Closing Time

It was Christmas Eve, a famed hotel in Amsterdam, Holland, a friend I had met in Africa, his wife and daughter, some Rotterdam friends of theirs had invited me to eat with them. Afterwards, in a club, in the hotel, midnight, Christmas Eve, the chief bartender said, “closing time.” He wanted to go home and be with his friends or family. A lady from the other side of the room said, “it is closing time after all your guests have left.”

This past weekend, I listened to the graduation exercises from the local university, thinking that I would hear the name of my employee who was graduating. The first time, any graduation or convocation, I heard the female chancellor say, “We will all stand in a moment of silence.” From the time of my childhood, through a very exciting life involving healthcare professions, business, military, civic groups and other organizations of every type, my participation at many graduations in this nation built on the ethics of Christianity has had closing time, a moment of silence, instead of asking for the blessings of almighty God.

Another employee and his wife, attended a function at one of the country's oldest public theatres, Thalian Hall, he said he and his wife were sickened when they saw this same woman, her friends, all dressed masculine with men's coats and ties, interacting at the “closing time” sexual preference, peradventure publicly without shame. The shutters have been lowered, the drapers have been drawn, in our lifetime, we are seeing the closing time for everything we considered impermabile, everything decent, everything in order. We simply do not care anymore, we have crossed the bridge of no return.

Pope Leo I, leading a large group of children carrying lighted candles, met marauders at the River Tiber, who were attempting to invade the Vatican. The marauders turned back, the church at that time had strength of conviction. Faith is 90% courage.

As a young man, a member of a Sunday school class Bellevue Baptist, Memphis Tennessee, a large class of aspiring young doctors. One man, a real man, taught the Sunday school class, and each Sunday, the tears would run down his face as he attempted to inspire these young men with his faith, faith that had gotten him, as a hero, through WWII.

At the time that Christ walked the earth (~30 AD), leprosy was as prevalent as AIDS today, there were probably not the pathogens of cancer and other exotic diseases which we fight with today's treatments, but there were fevers, seizures, and many other things which cause much suffering and death. In my long life, I have known so many “believers” who so cheated themselves by their unbelief. Many think that just church membership, doing good, kindness, benevolence is all it takes. Your greatest source of strength, the spiritual, supernatural experience afforded only those who have been saved as per your experience at the Lord's table.

There are two elements. The bread, as we find in the Old Testament (Isaiah 52), written by the prophet 700 years before the birth of Christ. The bread represents the Body of Christ, and by His strife we are healed. Past, present, future, all sicknesses, all infirmities were taken to the Cross. The fruit of the vine, the wine, represents His shed blood, blood shed to cleanse us of all sins, there is never a closing time for this remembrance, as often as possible. Only unworthy if we do not know the true meaning of this, the precious, the reoccurring ordnance of the New Testament church.

The Catholic church possesses a congregation of the doctrine of faith, testifying to certain shrines where the supernatural had occurred, a visitation of Christ's Mother Mary, a pilgrimage destination for healing. I feel that God has visited His supernatural, spiritual power to many places and to many lives, perhaps the most humble among us. At his crucifixion, the veil torn forever, on this side of the cross there is no closing time in our relationship with Him.

Many of us spend our lives in remorse, “if only I had bought that property, that stock”, “if only I had been more frugal with my money, more exceptional with my time.” There is no room for remorse in defending the great principles of our nation, in defending the precepts of our faith.