Tuesday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time

 Lectionary: 432

Concerning times and seasons, brothers and sisters, you have no need for anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief at night.
When people are saying, "Peace and security," then sudden disaster comes upon them, like labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

Fifty years ago, I remember Catholic high school students asking me if perhaps the end was near. They wondered what to make of the Bible verses their classmates so readily quoted. I would try to explain the tension of living through this in-between time. Since there were no satisfactory answers, religious questions seemed to require careful explanations in those days. 

The Bible suggests several end-time scenarios; but, given what we've learned about stars, we can no longer imagine stars falling into the ocean; or pollutants that sweep away a third of earth's population. A hundred and forty-four thousand redeemed souls seems a paltry number by any counting. 

But we can still imagine an end of the world. All-out nuclear war remains as close as it was eighty years ago. In the seventies and the eighties, after we tired of worrying about The Bomb, Malthus's "population explosion" seemed very dangerous. It might cause disruption, starvation, mass migrations, and war. 

More recently, climate change threatens life as we know it. The almost-certain collapse of Greenland's glaciers will cause catastrophic flooding in many ill-prepared coastal American cities, comparable to Katrina in New Orleans. If the Gulf Stream disappears disasters will follow. Forests are vanishing under the world's increasing appetite for meat, coral reefs are dying, deserts are growing wider, while droughts and floods attack vast areas. And more people are migrating to distant parts than ever before, despite the barriers, walls, and threats against them. 

Currently, many responsible citizens wonder if the present "conservative" administration will dismantle the Constitution of the United States, while its defenders say the "liberals" certainly will. We do not forget that the most literate nation on earth scrapped its constitution and murdered millions of people less than a century ago. Were that to happen here, it would be the end of the world as we know it. (My brother-in-law, a lawyer, assures me the Constitution is strong and will prevail.)

Given that past events are difficult to visualize, it's impossible to visually describe the coming of the Son of God. But we never deny his certain coming. Although, our scenarios of the end time continually change, the Bible reminds us of its immediacy. The judge is standing before the gates! The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, "This eschatological coming could be accomplished at any moment, even if both it and the final trial that will precede it are "delayed". (❡673) 

Rather than explain or visualize how it might happen, we must remain vigilant. Every thought, word, and deed has consequences and is being judged. No past deed can be undone, although it might be atoned. We know that Satan tempts good people with good things, and so we continually ask God to mold and shape our desires and conform them to his will. Like Mary, we should want what God wants. 

The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection. The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God's victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from heaven. God's triumph over the revolt of evil will take the form of the Last Judgement after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world. (Catechism of the Catholic Church ❡677-679) 

Maranatha. Come Lord Jesus!