Eschaton and St. Rose Philippine Duchesne
My Dear Parishioners,
As we approach the end of the Church’s Liturgical Year and the start of Advent, the theme of our Liturgies will be about the “end.” This end we call the “Eschaton,” which comes from the Greek for “last.” So, the Eschaton is the end of history and the end of the world as we know it, as the popular song goes. Take for instance this Sunday’s Gospel Reading from Mark: Jesus said to his disciples: “In those days after that tribulation the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. “And then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in the clouds’ with great power and glory, and then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of the sky. “Learn a lesson from the fig tree. When its branch becomes tender and sprouts leaves, you know that summer is near. In the same way, when you see these things happening, know that he is near, at the gates. Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. “But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”
Eschatology then is the branch of theology that studies the end of human history (Eschaton=last, ology=the study of). Since human history will culminate with the General Judgment, Eschatology is the study of that. It is also the study of everything that leads up to the General Judgment and everything involved in it.
Eschatology includes the study of the Last Four Things: Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell. It also includes the study of our Particular Judgment which will occur at the moment of our own death and has already occurred for those who have gone on before us. Eschatology would then also include the study of Purgatory and how our prayers and sacrifices and acts of reparation for our departed loved ones can help them finally attain their final reward.
Maybe, most importantly for us, Eschatology is the study on how we attain Heaven and avoid the loss of Heaven and the pains of Hell. So, Eschatology encourages us to make frequent use of the Sacraments and to live a good and holy life in accord with the Commandments and the Beatitudes. Eschatology also warns us that the failure to do so will sadly be our own failure.
Thus, as we near the end of our Liturgical Year and our thoughts turn to the Eschaton, we thank Jesus for loving us beyond measure. We thank Him for giving us this opportunity to reflect on the end of time and on Heaven. We thank Him for the gift of our Catholic Faith. We thank Him for our Holy Catholic Church, which is encouraging us to simply follow the path that Jesus has laid out for us and to take full advantage of all of the helps that He provides for us. If we do so, it may be, as the popular song goes, the end of the world as we know it, but it’ll be fine.
On a side note, recently a Catholic told me that they got themselves “ordained” online and will be “presiding” at a loved one’s wedding—and then started asking me questions about how to conduct the ceremony. Shocking!!!! I had to remind this person that they were involved in the simulation of two Sacraments: Holy Orders and Matrimony, and that simulation of a Sacrament is a sin of grave matter. I further reminded them that to knowingly and to freely commit a sin of grave matter is a Mortal Sin, and further reminded them that to die in Mortal Sin really does mean the loss of Heaven and the Pains of Hell. I also pointed out that by cooperating with this, this person may be leading their loved ones down the very same path of grave sin that very possibly may result in the loss of Heaven and the pains of Hell for them too. I ordered this person to tear up their online certificate of “ordination,” to cancel any plans to “preside” at this wedding, to inform their loved loves that they need to go see a priest and to get married in the Church, and then to get to Confession. Whether they did or not, I do not know—they weren’t happy with me at that moment. Hopefully they did follow my orders, because failure to do so would be their own failure. This encounter that I had with this person is a sad reminder that it is never, never, okay for a baptized Catholic to get “ordained” elsewhere and then to start “presiding” at pretend Sacraments. The eternal punishment is way too severe to even consider it, and totally unnecessary.
On a much happier note, Monday we celebrate the Feast of a lesser-known American Saint: St. Rose Philippine Duchesne. I have included a very nice article about her so that we may grow in appreciation of her holy life and in devotion to her. Praised be Jesus Christ in His Angels and His Saints!
St. Joseph, Patron of the Church, and our Patron, pray for us!
Fr. Michael J Pawelko, Pastor
St. Rose Philippine Duchesne: A saint for a deeper prayer life
By Michael R. Heinlein for Simpl Catholic website.
It’s hard to find a more substantial definition of missionary zeal than a 72-year-old French nun serving in a mid-19th-century Potawatomi mission. And that’s exactly what the godly missionary, St. Rose Philippine Duchesne, wanted to do, even though her life seemed to be going in a different direction at first. Her story is an illustration of the greatness that can come from trusting in God’s providence.
Born in southern France in 1769, Duchesne came of age in the years leading up to the French Revolution. Even though she sensed a call to be a missionary early on, at 18, she entered the contemplative Visitation monastery where she went to school, despite her father’s objections. The stay there was short-lived, though, because the revolution closed all French religious houses. Forced to return home, Duchesne became immersed in a life dedicated to the works of charity, particularly care for prisoners and the poor. After some leniency shown toward Catholicism by the French government in 1801, Duchesne and some others unsuccessfully attempted to revive their monastery.
Duchesne’s life was changed when she met St. Madeleine Sophie Barat, the foundress who accepted Duchesne’s request to join her new missionary Society of the Sacred Heart — a religious order founded to teach and serve the poor. Writing to Barat, Duchesne related a powerful spiritual experience during adoration one Holy Thursday, saying, “I spent the entire night in the New World … carrying the Blessed Sacrament to all parts of the land … I had all my sacrifices to offer: a mother, sisters, family, my mountain! When you say to me, ‘Now I send you’, I will respond quickly, ‘I go.’” Despite the urgency of her vision, it would be more than a decade until Duchesne’s dream was fulfilled.
At the invitation of the Louisiana Territory’s Bishop William Dubourg — who invited St. Elizabeth Ann Seton to her Emmitsburg mission — Duchesne was sent with four companions to teach the French and Indian children in his vast diocese. After a long voyage in 1818, the nuns arrived in the St. Louis suburb of St. Charles, Missouri. Pioneer life proved grueling and difficult for the missionary nuns. Bad weather, hard labor, meager resources, a language barrier and a lack of communication with the order in France were among their hardships. Nonetheless, by God’s grace they persevered, opening the first free school in America’s newly acquired Louisiana Territory the same year they arrived.
Duchesne established six schools for women by 1828 throughout Louisiana and Missouri, yet she desired further to share her motherly love with the Native Americans. In 1841, at the age of 72, Duchsene served in a mission school for Potawatomi children at Sugar Creek, Kansas. Given her advanced age, many feared that her health would not last, but the head of the mission — the famous Jesuit Father Pierre-Jean De Smet — insisted, “She must come; she may not be able to do much work, but she will assure success to the mission by praying for us. Her very presence will draw down all manner of heavenly favors on the work.” Duchesne’s frail health allowed her to last there only a year, but in that time, she taught the Potawatomi a most important lesson, and she didn’t need to know their language to do it. Seeing her lengthy periods of prayer, she earned the native name Quahkahkanumad, meaning “the woman who always prays.”
Returning to St. Charles a year later, Duchesne lived her remaining decade devoted to prayer, dying on Nov. 18, 1852, at 83. She was canonized in 1988 by Pope John Paul II.
In spite of her often overshadowed and forgotten life, Duchesne teaches much about our Christian vocation when she said, “We cultivate a very small field for Christ, but we love it, knowing that God does not require great achievements but a heart that holds back nothing for self. … The truest crosses are those we do not choose ourselves. … He who has Jesus has everything.”
Her feast day is Nov. 18.