33rd Sunday, Year B- End of World & Second Coming of Jesus

 

Is the Second Coming of Jesus near? Are we in the End Times? Cardinal Burke, thinks we are in the End Times. He said, “In the present moment there is confusion and error about the most fundamental teachings of the Church, for example with regard to marriage and the family. For instance, the idea that people who are living in an irregular union could receive the sacraments is a violation of the truth with regard both to the indissolubility of marriage and to the sanctity of the Eucharist. So there is a feeling that in today’s world that is based on secularism with a completely anthropocentric (Man centered) approach, by which we think we can create our own meaning of life and meaning of the family and so on, the Church itself seems to be confused. In that sense one may have the feeling that the Church gives the appearance of being unwilling to obey the mandates of Our Lord. Then perhaps we have arrived at the End Times.” 

Here is what the Catholic Encyclopedia states will happen before the Second Coming of Jesus.

1. General Preaching of the Christian Religion

Concerning this sign the Savior says: "And this gospel of the kingdom, shall be preached in the whole world, for a testimony to all nations, and then shall the consummation come" (Matthew 24:14). Pope John Paul II said, “The Gospel has been preached throughout the whole world.”

2. The Great Apostasy

Apostasy is the total rejection of Christianity by a baptized person who, having at one time professed the Christian faith, publicly rejects it. The Fathers and interpreters understand by this revolt a great reduction in the number of the faithful through the abandonment of the Christian religion by many nations. Some commentators cite as confirmatory of this belief the words of Christ: "But yet the Son of man, when he cometh, shall he find, think you, faith on earth?" (Luke 18:8). (2 Thessalonians 2:3) that they must not be terrified, “as if the day of the Lord were at hand, for there must first come a revolt” (the apostasia).

Pope Paul VI said, “I repeat to myself the obscure phrase of Jesus in the Gospel of Saint Luke: “When the Son of man returns, will He still find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:8). It so happens that there are books coming out in which the faith is in retreat on some important points. The episcopates are remaining silent and these books are not looked upon as strange. This to me is strange. I sometimes read the Gospel passage of the end times and I attest that, at this time, some signs of this end are emerging. Are we close to the end? It is necessary that a small flock subsist, no matter how small it might be.” “The darkness of Satan has entered and spread throughout the Catholic Church even to its summit. Apostasy, the loss of the faith, is spreading throughout the world and into the highest levels within the Church”.

3. Sign of the Cross in the Heavens- The Sign of the Cross will light up the sky. “And then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven; and then will all tribes of the earth mourn and then they will see the Son of Man coming upon the clouds of heaven with great power and majesty.”

4. Extraordinary Perturbations of Nature – Nature is perturbed. (earthquakes, moon not shed its light, roaring of the waves)

“And the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven there will be signs in the sun and the moon and stars, and upon the earth distress of nations bewildered by the roaring of the sea and waves.” (Luke 21) “The earth represents the kingdom of Satan. The sun represents the Catholic Church the vehicle of God’s supernatural light. The moon symbolizes lawful civil government, which has as its light a reflection of the sun (the Church). Stars represent bishops of the Church. The fallen stars represent the apostasy of bishops. A diminution of the sun and moon would mean the Church would lose Her influence over the mankind. The government would become agents of the Antichrist and therefore not reflect the truth. pg. 39 Antichrist, Fr. P. Huchede

5. Reign of the Antichrist & the Great Persecution CCC 675 “The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the "mystery of iniquity" in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth.” The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh.”

CCC 677 “The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection.” What this means is, the Church will appear to go through it’s passion in imitation of Jesus’s Passion, to suffer and die, but then rise.

6. Return of Enoch and Elijah come down from heaven to battle the anti-Christ. They will die, but three days later they will come back to life and ascend into heaven.

7. Conversion of Jews. St. Paul in the Epistle to the Romans (11:25-26): "For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, of this mystery, . . . that blindness in part has happened in Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles should come in. And so all Israel should be saved as it is written: There shall come out of Zion, he that shall deliver, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob"

8. Universal Conflagration – Purifying fire, not destroying fire, the whole world will be engulfed in flames to purify.

Saint Peter in his letter, said “You ought to conduct yourselves in holiness and godliness, as you anticipate and hasten the coming day of the God, when the heavens will be destroyed by fire and the elements will melt in the heat.” (2 Peter 3:12)

9. Trumpet of the Resurrection and Resurrection of Dead. Dead people will come out of their graves and both the living and the dead will receive a new resurrected body.

10. Final Judgment- Everyone will be judged at the end of the world. All will know each other’s sins and also God’s mercy.

What will the anti-Christ be like?

1. He is not the devil incarnate. Only God can take on human nature.

2. Declare himself the messiah.

3. He will be Jewish. His mother will be Jewish (LaSallete)

4. Conquer enemies & reign over the world for 3 ½ years.

5. Jerusalem will be the capital of the world.

6. Claim to be God & worshiped (2Thess 2:4)

7. Have Statues of himself Set Up for People to Worship

8. Persecute Christians (Rev. 13:7) (The Great Persecution).

9. Abolish Mass (Dan. 12:11)

10. New religion false church (Catherine Emmerich)

11. Powerful genius, eloquence, posses perfect knowledge of every art, know all scriptures

12. False wonders (2 Thess 2:9-10) call down fire from heaven, cast out demons, he will die and then come back to life (Rev. 13:12), heal sick.

13. Control World Economy – “Also, it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.” (Rev. 13:16-17)

14. He will kill Enoch and Elijah who will return as prophets. (Rev. 11:8)

15. The Antichrist will be destroyed by Jesus at His Second Coming

16. His number is 666. Letters of alphabet are 666 when translated. Nero was like an Antichrist his number was 666. 

“Also, it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.” (Rev. 13:16-17) In some placed in England you can’t buy anything unless you use a specific card.

Father Huechede in his book, Anti-Christ said, “The Antichrist adores Satan and the false prophet glorifies the Antichrist. The false prophet will not be a king nor a general of an army but a clever apostate, fallen from the episcopal dignity. For being an apostle of the Gospel he will become the first preacher of the false messiah. The Antichrist will communicate his power of working miracles to others, who will go into different countries and cities to gain new proselytes by human and diabolic means in the power. There shall rise up false christs and false prophets and they shall show signs and wonders to seduce, if it were possible the elect. They blaspheme the majesty of God and despise all true authority.” (History of the Antichrist by Rev. P Huchede, pg. 24) 1884

St. Francis of Assisi, who lived in the 1200’s said, “The time is fast approaching in which there will be great trials and afflictions; perplexities and dissensions, both spiritual and temporal, will abound; the charity of many will grow cold, and the malice of the wicked will increase. The devils will have unusual power, the immaculate purity of our Order, and of others, will be so much obscured that there will be very few Christians who will obey the true Sovereign Pontiff and the Roman Church with loyal hearts and perfect charity. At the time of this tribulation a man, not canonically elected, will be raised to the Pontificate, who, by his cunning, will endeavor to draw many into error and death. Then scandals will be multiplied, our Order will be divided, and many others will be entirely destroyed, because they will consent to error instead of opposing it. There will be such diversity of opinions and schisms among the people, the religious and the clergy, that, except those days were shortened, according to the words of the Gospel, even the elect would be led into error, were they not specially guided, amid such great confusion, by the immense mercy of God. Those who preserve in their fervor and adhere to virtue with love and zeal for the truth, will suffer injuries and, persecutions as rebels and schismatics. Choosing to obey God rather than man, they will fear nothing, and they will prefer to perish rather than consent to falsehood and perfidy. Some preachers will keep silence about the truth, and others will trample it under foot and deny it. Sanctity of life will be held in derision even by those who outwardly profess it, for in those days Jesus Christ Will Send Them Not A True Pastor, But A Destroyer."

According to the prophet Daniel, the Mass will be abolished in the future by the Antichrist due to his new religion. He said, “And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days. " (Daniel 12:11)

Blessed Ann Catherine Emerich said: "I saw the relationship between the two Popes. I saw how baleful would be the consequences of this false church. I saw it increase in size; heretics of every kind came into the city (of Rome). The local clergy grew lukewarm, and I saw a great darkness. Then, the vision seemed to extend on every side. Whole Catholic communities were being oppressed, harassed, confined, and deprived of their freedom. I saw many churches close down, great miseries everywhere, wars and bloodshed. A wild and ignorant mob took to violent action. But it did not last long." "Once more I saw the Church of Peter was undermined by a plan evolved by the secret sect, while storms were damaging it. But I saw also that help was coming when distress had reached its peak. I saw again the Blessed Virgin ascend on the Church and spread Her mantle [over it]. I saw a Pope who was at once gentle, and very firm… I saw a great renewal, and the Church rose high in the sky." “I saw that many pastors allowed themselves to be taken up with ideas that were dangerous to the Church. They were building a great, strange, and extravagant Church. Everyone was to be admitted in it in order to be united and have equal rights: Evangelicals, Catholics sects of every description. Such was to be the new Church…But God had other designs…” “I see that when the Second Coming of Christ approaches, a bad priest will do much harm to the Church. When the time of the reign of Antichrist is near, a false religion will appear which will be opposed to the unity of God and His Church. This will cause the greatest schism the world has ever known. The nearer the time of the end, the more the darkness of Satan will spread on earth, the greater will be the number of the children of corruption, and the number of the just will correspondingly diminish…”  “They built a large, singular, extravagant church which was to embrace all creeds with equal rights: Evangelicals, Catholics, and all denominations, a true communion of the unholy with one shepherd and one flock. There was to be a Pope, a salaried Pope, without possessions. All was made ready, many things finished; but, in place of an altar, were only abomination and desolation.”

Bishop Fulton Sheen in the 1940’s said this about the false church that the anti-Christ will set up. “Because his religion will be brotherhood of Man without the fatherhood of God, he will deceive even the elect. He will set up a counter church which will be the ape of the Church, because he, the Devil, is the ape of God. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content. It will be a mystical body of the Antichrist that will in all externals resemble the mystical body of Christ. . . . “ Some believe this is a description of how Freemasonry will be used to attack the Catholic Church before the 2^nd Coming of Christ.

The Virgin Mary in Akita, Japan said, "As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one will never have seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead. The only arms which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by my Son. Each day, recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary, pray for the Pope, the bishops and the priests. The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, and bishops against other bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their confreres. The Church and altars will be vandalized. The Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord.”

One of the seers of Garabandal, where Mary is allegedly to have appeared said, “Before the Illumination of Conscience Communism will dominate the world. Communists will take over the world. It will be in every place. Churches will be closed because they will not allow the people to go to the priests or the people to go to Mass. It will be hard for the priests to say Mass. If they find out they are priests they will be persecuted.”

St. Edmond Campion (1540–1581) priest and martyr states: "I pronounce a great day, not where, in any temporal potentate should minister, but where in, the Terrible Judge, should reveal all men's consciences and try every man of each kind of religion. This is the day of change."

Blessed Anna Maria Taigi (1769–1837): "A great purification will come upon the world, preceded by an "Illumination of conscience" in which everyone will see themselves as God sees them."

Bl. Anna Maria Taigi revealed: “Whole nations will join the Church shortly before the reign of the Antichrist. These conversions will be amazing. Those who survive shall have to conduct themselves well. There shall be innumerable conversions of heretics, who will return to the bosom of the Church; all will note the edifying conduct of their lives, as well as that of other Catholics. Russia, England and China will come into the Church…”

My friends, despite these scary prophecies, we should not be afraid, if we have Jesus and if we practice our Catholic faith. Jesus is our hope. Then it matters not if we go through a persecution or if the there will be terrible tragedies in the world, because if we have Jesus and if we were to die, what does it matter, because our end goal is heaven and being with Jesus forever. Practice your faith to be best of your ability and be not afraid. The greatest tragedy that a human being could have, is the loss of heaven and being sent to hell forever. But, we trust Jesus and trust that all that He has given to us will help us to arrive in heaven safely.

Let us turn to the Virgin Mary, the mother of Hope and Queen of Peace knowing She will keep us close to Her Son, especially if we practice our faith, wear Her scapular, miraculous medal and daily pray Her Rosary.