A Catholic View of the End Times

The glorious Messiah's coming is suspended at every moment of history until his recognition by "all Israel", for "a hardening has come upon part of Israel" in their "unbelief" toward Jesus... The "full inclusion" of the Jews in the Messiah's salvation, in the wake of "the full number of the Gentiles", will enable the People of God to achieve "the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ", in which "God may be all in all". (CCC 674)

Introduction

As I write these lines, in wake of the peace summit in Annapolis (November 2007), there is constant talk of attempting to reach a peace agreement in the Middle East. As believers, naturally, we are to pray for peace in the Middle East and in the world. The Scriptures certainly exhort us to "pray for the peace of Jerusalem" (Ps 122:6). Yet equally important is to pray with the proper eschatological perspective. The proper what? Well, "eschatology" is the study of the "last things,"  or the final events in the history of the world. To have a proper eschatological perspective, therefore, means to understand the road map that God has provided for us in divine revelation – in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition - so that we may have an idea of what to expect as we head towards the culmination and end of human history.

The end of human history? Am I about to embark in an apocalyptic "the end is near" type of discourse? Not necessarily. But I do think that eschatology is not given its proper place among many Catholics. While some evangelicals and fundamentalists overdo it in speculating about the right scenario and time of the end of days, Catholics, by contrast, tend to shun the subject altogether. When was the last time you had a good discussion about the final battle between the antichrist and the Church over coffee after Sunday Mass?

Liturgy, Scripture, and Eschatological Blindness

This Catholic discomfort with the end-times is a bit strange, because we are in fact reminded of Christ's expected Second Coming at every Mass. Every time we recite the Nicene Creed we remember that "He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end." And the proclamations that follows the consecration of the Eucharistic species also have a strong eschatological character:

"Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again."

"Dying you destroyed our death, rising you restored our life. Lord Jesus, come in glory!"

"When we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim your death, Lord Jesus, until you come in glory."

Consider also the vivid language of the reading that is read at Mass during the last week of the liturgical year:

"And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory." (Luke 21:25-27)

And Matthew's version:

"Then will appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory; and he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." (Mt 24:30-31)

Now this will be quite a show. Why, then, the lack of Catholic interest for eschatology when liturgy and Scripture are quite emphatic about the end of days? I remember hearing a few years ago an otherwise excellent priest who preached that "it will probably be another thousand years" until Christ returns. Though this is of course theoretically possible, there are however good reasons to believe that he may have been seriously wrong. It is quite true that Christ warned us against the pretense of trying to guess exactly when the Second Coming will occur when He said that "of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only" (Mat 24:36). But immediately before this, Jesus also used the analogy of the fig tree to exhort us to be attentive to the signs of the times and of his second coming: "Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near—at the doors!" (Mat 24:32-33). With these words, Jesus explicitly tells us to be attentive to what is going on around us. Even though no one can know the day and hour, the Lord tells us that we should be able to have a good idea of the season in which we find ourselves. And when he tells us: "you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect" - the implication is that He may be coming sooner than we think!

All Creation Groans

As long as we are on good terms with God (in a state of grace), the prospect of Jesus returning should not trouble us but rather fill us with excitement and joy. It is true that, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us, "Christ dwells on earth in his Church" and His kingdom "is already present in mystery, on earth, the seed and beginning of the kingdom" (CCC 669). Yet because of human frailty and sin, this kingdom is sometimes still very hard to see. And so, as the apostle Paul tells us, we "groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies" (Rom 8:23). Consider how the Catechism beautifully describes our present state as we long for our final redemption:

Though already present in his Church, Christ's reign is nevertheless yet to be fulfilled "with power and great glory" by the King's return to earth. This reign is still under attack by the evil powers, even though they have been defeated definitively by Christ's Passover. Until everything is subject to him, until there be realized new heavens and a new earth in which justice dwells, the pilgrim Church, in her sacraments and institutions, which belong to this present age, carries the mark of this world which will pass, and she herself takes her place among the creatures which groan and travail yet and await the revelation of the sons of God." That is why Christians pray, above all in the Eucharist, to hasten Christ's return by saying to him: Marana tha! "Our Lord, come!" (CCC 671)

The Catechism goes on to describe our present time as "the time of the Spirit and of witness, but also a time still marked by 'distress' and the trial of evil which does not spare the Church and ushers in the struggles of the last days. It is a time of waiting and watching." (CCC 672)