It's the End of the World - As We Know It

It's the End of the World - As We Know It
November 18, 2018    33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time - B
by Dcn. Bob Bonomi

We are fast approaching the end of our liturgical year.  Next Sunday, we will celebrate the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, or more commonly known as Christ the King Sunday, and after that we will begin a new liturgical year with Advent.

But as with each liturgical year we begin anew the study the birth, life and mission of Jesus during His time on Earth, during the last couple of weeks of the liturgical year we take time to look toward what OUR final destination will be like, in preparation for the End Times which will come with Jesus’ Second Coming.  And in our readings today we listen to the stories which give us an idea of what to expect when the world as we know it comes to an end.

Our first reading from the Book of Daniel and our Gospel reading from St. Mark are examples of a type of literature known as apocalyptic, or eschatological, literature.

The word “Apocalypse” is from the Ancient Greek: apokálypsis, literally meaning "an uncovering", and is a disclosure of knowledge or revelation, which is why you sometimes see the Book of Revelation called the Book of the Apocalypse.  As applied to Scriptures, apocalyptic writing refers to Jewish and Christian writings from 200 BC to 150 AD that contains poetic prophetic visions and symbolic imagery of the end of the world, and they often reflect the expectation of an imminent cosmic cataclysm in which God destroys the ruling powers of evil and raises the righteous to life in a messianic kingdom.

The Book of the prophet Daniel is considered one of the earliest forms of apocalyptic literature, as is the Book of Revelation, which reveals what seems to be the complete and final destruction of the world.

On the other hand, “Eschatology” is concerned with "the part of theology concerned with death, judgment, and the final destiny of the soul and of humankind".  So while the Apocalypse is often thought of as the destruction of the world, Eschatology is more about what happens to us after that – when we meet Jesus face to face.

Now, whether one believes in God or not, it seems that we humans are fascinated with the concept of the End of the World – at least those of us who go to movies or watch television – and it is a recurring theme in Scripture for those who are people of faith.  But our approach to it can be very, very different.

For movie goers, the apocalypse is often something that we, through our heroic efforts, can overcome – we humans are tough enough and smart enough to save the day.  Even if most of the world has been destroyed by alien invaders or zombies, we, through our own efforts, will be victorious and able to rebuild to our former glory.

Or, if we fail in our efforts, we are left alone to struggle forever against the evil which seemed to have won the day.  Those who remain face a future of hopelessness and despair.  It’s no wonder that suicides are on the rise and that those who are suffering from mental illness increasingly resort to violence against others, that we live our lives in fear.  We live with an apocalyptic viewpoint, and not an eschatological one.

But life isn’t meant to be that way.  The study of the End Times should bring us hope, for it is through the promise of Jesus in his death and resurrection that we see that, for Christians, there is nothing to fear from the End of Time, for it signals the coming of the Messianic Kingdom of Christ and the joy of being united with God for all eternity.

So let’s start with a look at today’s reading from the Book of Daniel.  Now, while all last week our first reading for daily Mass came from a variety of sources, for those who pray the Liturgy of the Hours Office of Readings, the daily readings have been the story of Daniel and his time of prophetic service to the various Babylonian kings during Israel’s exile. 

In today’s reading he is receiving visions for the future of Israel that will occur after they return from exile.  The passage begins with a prediction of dark times ahead, with “it shall be a time unsurpassed in distress”. Remember, this will be AFTER Israel returns from exile.

But the passage ends on a note of hope:  "The wise shall shine brightly like the splendor of the firmament, and those who lead the many to justice shall be like the stars forever."  That sounds like something worth living for.  And it contains instructions on how to achieve it.

And in today’s Gospel passage, Jesus also begins with a prediction of dark times: "In those days after that tribulation the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.”  In a way, it sounds like what the people in southern California, especially in Pleasant Valley, experienced – the thick smoke darkened the sun and hid the sky, the glowing embers from the flames falling like stars in the night.

But He too ends on a high note: "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.”  He will gather His elect.  That’s more than just hope.  That’s His Promise.

It seems as if we are always facing the end of the world, whether it’s because of our health or from the elements of nature.  And if you were to believe what we see in the media and our venues of entertainment, we believe the grand destruction of everything will be because of man’s own destructive tendencies through wars or our abuse of the environment.  Or alien invaders or zombies, of course.  They’re high on the list.  There’s no mention of God in any of this, it’s only caused by us.  Or aliens or zombies..

But we humans have been trying to predict the end of the world for a long time, and unsuccessfully trying to make it happen.  Some of these predictions include: early 1st century Jews who assumed that the world would end with the fall of the Temple in Jerusalem; early saints who expressed specific dates in good faith; Pope Sylvester II who predicted it would be at the end of the first millennium, in the year 1000;  Christopher Columbus who thought it would be in 1658; and the list goes on.  There have been hundreds of predictions by people of all faiths and in every age, including our own, and there are dozens more still waiting to occur.

They seem to fail to understand Jesus’ own words: "But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."

It reminds me of the song by R.E.M. that was in the animated movie “Chicken Little”, an animated feature in which Chicken Little thinks he was hit in the head by a piece of the sky (which turns out to be a piece of an alien spaceship, of course.)  The song, by the way, has been used in many other apocalyptic movies.  The lyrics go something like, “It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)”

For us, the life-changing events that we experience often seem like the end of the world – and they ARE, at least the end of the world as we know it.  When Jesus says, “Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place”, he’s telling us that we will indeed experience the end of our individual worlds, in one fashion or another.

But the world itself, and our place in it, will continue until such time as God determines that we, as a people, are ready to join with Him for all eternity.  And whether we realize it or not, we acknowledge this every time that we pray:

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit / as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.  Amen.