“Jesus taketh unto Him Peter and James, and John his Brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart...  behold a bright cloud overshadowed them.   And lo, a voice out of the cloud, saying:  This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased:  hear ye Him.  And the disciples hearing, fell upon their face, and were very much afraid” (Matthew 17:1, 5-6).

For example, Saint John writes in the Apocalypse how he was afraid when Christ appeared to him in the cave where he was imprisoned on the island of Patmos, probably in about the year 95 A.D.

After first describing how Christ appeared to him in His Divine Glory, which he concludes with:

“And from His mouth came out a sharp two edged sword:  and His face was as the sun shineth in his power” (Apocalypse 1:16),

“And when I had seen Him, I fell at His feet as dead.  And He laid His right hand upon me, saying:  Fear not.  I am the First and the Last” (Apocalypse 1:17).

Saint John is called “the beloved Apostle”, the one who loved our Lord so much that he was the only Apostle who, despite the very real danger that he would also be killed, nevertheless had the courage to stand at the foot of the cross of Christ with our Blessed Mother and her Sister, Mary, called “Mary of Cleophas”, and Saint Mary Magdalene.

And yet, despite all of this, Saint John, who was not afraid of death at the hands of the Roman soldiers when he stood at the foot of the cross of Christ, is the same Saint John who, in seeing Christ once again in all of His Divine Glory, falls “at His feet as dead”!

WHY?

Because the Glory of God is so intense that it totally overwhelms our human nature because when a person sees the Glory of God, a person also sees his own unworthiness to be in the presence of God, considering his own Spiritual state to be as nothing in comparison to God’s.

I personally know a Prelate of the Catholic Church, who by the Holy Will and Grace of God is still in this life, and who had this same exact experience!

Many years ago, I remember how D. G. told me how Bishop Robert Grant, O.P., D.D., died.

Bishop Robert Grant was a Dominican and always faithfully wore his Dominican habit.  He was also very faithful in saying the Rosary every day.

This elderly, retired Bishop had been the Pastor of a Catholic Traditional Chapel in the South for some time at the time of his death.

D.G.  told me that he was sitting next to Bishop Grant’s bed.  Just before he died, D. G. heard Bishop Grant talking with someone at the foot of his bed.

D.G. asked him to whom he was talking?

Bishop Grant told him it was our Blessed Mother.

Then D.G. heard the Bishop tell Our Lady to shove “it” out of the way.

D.G.  asked him to explain what he meant by shove “it” out of the way.

Bishop Grant told D.G. that he told Our Blessed Mother to shove his body out of the way because she had come to take him home to Heaven!

And then he died.

I was one of the Priests at his funeral Mass which was offered by Bishop George J. Musey, D.D. who had been the Co-Pastor, along with Bishop Grant, of this Catholic Traditional Chapel in the Southern U.S.A.

Among other resolutions for Lent, all of us need to resolve to make a special effort to properly prepare ourselves so that we are always ready for death because we know not the day nor the hour.  We pray God will grant all of you a very long, happy life!

Every day, especially during Lent, everyone of us should do the best we can to focus on LIVING the life of a real Catholic so that we can DIE as a real Catholic!

Lent is a time for an examination of conscience and to ask ourselves:

“Could I do as Bishop Grant did and ask whoever comes for us, whether it is our Lord, our Blessed Mother, Saint Michael the Archangel, or whoever, to shove our body out of the way and to take us to Heaven?  Have we merited Heaven like Bishop Grant did?"

So, even IF you are astonished at the immense brightness of the Throne of white light on which Christ sits; even IF you are  overcome by the overpowering brilliance of His Divine Glory so that you collapse at the feet of Christ, as did Saint John, IF you resolve today, right now, that by the Grace of God, you ARE earning the right to get to Heaven, then when you lay before the feet of Christ, the Just Judge will also lay “His right hand upon” you, saying:

“Arise, and fear not!” (Matthew 17:7).

“Arise, and fear not!”  (Matthew 17:7).

“Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord!”  (Matthew 25:21).

Think how happy you will be when, in the next life, God shows you all of the Souls you helped to save by helping our Apostolates, including this Sermon web site, because "he who causeth a sinner to be converted from the error of his way, shall save his soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins" (James 5:20).

“And in doing good, let us not fail.  For in due time we shall reap, not failing. Therefore, whilst we have time, let us work good to all men, but especially to those who are of the household of the faith” (Galatians  6:9-10).