Father Mike Schmitz

I would not be an apostle of the Lord if I didn't warn you.

And that's so important.

The last words is the benediction.

And he says, now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you without blemish before the presence of his glory with rejoicing,

to the only god our savior through jesus christ our lord be glory majesty dominion and authority before all time and now and forever amen and that benediction that blessing at the end highlights the fact that yes jude is giving a hard hard message to the people but he also is giving a message that is not the end he's not a message of condemnation it's a message of conviction and that's one of the things we have to recognize is that we want to hear that message of conviction every time we open the scriptures god where am i in these pages

What are you trying to tell me?

Are you calling me to repentance in this way or that way?

Where are you calling me to belong more and more fully to you?

And that's the message of the letter of Jude.

We also have the beginning of the second letter of St.

Paul to Timothy.

And there are so many things that we need to highlight about this.

One is that this is, I think, Paul's last letter.

And in Paul's last letter, we know that he's in prison somewhere.

This might be his first imprisonment in Rome.

It also could be a time where he might have gotten out of prison and then was put back into prison before he was beheaded in Rome.

But we know that this is one of his...

final words that he's written.

One of his final letters that we have.

And writing to Timothy, his beloved son, he calls him.