The End Times

Living in the present while preparing for the Parousia

08/30/2018

Matthew 24:42-51 Jesus said to his disciples: "Stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. Be sure of this:  if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into. So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come. "Who, then, is the faithful and prudent servant, whom the master has put in charge of his household to distribute to them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master on his arrival finds doing so. Amen, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property. But if that wicked servant says to himself, 'My master is long delayed,' and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eat and drink with drunkards, the servant's master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour and will punish him severely and assign him a place with the hypocrites.

Are we living in the proverbial “end times”? Are the natural disasters, the political turmoil, and now Church scandals all signs of the end times? Well, I believe the answer is both “yes” and “no.” It is “yes” because whenever anyone dies, they meet their personal “end times.” Every day in the obituaries we find folks for whom the end of life on earth has come. They have passed from earth to heaven (hopefully); their present has become their Parousia (the second coming of Christ).

But I also believe the answer is “no” we are not living in the end times in the sense that the cosmos is about to collapse and the Catholic Church is in its final throes and soon to be listed in the obituaries herself. The ecclesiastical drama of the last week reads like a Dan Brown novel, causing some to believe we are in the end times. According to John Allen Jr., a sober and straight-forward reporter, Archbishop Vigano, who made the allegations against Pope Francis knowing and ignoring McCarrick’s sordid past, has gone into hiding, fearing for his life. In the United States, bishops and archbishops are starting to take sides, lining up either defending Pope Francis, or championing the credibility of Archbishop Vigano. In the last two days, Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City and Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco said Vigano is a man of integrity and his allegations cannot be blithely ignored. And ignoring it seems to be Pope Francis’ current game plan. While this ecclesiastical intrigue and politics maybe new to us, it is old news to any student of Church history. In other words, the present of the Church is not becoming the Parousia of the end times. The Church is not going anywhere, no matter how many novels are written about her.

But I think bearing in mind both answers to the end times – both yes and no – can help us understand more deeply Jesus’ words in the gospel. Our Lord warns his disciples: “Stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come…You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect the Son of Man will come.” Jesus wants his disciples to remember there are two ways he will return, two ways the present becomes the Parousia. First, personally and individually for each disciple when he or she dies, but second communally and corporately when all humanity – hopefully by then members of the Church, the Bride of Christ – will meet our Maker and Messiah. In this sense, in every moment we live in the end times, and in every moment we do not live in the end times. But in every moment we must be prepared.

Let me explain how the present and the Parousia have a real relevance for us here in Fort Smith, Arkansas. In the “Police Blotter” section of the local newspaper, I read: “Terroristic Threatening: A Fort Smith woman reported a man told her God told him to cut the throats of all Catholics, and asked her if she was Catholic.” What a shocking and scary story! What would your answer have been to such a threat? Unexpectedly, the present becomes the Parousia.

Every age of church history has had a cross to carry, and I believe this will be our cross: the crisis of clergy and its effect on evangelization. The curious thing about carrying the cross is that we do not get to choose our cross, our cross chooses us. I wonder how many people will want to join our RCIA class this year, some people will feel crushed by that cross. But notice how people are choosing in the present not to become part of the Bride of Christ before the Parousia.

And third, it will no longer be possible to be a complacent Catholic, just going through the motions of the Mass, like you are going through a car wash. Like the German philosopher Immanuel Kant said of David Hume, “he woke me from my dogmatic slumber,” so this crisis will awaken Catholics to be more intentional and more intense about their faith. You will not slumber through a sermon if coming to Mass may be a matter of life and death. Your present suddenly seems on the verge of the Parousia.

On a personal note, I am rather delighted by all this, because it means job security for me! But all joking aside, what this really means is that at Mass every word of the Bible will glow more brightly and the Bread and Wine of the Eucharist will taste as sweet as heaven itself. That is the best way that our present becomes the Parousia – at Mass we experience Jesus’ second coming sacramentally – and when  you are at Mass, it will not matter if it is the end times.

Praised be Jesus Christ!