From the Heart of the Shepherd

From the bulletin for The Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time (2025 September 07)

The Eschatological Adventure, Part 18: “The Lawless One will be Revealed, and the Lord Jesus will Destroy Him by His Appearing”

[Editor’s note: For the sake of the elect, the days of this pre-telling of futureables have been shortened. As a result, and to more quickly return to ordinary, boring pastor columns, we are skipping over Chapters 16 (“The Prayer of Jolianna”) and 17 (“Rite of Inauguration, Pt 1: The Discourse of Shalomon Scuritas”). These may be found in the published version, should the seals of said book ever be broken.]

The chanting of the vast crowd was as deafening as it was prolonged. “PEACE AND SECURITY! PEACE AND SECURITY!” was the repeated cry of the frenzied assembly. It was, in fact, merely the translation of Shalomon Scuritas’ name. It was also the thesis of his impassioned speech. His address to these representatives of the nations had exuded eloquence and his characteristic brand of “humble charm,” but his words also conveyed an energetic confidence that both surprised and captivated. That energy now rippled through the spellbound masses that stood before him in St. Peter’s Square. The gigantic Thought-Mirror above the platform witnessed a remarkable harmony of judgments among those in attendance, coalescing in reactions such as “He’s right about everything he says,” and “His words have an authority that’s not of this world!” and “Everything will be possible with him as our head.”

Shalomon drank in the moment with wicked delight. He scanned the crowd approvingly, hands pulsating in the ancient Roman orans position, as if he were conducting the people’s energy from the platform. Yes, the time to deflect their adulation had passed, he thought to himself behind the practiced smile. The hour had come to unite these “sheep without a shepherd” under the iron rod of one who appreciated the inescapably religious dimension of human loyalty. One capable of harnessing man’s need for an object of its faith, hope, and love. Shalomon was now that object. A thought arose in his consciousness: all the failures and misfires of humanity’s tragic history I, in this moment, have redeemed. 

Then, as if choreographed, Shalomon reduced the crowd to silence with a slow descending gesture of his hand. His sharp-yet-soothing voice again filled the square. “The time has come, my friends, for the representatives of our globe’s venerable religious traditions to cast their vote for unity. For, as you have demanded, peace and security. Oh, if you think you have witnessed signs and wonders leading up to this moment, I promise you, just wait! Together, we shall make all things new! Together, we shall build a ladder to the heavens, and there we shall take our rightful place! Together, we shall conquer suffering. And the last enemy we shall conquer, my friends, is death itself. You know the way! I am that way for you. Join me, then! Until now, by the many diverse ways represented here, you have separately strived for righteousness, deliverance, salvation, nirvana. Those separate ways have failed you. Now, together, let me show you the path to life!”

On cue, and under another hail of applause and cheers, the representatives arose. Jolianna arose with them. Each held in his or her hand a pouch of incense. As each delegation in turn approached the “sacred fire” at the center of the platform, their members were to empty the incense into the fire as one of their number gave voice to their tradition’s approval, just as they had been instructed. The fire had been so engineered that in the impressive plume of smoke that resulted, symbols from that delegation’s religious tradition appeared vividly projected, the images thereof expanding upwards and becoming assimilated into the harmonious whole that their “votes” were producing. What the spokespersons had not been told was that the audio of their voices was also being engineered to ensure that only what was contained in the script sounded through the speakers in the square. Scuritas would leave nothing to chance or human error this time. 

Delegation after delegation expressed their approval of Scuritas’ “universal fatherhood.” The Catholic delegation’s turn was fast approaching. Jolianna’s whole being trembled. The wrongfulness of everything she had witnessed that day had had a sickening effect on her soul. And yet it was all unfolding as if it had been preordained long ago. She knew she could not go along with what was expected of her. She would rather die. She considered simply retaining the cursed grains of incense in her hand, seeing if anyone noticed. But as she beheld the tremendous crowd looking eagerly on, her eyes were drawn upwards to the statues of the apostles and saints that wreathed the colonnade that surrounded the square. The words of the Scripture came whispering to her soul, “Surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses…” 

Just as the other members of her delegation began to throw their grains into the fire, holy indignation flared up in Jolianna’s heart. The Word came to her again. “Do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent!” A great boldness surged in her soul. Overcoming her fear, she assented to the interior movement: “Your servant, Lord, your maidservant am I. You have broken my bonds.” With that, the maiden rushed to the microphone stand, pushing aside the astonished Dean of Cardinals just before he could deliver a rather unorthodox “habemus papam.”   

The words streamed from Jolianna’s soul as she violently flung the pouch incense she held to the floor: “YOU MUST NOT DO THIS!” she cried. For a moment, all were taken aback. Her voice rang with a humanity and an earnestness that made an arresting contrast with the A.I.-controlled speeches that had preceded. Scuritas himself marvelled, wondering how it was that her words were being amplified unmodified by the sound system, which had evidently not been prepared for the voice of this intransigent whom he ruefully recognized. The moment of shock lasted long enough for Jolianna to complete her argument. “This man has deceived you with his sorcery. He has presented himself to you as a god. But he shall die as all men do, and fall as every prince before him. Do not be deceived! Worship the true God, who made the Heavens and the earth and all they contain; HIM ALONE!” 

As the echo of her words faded in the stillness that followed them, one could feel the atmosphere turn from shocked bewilderment to rabid outrage. The eyes of the assembly fell upon her as a body, as well as the hands of those who stood nearest to her. The Thought-Mirror reflected the unanimity of reactions: “AWAY WITH HER! THROW THIS ONE INTO THE FIRE!”  After registering the subtlest of nods from the onlooking Scruitas, the violent hands who held Jolianna now pitched her into the very place she had denied the grains of incense she had scattered across the platform floor.  

Great cheers rose along with the flames. The whole square filled again with an awful din. Moments later, however, the cheering turned into a gasp when the figure of Jolianna stood up in the midst of the flames, for a moment appearing as unscathed. Her pure, powerful voice once again was heard, this time unaided by any set of speakers, and yet somehow sounding all the more clearly through the vast assembly. She pointed forcefully to the heavens, her eyes fixed on some figure that no one else could yet see. Yet as she spoke, a very different Image from those that had been projected on the smoke was seen emerging from the clouds above, looming large like lightning that floods the sky, and filling the onlooking eyes with a dawning terror that they had never before known. 

This is what Jolianna said before collapsing back into the blaze: “Behold, he comes on the clouds! The Alpha and the Omega, who is and who was and who is come once again! Now every eye will see him, every one who pierced him; and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen. Come, Lord… JESUS!”

From the Heart of the Shepherd: The Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time