As We Await the Blessed Hope

Jesus came into the world not only to save and heal us, but also “to teach and to preach” (Mt 11:1). When God’s Word is preached in the power of the Holy Spirit, the effect is life-giving and life-transforming. Teaching the Word of God, though, is usually not so stirring, but it is vital nonetheless. Ignorance of God’s Word is ignorance of Jesus Christ; and ignorance of Jesus Christ results in, at best, unnecessary sorrow in this life, and, at worst, eternal separation from Him in the next: “we need knowledge, we need truth, because without these we cannot move forward. Faith without truth does not save, it does not provide a sure footing” (Pope Francis).1 According to the Bible we are being taught by God when we learn from and abide in the truth of His Word——that is, Holy Scripture and the Holy Tradition of Mother Church: “If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father.” And the Spirit of God will abide “in you,” and He will “teach you…concerning all things,” and “you will abide in Him” (1 Jn 2:24, 27). “He will guide you into all truth…and He will tell you things to come” (Jn 16:13). “And this is the promise that He has promised us——eternal life” (1 Jn 2:25). Today there is much confusion in the universal Church concerning the End Times. Many Christians today, including many Catholics, think they will be “raptured” out of this world before Christ’s return and the “perilous times” that will precede it (cf. 2 Tm 3:1). Others, while not accepting this fiction, believe that an idyllic golden age awaits the Church shortly before the close of history. The basic position of the Catholic Church, however, is that we, the people of God, will go through tribulation in this life, including “the great tribulation” near the end of time (Rev 7:14). There will there be no golden age for the Church at the end of this era——at least not as men usually envision such a time. Instead, the end of the Church’s earthly life will resemble the end of our Lord’s life on earth “and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (2 Tm 3:12). The birth into “the age to come” will be as when the Church was “born from the pierced heart of Christ hanging dead on the cross” (Mt 12:32; Catechism of the Catholic Church, #766, henceforth CCC).2 At the end of time, the people of God, the Church, will only enter the eternal Kingdom of God by enduring this final Passover, one that follows the path of her Lord, Jesus Christ, in His death and in His Triumph (cf. CCC 677; Rev 19:1-9). The Kingdom of God only comes about by birth, a dramatic experience filled with both pain and joy (cf. Jn 3:3-8; 16:21; Mt 24:8). Hence, we certainly should not think that the future of the Church is an entirely negative one. We can honestly speak of a soon-coming “springtime” for God’s people, a time of “life from the dead,” as when Lazarus was raised shortly before Jesus’ triumph on the Cross (Rom 11:15). But if the glory of Palm Sunday was in the springtime, so was Christ’s Passion and His Passover—and the birth of His Church and His enthronement. These realities will be played out once again before and when “the Son of Man comes in His glory” at “the end of the age” (Mt 25:31; 24:3).

Five basic motifs, or themes, run through this study. I think it is important to mention them here, because they are foundational to the Catholic understanding of God’s Word in general, and divine prophecy in particular. They are firstly (1), the end of the Old Covenant/Testament age foreshadows the temporal end of the New Covenant/Testament age. Secondly (2), the Old Covenant/Testament came to an end nearly two thousand years ago, with the coming of Jesus the Messiah into the world; His victory over all evil (culminating in His Cross, His Resurrection and enthronement); His sending of the Spirit and the manifestation of His renewed, remnant people, the Israel of God; —and, finally, the destruction of the Old Covenant temple and its system of worship, which brought the last age to a definitive close. All Old Testament prophecies have been fulfilled in these momentous events which marked the end of that last age. Thirdly (3), one’s theology and one’s personal biblical interpretation must take into account one’s understanding of “Church.” Who is the final authority, or arbiter, of Holy Scripture?—Is it I myself, or is it “the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth” (1 Tm 3:15)? But what is, and where is, the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church? And who on earth can legitimately be said to hold “the keys of the kingdom of heaven?” (Mt 16:19). That is, who, if anyone, possesses a divinely instituted authority to definitively teach and interpret God’s Word (cf. Mt 23:2-3; Lk 11:52; Is 22:20-23)? In short, Christian theology and hermeneutics (i.e., the interpretation of God’s Word) must consider ecclesiology (i.e., the understanding of “Church”). Fourthly (4), now, “while it is still called ‘Today,’” is the acceptable “day of salvation” … before it is too late (Heb 3:13; 2 Cor 6:2; cf. Mt 25:1-13; 2 Thes 2:9-12). We must disillusion ourselves from facile or one-sided notions——sometimes spread by well-meaning Catholics——of a glorious Christian springtime just around the corner. Certainly, Jesus has left us His peace and joy, a peace and joy this world cannot take away, because it did not give it (Jn 14:27; 16:22). The days ahead of us will, indeed, in many ways be glorious, with many “miracles, wonders, and signs” accompanying the spread of the Gospel to “all the world” (Acts 2:22; Mt 24:14). But these “last days” will not exactly be carefree; rather, they will be “perilous times,” full of trials that will challenge the faith of many Christians (2 Tm 3:1; cf. CCC 675; Lk 18:8; Mt 24:12). “We need to stop over-counting our numbers, our influence, our institutions, and our resources, because they’re not real. We can’t talk about following St. Paul and converting our culture until we sober up and get honest about what we’ve allowed ourselves to become” (Archbishop Chaput).3 The “latter times” ahead will demand from God’s people an authentic, or radical, Christian faith, a second conversion, so to speak, one which follows the path of penance and conversion (1Tm 4:1; cf. CCC 1428). And finally (5), every act of goodness in the world is mysteriously, by God’s providence, contributing to the salvation of the world. The countless acts of love and self-sacrifice being performed daily, and usually unnoticed, by people of goodwill, who “do their duty with love, according to the logic of giving, of sacrifice” (Pope Francis), are, in God’s merciful design, salvific (cf. 1 Jn 3:11-20; 4:7-21).4 By His grace and His will we, His creatures, can choose to become His children; we can freely choose to “imitate” Him, to be “like Him,” to be “fellow workers,” little co-redeemers, with Him, being not only “transformed into the same image” of God, but divinely employed in the great work of redemption (3 Jn 11; 1 Jn 4:17; 1 Cor 3:9; 2 Cor 3:18; cf. Mk 16:15-18). And since all true love, as Christ has taught us, entails some degree of suffering and self-sacrifice, the sorrows and hardships of life are not meaningless: they can contribute to the building up of God’s Kingdom (cf. Jn 9:1-5; Phil 1:12-19). “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers” (1 Jn 3:16). The truths above are hardly novel to Catholic thought and spirituality; but they do take on greater urgency and meaning in an age of hardship, distress, apostasy, and ever-increasing Christian persecution and witness. Indeed, perhaps we even “must prepare ourselves to suffer in the not-too-distant future great trials, which will require on our part a willingness to lose life itself…” (St. John Paul II).