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Christians aren’t the only ones who think about the end of the world. Many people are terrified of the end of the world, either for mystical reasons related to the Aztec calendar of out of sheer random bad luck by asteroid.
The Christian take on the end of the world is far more terrifying — but also potentially reassuring.
Consider what Jesus says in Sunday’s Gospel (the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B):
“The moon will not give its light, the stars will be falling from the sky, the powers in the heavens will be shaken.”
Or consider Daniel: He foresees “a time unsurpassed in distress since nations first began.”
How is that for terrifying? It sounds like everything we know and love will be torn away from us.
The reason the fears of the end of the world are so powerful is that we know their basic premise is true: The earth is fragile. Everything we see is destined to die and decay. The world as we know it will certainly end.
But the reason the Christian’s end of the world is far more reassuring than those who fear asteroids is that we know of something that is not destined for destruction or decay: Jesus Christ.
He is, as St. Paul puts it, the one who “offered one sacrifice for sins and took a seat forever at the right hand of God.” He invites us into his indestructibility: “By one offering he has made perfect forever those who are being consecrated.”
If we love Christ above all things than we need not fear that everything we know and love will ever be torn from us. Quite the contrary: The things that keep us from what we know and love the most will be taken away from us.
Says Jesus: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”
If a storm was coming, we would stay in our shelter; when darkness is coming, we stay by our light. With the end of the world coming, we should stay by Christ.
As Daniel says in the first reading, “Some shall live forever, other shall be an everlasting horror and disgrace. But the wise shall shine brightly, like the splendor of the firmament and those who lead the way to justice shall be like the stars forever.”
In other words, we need three things to stay close to Christ: Wisdom, virtue and a willingness to lead others to justice, to Christ.
We know how to gain these things. For wisdom: Pray regularly. For virtue: Go to confession regularly. To lead others: Speak up in conversations that touch on important matters. Don’t be cowed into silence by people’s scorn. Be willing to stand foursquare with the truth.
Where will Christ lead us after this world ends?
God says a father would not give a snake when he asks for a loaf of bread; neither will he. We love this world, and fear that a different world will be foreign to us, but we can be sure God will not thrust us into a world that is alien to us. The world will not be replaced by something empty or strange.
God will lead us to a place perfectly suited to us, especially because it will be a place built by, for and of him. There, with his grace, we will shine like the splendor of the firmament. Forever.
Tom Hoopes, author of The Rosary of Saint John Paul II and The Fatima Family Handbook, is writer in residence at Benedictine College in Kansas and hosts The Extraordinary Story podcast about the life of Christ. A former reporter in the Washington, D.C., area, he served as press secretary of the U.S. House Ways & Means Committee Chairman and spent 10 years as executive editor of the National Catholic Register newspaper and Faith & Family magazine. His work frequently appears in Catholic publications such as Aleteia.org and the Register. He and his wife, April, have nine children and live in Atchison, Kansas.
