up into Heaven first and leaving all the unrighteous to suffer through whatever was going to happen before the end of the world. So in the book and in the movies they had people disappearing out of airplanes and buildings and taxi cabs and what all, while a few apparently innocent looking people stood by with mouths open. Those were the persons left behind, the unrighteous. The other point of view is that the unrighteous will be taken away first, leaving the righteous to live on Earth during the millennial reign of Christ the King. I happen to like that idea better. Most of the argument for the other is based on the Book of Revelation, but I’d like to share with you a few things which might help you think about it differently. Let’s begin with some other Scripture passages that talk about the evil being taken away from the good.

The most obvious is the promise of the Promised Land. Once the Hebrews got to Canaan, God’s directive was to remove – as in annihilate – all the residents of that land because they’d had 400+ years to get their act together and find Truth. Other interesting passages include –

Proverbs 25:4-5 –
⁴ Take away the dross from the silver,
    and the smith has material for a vessel;
⁵ take away the wicked from the presence of the king,
    and his throne will be established in righteousness.

and

Proverbs 10:30 –
³⁰ The righteous will never be removed,
    but the wicked will not remain in the land.

and

Psalm 37:9 – (GNT) [1]
⁹ Those who trust in the Lord will possess the land,
    but the wicked will be driven out.

and

Psalm 101:8 –
⁸ Morning by morning I will destroy
    all the wicked in the land,
cutting off all evildoers
    from the city of the Lord.

There may be other references, but I think you catch my drift. Naturally there will be some people that will argue that I’ve totally missed the point but still, I believe that God’s form of action seems to be cleaning up the mess before taking care of the restoration. I really don’t care anything about pre-Tribulation or Post-Tribulation or Pre- or Post-Millennial. What I understand is that God takes out the weeds and leaves the garden, else why would we not have access to Eden? Whose horses, chariots, and charioteers were lost in the Red Sea? If any would wish to pursue it further, look up the word παραλαμβάνεται paralambanetai for “taken” and ἀφίεται·aphietai for left (as abandoned). I happen to have landed on the side of the Catechism of The Catholic Church, especially paragraphs 668-682 and 1038-1041. I didn’t know that until I enrolled in Ascension Press’s Catechism in A Year podcasts with Fr. Mike Schmitz. Available wherever you get your podcasts or in The APP Store and Google Play.

OK! That’s a wrap for today. Please be sure to go back and read all of the information in the hyperlinks, and also look for the music links. It’s been a pleasure serving you today See you again next week same time same station. Meanwhile I’m going, going, and hope to be GONE!

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!

Please pray with us here at Share-a-Prayer.

For more information please see 1948AFC112919 – Ready! Set! WAIT!, and 1648AFC112516 – 1^st Advent 2016, and of course 2248AFC112522 – Guess who’s coming to the Banquet.

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Biblical languages inserts from Bible Hub (Bible Hub: Search, Read, Study the Bible in Many Languages) Visit at http://biblehub.com

*Copilot is Microsoft’s AI-powered assistant that helps users with tasks ranging from web browsing and content creation to coding and business productivity. 

[1] Passages marked (GNT): Good News Translation (GNT) are from the Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition)© 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.

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