Our Lord’s teaching on the end times in today’s Gospel passage, takes place during the last week of his life—holy week. He had entered Jerusalem for the last time on Palm Sunday, he went to the temple and taught there for the last time. And, after a busy day of teaching, contending with the Pharisees and Sadducees in the Temple, Jesus and his Apostles go to rest on the Mount of Olives across the Kidron Valley from Jerusalem.
Fitting how, as his own earthly mission is drawing to a close—the end and culmination of his earthly mission—the Lord speaks about the end times. And as we just heard, the Lord describes some pretty frightening imagery: “the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.”
This sort of language and imagery is nothing new in scripture. The Old Testament prophets use this sort of language quite often: how there are going to be some pretty traumatic cosmic events prior to the ushering in of God’s kingdom. Isaiah prophesies about the darkening of the sun and the stars, the earth trembling, green grass withering, and waters turning to blood. The prophet Joel speaks of the blood and smoke and fire that will signal the great and awesome day of tribulation. Zephaniah describes wrath, trouble, distress, destruction, desolation, darkness, clouds and gloom. Jeremiah speaks of all of creation sort of unravelling preceding God’s great day. Daniel, as we heard in the first reading, takes up this language as well.
So, the Lord draws on the apocalyptic language of the prophets of old, to reaffirm that these cosmic events will proceed the end of the age. But this age ends, so that it might give way to a new one that will last forever. For he adds, “when you see these things happening, know that the Son of Man is near, at the gates.”
Here the Lord describes a truth that we proclaim in our Creed every week regarding the Lord’s return. The second coming. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, we proclaim. Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.
Great tribulations will proceed the Lord’s return. And the Catechism says, “Before Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers.” So the Lord offers this teaching, that we may not loose faith when the rafters of heaven shake.
These tribulations are but the labor pains, as he says in the proceeding verses—Labor Pains of a new world, a new heaven and a new earth in which God will rule over creation in an eternal kingdom of peace.
And in a sense, every generation has to face its own tribulations, every individual in fact. There are events in our life, the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, even scandal in the church, that can shake our faith.
In the lifetime of the apostles, they would see the Temple destroyed, Jerusalem sacked, and Christians put to death by the Roman government, each of them, would have to face serious personal trials, and so must we.
The Catechism goes on to say that throughout her persecutions the Church will be tempted to believe the deception of the anti-Christ, that man can save himself, that we don’t need God, but that we find fulfillment when we put ourselves in the place of God. We see people in our modern culture more than ever before falling for this deception, that by sheer human will and ingenuity we can usher in our own era of peace, devoid of God.
Every Christian generation, every individual, is to live as if the Lord’s return is imminent and to keep the faith when there are wars and earthquakes and plagues, and remain vigilant against the temptations of the anti-Christ.
“Be watchful, you do not know the day or the hour, be prepared, it can come when you least expect it.”
Will the Lord return in our own lifetime? Perhaps. Nonetheless, we will all have to appear before him as judge at the end of our life, which might also come when we least expect it. So, we must be prepared, by repenting of and confessing our sins, receiving the flesh and blood of Christ as often as we can, and living lives of righteousness, as best we can.
To be watchful means three things:
First, it means making our personal relationship with God our highest priority through daily prayer, ongoing study of our faith, and frequent reception of the sacraments.
Second, it means sharing with others the news that Jesus has shared with us. If this Gospel teaches us anything it is that time is short. And we must make use of the time we’ve been given to bring souls to Christ. We are here today because someone cared for our souls and the souls of our family members who passed the faith on to us, and we must do the same.
Lastly, we must follow the Lord’s example in our daily lives. Jesus was honest, courageous, gentle, patient, forgiving, humble, pure, and faithful. And every single day, in all of our relationships with family, friends, and strangers, we are to imitate his goodness.
As we continue with this Mass, let’s thank our Lord for the time we’ve been given to fulfill our mandate and mission—to live with the end in mind by living wisely in the present for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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