The Monthly Note
March 2005
The hour of God
by Fr. Émery Désilets, OP
In a strongly fatalistic inspired everyday language, the hour of God is the hour of death and judgement, the hour we all fear and that we contemplate with fear and trembling. Thus, when someone narrowly avoids, as if by miracle, a deadly accident, we say: «his hour has not come».
In biblical language, the hour of God is viewed in a more positive way. It takes on a religious meaning. It shows the decisive steps of God’s plan, of the history of salvation.
• The hour of God is the hour of the burning bush. It then refers to God’s intervention in favour of His People, through Moses.
The hour of God, is the hour of the main revelation of the Sinai, that is the backdrop of all the history of salvation: « The Lord, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity, continuing his kindness for a thousand generations» (Ex 34, 6)
• The hour of God, is the hour of Israel’s resounding restoration after the exile to Babylon. It shows the God’s unshakeable loyalty: it reveals to us that God is as a mother who never forgets her child.
• The hour of God, is the hour of salvation: the hour of God’s grace that manifests itself in Jesus for the salvation of all; the hour when, through His Sin, God gives us access to a new life, to an eternal life; the hour when those who are locked up in the death as sinners, listen to the Lord’s message, convert and enter in the real life.
The final hour, is not the hour of death but of resurrection, the one when God call up the dead to relive. From now on, the time of reconciliation, that is offered to us by Lent, is coming. With all our heart, let us enter in this time of grace and reconciliation. Let us open ourselves to this hour of salvation.
Émery Désilets, o.p., Director
« The hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live» (Jn 5, 25).
