“…the days will come when there will not be left a stone
upon another stone that will not be thrown down.”
The final Sunday in Ordinary Time is the Feast of Christ the King, which will take place next Sunday. The Saturday after Christ the King Sunday is the final day of Ordinary time as well as the final day of the Liturgical Year. As this liturgical year closes and we start a new year in the Church, we are reminded in today’s gospel that all things will end. This writing is known as “apocalyptic literature”. Many non-Catholics, and some Catholics, will try and interpret these verses to show that the end of times is near. However, we honestly don’t know when that time will come.
When will there be an end of times? How will we know? We don’t know. Scripture tells us only the Father knows.[i] The Church teaches there will be great signs and tests, but nothing particular that can signal the end of times. The Catechism says that before Christ comes again, there will be a “final trial that will shake the faith of many believers.”[ii] This trial will lead people from the faith and will be in the form of the Anti-Christ or “False Prophets” as Jesus warns about in today’s gospel. Again, we don’t know the exact time this will occur, so this means we must always be on guard for the faith.
How did Luke want us to interpret this passage? We are to take this week’s gospel reading and realize that everything has an end. Our lives, our countries, even our world will end one day, but we don’t know when that time will come. Luke was speaking micro and macroscopically, meaning he was speaking of the destruction of the temple itself and the persecution of the first Christians, but also of the ultimate end of this world. Since we don’t know when this time will come, we must do our part and persevere in our day-to-day trials.[iii]
Who has come to you as a “false prophet”? How can we know what they say isn’t the truth? Jesus warns of others who may come to try and deceive us. John and Jude also wrote of people coming in the name of Christians, but they are not.[iv] We are called to not follow these false prophets, and reject their erroneous teachings and beliefs.
Christ said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”[v] In the history of time since Jesus, there have been numerous cases of people claiming to be Jesus or saying they know when the end of the world would occur. These people claim to know a way, have a truth, and even offer life, but they neither know nor follow Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life. These people can be easily spotted and should not be taken seriously. However, there are people within our own circle of friends or families that will speak falsehood out of ignorance or because they have been misguided. We are called to seek the truth, learn the truth from the Church, and be able to explain and guide others to the fullness of truth. Satan would love for us to believe we are like God and therefore we do not need to learn or know the truth. He deceived our first parents[vi] Adam and Eve, and he would like to sow the seeds of deception in our life.
Can we be our own “false prophets”? When we are the ultimate authority on truth, if we are not in line with the way the truth and the life then we are a false prophet to self and others. When asked one day what he thought about a matter, Saint Augustine replied, “I think as the Church thinks”. When we are the ultimate authority we think alone and not with the Church. In a time of false prophets and lies, the Church remains the only true prophet.
What does it mean to be a prophet? Prophet is a mouthpiece of God; the Church is the voice of truth in society. What are examples of this? The five “non-negotialables” come to mind: abortion, euthanasia, fetal stem cell research, human cloning, and the dignity of marriage. Also we are faced with relativism. Relativism is the basic belief that truth is subjective based on each person, rather than objective and absolute. What is the problem with relativism? There can only be one truth. 2 + 2 can only equal 4 and will always equal 4. There cannot be such thing as a round square, both the word round and square have a set definition A thing cannot be both “A” and “B” at the same time. When it comes to our faith, the One Holy Catholic Apostolic Church has the fullness of truth and there is not a second or third truth but rather a greater or lesser share in the one truth “Truth cannot contradict truth.”[vii] With that being said, we must always be attentive and obedient to that truth.
Search: Truth and Lies (Relativism)
The gospel spoke of nation rising against nation, natural disasters, and terrible things that are happening just like today. Does that mean the end of times is at hand? As it was stated, we don’t know exactly when the second coming will occur. Looking back at history, we’ve seen two World Wars, a Cold War, extermination of the Jews, slavery of African-Americans, countless hurricanes and tsunamis that have wiped out hundreds of islands, and so on. We have seen the rise of the culture of death, the redefining of marriage, and the slaughter of millions of innocent children through the sin of abortion. The key point in the passage is all these terrible things have and will happen, but “do not be terrified”. Christ is always telling us to have peace in Him and to trust God always, even when terrible things happen all around you.
MUSIC – “Live Like You Were Dying” by Tim McGraw
The video speaks of a man who thought he had many more years to live, but finds out he doesn’t have that much time left. What if the end times were at hand? What if we knew when the end of our end was? How would we act, what would we do, what would we learn?
Search: End of the World: The Signs
[i] Matthew 24:36
[ii] CCC 675
[iii] St. Jerome Biblical Commentary pg. 154
[iv] Jude 1:5; 2 John 1:7
[v] John 14:6
[vi] Gen. 3
[vii] Leo XIII, encyclical Providentissimus Deus