The Last Sunday After Pentecost: Preparing for the End Times
Summary of Headings
Fear and the End Times
Today is the last Sunday after Pentecost. Just a few announcements. The second collection today will be for the building fund. Things are getting close, so we'll keep you all informed of how that's going. We should be getting a contract here pretty soon for the new property. So, as much as there are some actual spaces in the church, it still means that we have great need for a new church, so please help us out. After the 11 o'clock Mass, there will be a dull catechism in English, so those who would like to participate, please do so. Also this week, as we know, Thursday is Thanksgiving Day. It is a secular holiday. But since the purpose of it is supposed to be to give thanks for all the good things that we have, and to give thanks specifically to God, therefore it behooves us to have a spiritual basis for it. So we're going to have Mass that day at 9 a.m. Father Chipperfield and I will be coming down early. And we'll have Mass at 9 a.m. on Thanksgiving morning for those who can attend. I didn't want to make it much earlier because I know it's a day off and people want to take full advantage of that and not be griping that Father's getting them out of bed early on their day off. But, 9 a.m. we have Holy Mass that way. Also we have a market day coming up on December the 7th. There is a vendor sign-up sheet. Anyone who would like to participate, be a vendor, help us sell things, all proceeds will go to the building fund. That's on December 7th. So please make sure you sign up. The sign-up sheet is in the vestibule. We do need a lot of collaborators, a lot of people helping out and supporting. So please make sure you see if you can help out. Anyone who may have questions, please contact either Jorarius or Myrna. Don't forget that this is the last Sunday of the liturgical year. Next Sunday, the first Sunday of Advent, is the new year of the liturgical calendar. Please don't forget the crusade of reparation to Mary Mediatrix and Co-Redemptrix that the district started. So first of all, please make sure you say daily rosary at home. And when you do so, please also try to include the prayer that has been given, which is the litany of Our Lady. As well as some of the invocations and prayer that the district asks us to pray in reparation for the attacks on Our Lady's titles of Mediatrix of All Graces and Co-Redemptrix. This will go through January 11th. So please make sure that you are ready. And please participate in that. The epistle for the last Sunday after Pentecost is taken from St. Paul's letter to the Colossians, chapter 1. Brethren, we cease not to pray for you and to beg that you may be filled in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you may walk worthy of God in all things, pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might, according to the power of his glory, in all patience and longsuffering, with joy, giving thanks to God the Father, who hath made us worthy to be partakers of the lot of the saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the remission of sins. And the Gospel? It's taken from the Gospel according to St. Matthew, chapter 24. At that time Jesus said to his disciples, When you shall see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, he that readeth, let him understand. Then they that are in Judea, let them flee to the mountain. And he that is on the housetop, let him not come down to take anything out of his house. And he that is in the field, let him not go back to take his coat. And woe to them that are with child and give suck in those days. But pray that your flight be not in the winter or on the Sabbath. For there shall be then great tribulation, such as hath not been found from the beginning of the world until now, neither shall be. And unless those days have been shortened, no flesh should be saved. But for the sake of the elect, those days shall be shortened. Then if any man shall say to you, Lo, here is Christ, or there, do not believe him. For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch as to deceive, if possible, even the elect. Behold, I have told it to you beforehand. If therefore they shall say to you, Behold, he is in the desert, go ye not out. Behold, he is in the closet. Believe it not. For as lightning cometh out of the east and appeareth even into the west, so shall also the coming of man be. Whosoever the body, wheresoever the body shall be, there shall the eagles also be gathered together. And immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven shall be moved. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with much power and majesty. And he shall send forth his angels with a trumpet and a loud voice, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the further parts of the heavens to the utmost bounds of them, and from the fig tree learn a parable. When the branch thereof is now tender and the leaves come forth, you know that summer is nigh. So you also, when you shall see all these things, know ye that it is nigh even at the doors. Amen. I say to you, that this generation shall not pass till all these things be done. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. Thus for the Gospel, please be seated. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. As mentioned, the liturgical year kind of follows the history of the world, which is why the last Sunday after Pentecost deals with the ending of the world, because it is the last part of the liturgy. The end of the world is something of a controversial topic, but one that lots of people like to get involved with. But it is something that should always inspire fear within us. We should be frightened of the coming of Christ, but we have to be careful what kind of fear that is, because fear can be a controlling factor in our lives. It can be something that forces us to make decisions that we shouldn't make. It can control our decision-making process. It can guide us down dark paths. It can make us afraid to stand up for ourselves. It can do all sorts of things which are not good in and of themselves. Fear is a natural emotion to an obstacle. It's a natural, actually to opposition. It is a natural reaction to opposition. Perfectly normal. But just because it's normal doesn't mean it's always good. It can be very useful. Fear gives us extra strength. It can give us extra strength. It can give us an extra impulse to be able to survive. But it can also dominate us and control us and lead us down dark paths. So therefore, what kind of fear should we have when we contemplate the second coming of Christ? Well, obviously it should be a salutary fear. It should be a fear that will encourage us to do the right thing, to get closer to God, to try to improve ourselves. But like I said, there's many forms of reacting to fear. So one way that people who are afraid tend to react is to try to control their fear by controlling the situation in which they are. And this is the more common, and it's particularly among traditional Catholics, we can say, the most common way to confront the frightful and terrific event of the last days. The way that we react is to try to control it or dominate it within our own selves. And so we study it. We learn about it. Now part of this might also be some specific kind of schadenfreude where we derive a certain pleasure out of being frightened or out of the justice that is going to come from other people. Some people seem to really enjoy knowing just how awful it's going to be for people. Believe it or not, there are quite a few like that. There is a certain self-justification involved in that sensation. There are people who, very much who like horror movies or stories of terror, also love to read it just because it gives them a little surge of adrenaline or they like that fear. These are obviously not appropriate reactions, but they're not uncommon. The other way is to try to gain control of the narrative by understanding and appreciating it, being able to predict it. When is the end of the world going to be? Who is the Antichrist going to be? What are going to be the series of events that are going to happen to lead up to that? There's all sorts of stories, apparitions, revelations, discussions, whatever, about those things. And this is the most common problem, the most common way, especially as I said among traditional Catholics, of the way that we confront that fear of the second coming of Christ. By reading too much into it. We try to control the narrative because we are afraid, and so therefore we try to control it thinking that if we can dissect it and understand it, that we will be able to not be afraid of it anymore. That we can be in control when it actually happens. Problem is, we're never right about it. And part of the problem is, we're not supposed to know anything about it. One of the reasons that prophecies are never crystal clear is because we're never supposed to know with clarity what the providential plan of God is. We're not supposed to know the future. We're humans. We're supposed to be able to see pieces. We're supposed to be able to deduce. We are not supposed to be able to see with the clarity of God and his angels. So therefore we are given ambiguous and oftentimes shady ideas, of things and then we have to interpret them. But the problem is when that happens, we tend to lose sight of the purpose of why we received the prophecy in the first place. We let fear control us, or we let curiosity control us, or as I mentioned before, that certain odd pleasure we can get out of it to control us. All of those things. But as a result, we start to see the end of the world all around us. The fact that our Lord said, this generation shall not pass till these things be done. Caused the very first generation of the church, the very first recipients of the grace of God in the church, to believe that when Saint Peter and Saint Paul died, that was it. The world was coming to an end. That by the time Saint John was going to die, that was going to be the end of the world. Then later on, there were other stories about how long it was going to be. And even a great patristic father of the church, like Tertullian, a really great writer, excellent theologian, ended up not being Saint Tertullian because he fell into the error of believing that it was the last times. And so they dropped everything. He dropped all of his responsibilities. He left his church, and he went to the beach just to wait for the coming of Christ. Because he was convinced that Christ would be coming from the direction of Jerusalem. So he just sat on the beach waiting for him to come. This happens with many people throughout history. The fall of the Roman Empire, the fall of the city of Rome specifically, the bubonic plague which decimated, and more, the population of Europe, destroyed so much of it. So much death, so quickly. There are so many events throughout history, World War I, World War II, people believed were the end of the world. The fall of the Holy Roman Empire. Throughout history people have always proclaimed that these are the end times. These are the end times. As recently as 2012, with the Mayan calendar, people got into that as well. And it's always going to be the same thing. Because what we want more than anything is to be able to be in control when this happens. When it inevitably happens. Because we refuse to look at the reality of why we should be conscious of the final times, of the end times. The reason that we know that the world will end is, first of all, it's just logical. But secondly, and more importantly, to remind us of the transience of our own lives. To remind us of the fact that no matter what we do, no matter how we try to prolong our lives, we are all going to die. This is not our final home. This is not our resting place. And so therefore, we need to live in a form that is a detached manner of living so that we can actually live for heaven and for God. That is why we exist on this earth. That is why we need to know the world will end. So that we're not attached to it. So that we can pursue Christ more than anything in this world. So that we understand that everything in this world, everything in this world and in our lives should be a means to grace. Should be a way for us to practice, to practice our faith. To practice sanctification and virtue. To grow in grace. That is the purpose for everything. God created all things to give us the opportunity to be in heaven with him. And every part of our lives is given to us. Good and bad. Glorious and suffering. Is given to us so that we can serve God. Some of them are good. Some of them are pleasurable. Some of them are very painful. There's a whole lot in between. It could be our families. It could be the goods that we own or don't own. It could be pets and animals. It could be our jobs. Our schooling. Reading a good book. Entertainment. Whatever. All these things are given to us to serve God. And that is how we must use them. That is why we have to remember all of this is going to pass. Seek transient mundum. Gloriae mundum. Wow, my Latin is bad. Sorry. Seek transient gloria mundi. Which just means, thus the glory of the world passes. The world will end. We will end. And yes, the circumstances leading up to the end of the world will be terrible. Persecutions. Natural disasters. Whatever you want. But at the end of the day, it doesn't matter how much we have to suffer. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter if we're going to see the end of the world. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter if our faith is going to be tested. The how doesn't matter nearly so much as how we react. Everything that comes into our lives must be perceived. Received as a gift from God. And therefore used as a gift from God. But that demands of us that we change how we live our lives. We have to start taking our salvation seriously. The church put commandments in our lives for this purpose. To give us a guidepost. But we're not, the church, neither the church nor God are going to force us to follow those commandments. But now we have to start trying. We should be frightened of God. And his justice. We should be frightened of the final days. We should be frightened of persecution and pain. They're natural instincts. There is nothing wrong with them. But, that fear should be salutary. It should not dominate us or control us or lead us to distractions or to the belief that somehow we can control our own destinies. That's not the point of that fear. The point of that fear is to give us an extra impulse, an extra push, to be able to overcome our selfishness, our pride, our attachment to the things of this world, our over-reliance on creatures. All of those things which hamper us, which hold us down. Very much like a hot air balloon. It wants to soar, but it is usually attached to something on earth. And we have to start casting off those lines so that we can actually fly to where we need to go. We are not supposed to be attached to this world. Our home is heaven. And the only way to get to heaven is to perceive that as truly our home and to live as if that were the case. And all things, all things, must be sacrificed for that. That doesn't mean we have to give everything up. It just means we have to put them in their context and use them appropriately as God would want us to. All things. All people. All situations. It could be something as simple as a reassuring hug from somebody who we really need it from. Something as simple and pleasurable as that. Or it could be something as frustrating as driving on the turnpike. Or it could be something as truly sorrowful as losing somebody we love. Or whatever it may be. Whatever it is that is in our lives must be given to God. How are we supposed to do that? What is something that we can do concretely to be able to accomplish that preparation for our death, for the end times, for our judgment? How is it we can live this way? There's one particular practice that we should all consider, that we should all contemplate, and that is the practice of the presence of God. Whether we know it or not, whether we feel him or not, our Lord Jesus Christ is always with us. There's different types of presence of God. There's the indwelling of the blessed trinity. There's the presence of eminence. There's the presence by effect. But God is always present. So, we know that, but we don't really reflect on it or recognize it very often. But what we have to understand is that his presence is obvious by every little detail of our lives. By the fact that we breathe instinctively, by the fact that we get hungry, by the fact that we feel pain, by the fact that we're confused, and the fact that we understand things. God is present and he is the one who is working, and those are proofs of his work. All of those things. The fact that we flinch from pain is proof of the power of God and his presence. The fact of our consciousness and the like, God is truly present. That fact, that God is truly present, needs to be the basis for this practice of the presence of God. He is present. We know this. This is simple faith. That is easy for us to accept and appreciate. But now we need to be cognizant of it. Consciously making the effort to recall to ourselves that God is present. That he is by my side. That he is here. That he is everywhere I go and he is a part of everything that I do. And everything that happens. Everything that happens to me. So instead of just seeing our neighbor, or our family, or our job, or our wealth, or our sufferings, or anything else, we need to see God present in them. This is what it means to practice the presence of God. To remind ourselves over and over and over again. First and foremost, it starts in the Mass. We become a part of his sacrifice. When we offer ourselves on the same altar. So therefore we carry a part of him with us when we leave. And just as everything our Lord did was in obedience to his Father, all of a sudden everything we do carries a certain different weight to it. A certain different intention to it. And we have to live as though that were the case. We now carry the intention of Christ in our souls. And that is also how we practice the presence of God. But that needs to be the seed that needs to grow. Knowing that we have sacrificed our life to Christ, and knowing that he has given us his own life, needs to be reminded to ourselves constantly. And there's a thousand ways to do that. I ask you to think about what is the best way that you can apply that in your life. Just as an example, Father William Doyle constantly was repeating to himself tiny little prayers. Jesus have mercy. Mother Mary pray for me. Those kinds of little prayers. He just was saying them constantly as a constant reminder of the presence of God. Which is why he was such an extraordinary man. We need to do something similar. We need to always be calling our mind back to the fact that God is truly present. That we live and act in his presence. And everything around us should remind us of that fact. Every person and every detail should remind us of that fact. And by the by, this is the best possible way for us to avoid temptation. When we realize that he is present, all of a sudden we're not going to be so inclined to put ourselves in a position to fall into sin. When we are cognizant of his presence, it will help us tremendously to steer clear of the occasion of sin. You know, people, places, things. All of a sudden, we lose interest in that. Hopefully. That practice of the presence of God is a great way to do that. That practice of the presence of God is the best and most salutary way. It's also one of the simplest ways for us to prepare our souls for this very simple fact. We don't belong here. This is not our home. Our time here on earth will end. The earth itself will end. This world will be no more. And that's fine. Because this is not our home. This is one of the most important devotions that we can practice for the purpose of being able to pursue our true home, which is our place in heaven. This is one of the most perfect ways for us to actually serve God in every aspect of our lives. So that, despite the fact of being naturally afraid of the coming death and judgment, of the coming end of the world, we will be able to overcome that fear and use that fear rather to push us closer to God rather than just simply get distracted by all these other details or running away from it. Or trying to hide from it. Because it doesn't work that way. But rather it will push us to a life of true virtue. A life that will encourage us to draw closer to God each and every day. So that when we come to our judgment, the particular as well as the general, we will be able to look God in the face and hear those beautiful words, well done, good and faithful servant. And achieve our final resting place in heaven. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen. www.thechurchofthechurch.org
Summary
As mentioned, the liturgical year kind of follows the history of the world, which is why the last Sunday after Pentecost deals with the ending of the world, because it is the last part of the liturgy. The end of the world is something of a controversial topic, but one that lots of people like to get involved with. But it is something that should always inspire fear within us. The speaker delves into the natural human reactions to fear, particularly regarding the end times, and how these reactions can lead to attempts to control or predict the future. Key insights include the importance of having a salutary fear that encourages spiritual growth, the dangers of letting fear dominate our lives, and the common pitfalls of trying to control the narrative of the end times.