THIS is not rumor mongering, much less is it fear mongering. In the first place, the topic is straight out of Scripture. In fact, it was only last Sunday November 15, that it was the subject of the Gospel reading: Lk 21:5-19 where Christ gave his disciples a sneak preview of the end of the world, not to satisfy the disciples’ curiosity of future events, but to teach them to accept these things serenely.
If it’s any consolation, know that the priest during that Holy Mass my wife and I attended last Sunday assured the congregation that a trillion years will probably pass before the end comes. Scripture doesn’t name any specific time period, which is good. For one, it means that the priest can be right.
At least Scripture gives us something to go by. Scripture tells us that the end will come only after two things have come to pass.
The first one is the “rebellion,” the massive falling away from God by a substantial part of the world population (2 Thess: 3-4). By “rebellion” is not meant Catholics storming St. Peter’s to demand a woman Pope, for instance, or demanding that the Church sell every cathedral, all the Church lands, and every painting and sculpture of the Great Masters in order to wipe poverty off the face of the earth.
By “rebellion” is meant the “Non-Serviam” (I will not serve!) scream of a multitude of people reminiscent of the “Non-Serviam” of Lucifer and his angel-followers following a sneak preview of a suffering Christ whom they were ordered to worship, a test every angel was required to pass before being admitted into heaven.
In today’s realities, that “rebellion” refers to the embracing of mankind of things offensive to God: contraception, abortion, divorce, divorce/remarrying, euthanasia, same-sex unions, trans-genderism, fornication, wife swapping, in-vitro fertilization, surrogate motherhood, genocide, among others.
The second one is the coming into the scene of “the man of lawlessness” (2 Thes 2:3-4). Nobody knows who or what this “man of lawlessness" (also called “son of perdition”) is. It’s not even clear whether this term refers to an individual, or is simply a metaphor to describe a multitude dedicated to undermining Christ’s Church. One thing seems to be certain, however: evil oozes from every pore of this individual, gang, or movement, false prophets who’d try to lure the faithful away from God.
Yikes! Doesn’t the “rebellion” first-sign-of-the-end described above sounds too much like what we see on TV every evening prime-time news? Yes, indeed: Europe and the U.S.A. turning pagan; Planned Parenthood butchering newborns and selling their body parts; SCOTUS voting 5-4 in favor of allowing same-sex unions in all the States; schoolteachers getting fired for mentioning God in the classroom; the ISIS butchering thousands and beheading even children. The world is an orgy of evil, and no one cares!
It’s a small consolation that so far, no one individual or no one group seems to fit the description of the “man of lawlessness.”
To be on the safe side- like the ten virgins in Scripture with their lamps – it’s better to be prepared at all times. Indeed, as recently as 39 years ago in 1976, then Pope John Paul II made this comment:
"We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has ever experienced. I do not think that the wide circle of the American Society, or the whole wide circle of the Christian Community realizes this fully. We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-church, between the gospel and the anti-gospel, between Christ and the antichrist. The confrontation lies within the plans of Divine Providence. It is, therefore, in God's Plan, and it must be a trial which the Church must take up, and face courageously."
Chilling. Church vs anti-Church, Gospel vs. anti-Gospel, Catholic vs Catholic, Christ vs anti-Christ – and both claiming Christ as its origin. It’s going to be a long winter, the cold sweeping the desolate and empty landscape.
Good News. Christ will never abandon his Church. How can the Head be separated from the body?
Here, Fr. C. John McCloskey offers a survival formula: Live like the early Christians did: http://www.thecatholicthing.org/2014/06/01/the-final-confrontation/
“For the Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity… They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. (2 Corinthians 10:3) They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. (Philippians 3:20) They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men, and are persecuted by all… they are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all; they are dishonored, and yet in their very dishonor are glorified. They are evil spoken of, and yet are justified; they are reviled, and bless; (2 Corinthians 4:12) they are insulted, and repay the insult with honor; they do good, yet are punished as evil-doers. –From a description of how early Christians lived in the anonymous “Letter to Diognetus,” written in A.D. 79 A.D