Today through Thursday we will complete our readings from the Book of Revelation. In these last days we read images of judgement. Growing up I remember thinking that these were terrifying images. But are they really? Clouds, angels, harvesting sickle, grapes, and a wine press
Perhaps it says more about us that we find the images frightening. In reality they are rather standard end of the growing cycle images from an agrarian culture, harvesting the crop and making the wine needed to live.
If we are people who believe that God is love, and if we are people who each day do our best to do God's will, then what is there to fear ? Even if we have strayed from the path, there is no need for fear. Unlike grapes that do not choose how they will turn out, we always have the chance to do penance, and receive the gift of God's forgiveness. Christian history is filled with those who went from being great sinners to great saints.
