Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven
who also had a sharp sickle.
Then another angel came from the altar, who was in charge of the fire,
and cried out in a loud voice
to the one who had the sharp sickle,
“Use your sharp sickle and cut the clusters from the earth’s vines,
for its grapes are ripe.”
So the angel swung his sickle over the earth and cut the earth’s vintage.
He threw it into the great wine press of God’s fury.
(Rev 14:17-19)
The phrase “the grapes of wrath” comes from this passage from the Book of Revelation and gave rise to the most famous song of the Civil War in the United States, The Battle Hymn of the Republic. It also gives the name to the most famous of John Steinbeck’s novels, The Grapes of Wrath, which tells the story of the poor Oklahoma immigrants to California during the Dust Bowl of the Great Depression. Today is the feast if the First Martyrs of Korea.
These reflections are a result of more than 40 years of ministry as a Roman Catholic priest. Most of these years I spent in the Diocese of Charlotte which covers Western North Carolina. Now I am retired, and live in Medellín, Colombia where I continue to serve as a priest in the Archdiocese of Medellín.
TUESDAY, WEEK XXXIV, ORDINARY TIME—Saint Andrew Dũng-Lạc, Priest, and Companions, Martyrs, November 24
