As we near the end of our liturgical year, we hear more and more of the end times in our readings. We hear things like ‘the sun will be darkened and the stars will fall from Heaven’. It sounds like a good plot for an action thriller movie. But what should we make of all these apocalyptic visions? Well, one thing is for sure, we need to be awake and on guard, ready to greet the Lord when He comes.
It is easy to become fearful when we hear these readings, especially if we are also listening too intently to the ‘doom and gloom’ portrayed by the media in our world. There are plenty of people trying to predict the end of the world. I remember back to the turn of the century when the world awaited with fear as to what would happen, yet here we are in 2021, now living with a pandemic. I think that all of these things should not become a source of fear for us, but rather a timely reminder to make sure that we are on the path to life – life eternal with the risen Christ.
If we read beyond the ‘doom and gloom’, we find the message of hope that when the time comes ‘the angels will gather God’s people from the four winds’. Christ has already put an end to sin and death through His death on the Cross. If we are truly Easter people – ‘people of resurrection’, surely we should hold more firmly to the hope of salvation that Jesus promises us, than to live in fear and not be able to be people of joy who radiate God’s love to the world.
Evil will not have the last say. Christ has already won. The last thing the devil wants is for Christians to resolutely take hold of their hope in Jesus, because hope filled Christians radiate the joy of salvation: a joy that is contagious and impossible for darkness to overcome. Let’s take hold of the hope God gives us so that all darkness may be turned to light and Christ may reign in every heart. Let’s transform our world and reclaim it for Christ, one heart at a time. Then at the end of times, God will gather a rich harvest from the ends of the earth into the Kingdom of Light.