Every year just before Advent and sometimes in the first weeks of Advent the Church focuses on the Second Coming of Jesus. The purpose of Advent is to prepare for the celebration of the Birth of Jesus and prepare for the Second Coming.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, not Catechism of the Catholic Church, gives us 9 Signs that will precede the 2nd Coming of Jesus. I will add an additional sign that comes from the Catechism.
In the Gospel today, Jesus gives three of the 10 signs. He says there will be 1. wars, 2. earthquakes, plagues and famines and 3 a great persecution. The signs I will list are in no particular order.
1. Extraordinary Perturbations of Nature - Perturbations means nature is perturbed and acts violently. Jesus said, “For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be pestilences and famines and earthquakes in places. There will be awesome sights and mighty sings will come from the sky.”(Matt. 24:6-7)
2. General Preaching of the Christian Religion Throughout the Earth. "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) Saint Pope John Paul II said the Gospel has been preached to all the world.
3. Great Apostasy – Apostasy is the abandonment of the faith. St. Paul speaks about apostasy in the Thessalonians (2 Thessalonians 2:3), “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first. And that man of sin be revealed. The son of perdition.” The “falling away” means falling away from the faith (apostasy). Today many have fallen away from the faith, including leaders of the Church. Cardinal Burke said, ‘No matter what we are asked to suffer, we must remain with Him (Jesus), even if those in the highest positions of authority in the Church should abandon Him, should commit the grievous crime of apostasy from the Catholic faith..”
4. Great Persecution. The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover (pass from death to new life), when she will follow her Lord in His death and Resurrection. Before Christ's 2nd coming the Church must pass through a final trial. During the great persecution many will suffer and be martyred for the faith. The book of Revelation speaks about how Christians will not be able to buy or sell food, “And the second beast required all people small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark—the name of the beast or the number of its name.” I’m going to give you an idea that is popular today with regard what could happen. We could surmise due to a world wide economic collapse, there would be one world monetary system. No longer individual countries with their own money. Instead, through communism, a card or a microchip would given to every person to purchase food or obtain healthcare, but to obtain it, one must deny their faith joining one world religion, that denies Jesus.
5. Reign of the Antichrist – In (2 Thessalonians 2:3) “The man of sin" is the Antichrist. He will rise against Christ to seduce the nations. “From the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days.” (Daniel 12:11) The “daily sacrifice” means the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass will be abolished.
The Antichrist will work false miracles: physically heal, change the weather, raise a person from the dead. But they will be illusions and done by human or natural means, but will fool many.
The Antichrist will create a religious deception offering an apparent solution to their problems at the price of denying their faith (apostasy) and cause the great persecution against Christians.
6. Return of Enoch and Elijah. Fathers of the Church believed these two men, who never died, are reserved for the last times to be precursors of the Second Coming. Saint Mechtilda of Hackeborn (d. 1298) said, “Enoch and Elijah will expose the devilish trickery of the Antichrist to the people. As a consequence he will put them to death. For three and one-half days their bodies will be exposed to insults and the followers of Antichrist will presume that all danger is now past, but suddenly the bodies of the two prophets will move, rise and gaze on the crowd and begin to praise God. A great earthquake, similar to that at Christ's resurrection, will take place: Jerusalem will be partially destroyed and thousands killed. Then a voice from heaven will call out "Ascend," whereupon the prophets will ascend into heaven, resulting in the conversion of many. The Antichrist will reign thirty days after their ascension."
7. The Conversion of the Jews. Saint Paul said, "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…” (Romans 11:25-26) Jews will follow the Antichrist thinking he is the messiah, but later discover Jesus in the true Messiah and so convert to Christianity.
8. Universal Conflagration. Saint Peter speaks about Conflagration (a catastrophic fire on the earth). “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a mighty roar and the elements will be dissolved by fire, and the earth and everything done on it will be found out.” (2 Peter 3:10) Conflagration is a fire that renews creation and does not destroy it.
9. Son of Man Appearing in the Heavens. “And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming upon the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” (Matthew 24:30) In the sky appears the Cross our Savior died or a wonderful cross of light. Saint Faustina Kowalska (d.1938) said, “All light in the heavens will be extinguished, and there will be great darkness over the whole earth. Then the sign of the Cross will be seen in the sky, and from the openings where the hands and the feet of the Savior were nailed will come forth great lights which will light up the earth for a period of time.”
10. Trumpet of Resurrection. St. Paul said, “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.”(Thessalonians 4:16) The living and dead will receive their resurrected bodies, including those in heaven and in hell. When all receive their resurrected body, then will come, the Last Judgment, when the sins of everyone in the world will be revealed for all to see.
Jesus said, “And then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in the clouds' with great power and glory, and then he will send out the angels and gather (his) elect from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of the sky.” (Mark 13:26-27).
Will the 2nd Coming happen in our lifetime? Nobody knows the day nor the hour, but Signs help us to be ready. Jesus told St. Faustina the Divine Mercy devotion was to prepare for His Second Coming. He said, “You will prepare the world for My final coming”. (Diary 429) “Speak to the world about My mercy... It is a sign for the end times.”
In every age, we can believe Jesus is coming in our time. Saints have done so too, especially St. Vincent Ferrer, who is the apostle of the apocalypse. He preached on the 2nd Coming of Jesus telling people Jesus is coming soon, which resulted in the conversion of thousands. Was he wrong? Yes, he was wrong in the fact Jesus’ Second Coming did not come, but he was right in the fact each would have their own personal judgment when they die.
To prepare for the Second Coming, the messages of Our Lady in Medjugorje will help us to be ready. We should daily repent of our sins, and go to Confession monthly, spend personal prayer time with Jesus, turn our life over to Him, live a life doing good for others, attend daily Mass, pray the Rosary everyday, fast on Wednesday and Friday, daily read a short paragraph from the bible, spend time every week in Eucharistic Adoration, and be ready to suffer for our faith, even to the point of dying for it.
If we have Jesus, we have nothing to fear. However, we should fear sins, because only sins can keep us from being with Jesus forever in heaven.
May the Virgin Mary, Mediatrix of All Grace, Co-redemptrix and Queen of peace watch over all our families and keep us close to Jesus Her Son, so that we may be ready for whatever may happen in the future and live each day as though it was our last.
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