***
When is the world going to end?
It’s a question that’s haunted and fascinated human beings seemingly from the beginning of time. If there was a beginning, the logic goes, then certainly there must be an end. So when is it?
I’m sure many of us remember Y2K.
People emptied grocery stores and gas stations, fearing the Internet would crash – and perhaps the world would end – as the clock struck midnight ushering in the year 2000.
Then there was Harold Camping, a former radio evangelist, who predicted the world would end on May 21, 2011.
On that day, he said, Jesus would come again in his fiery glory, taking only 3% of the world’s population with him. Thankfully he, too, was wrong.
Then there was the hysteria of the Mayan calendar, which predicted the world would end on December 21, 2012.
Wrong again.
But fear not, there’s still another guess. Hundreds of years ago, Sir Isaac Newton predicted the world would end in 2060. The jury is still out on that…but something tells me he’ll be wrong, too.
***
In the Gospel, Jesus has reached the end of his public ministry. He’s entered Jerusalem, where he’ll soon be handed over and put to death.
Fully aware of this, he addresses one of his disciples’ most pressing questions – when will the world end? Or, said differently, when will he return in glory?
Though he doesn’t give an exact date and time, Jesus mentions signs that will precede his second coming.
“In those days,” he says, “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.”
You might say God will turn the lights off on earth. Then Jesus will come, revealing himself as the source of all light.
***
Seems vague to me.
Perhaps we should focus, then, on two things that we know are coming to an end.
The first is quite obvious – we’re approaching the end of the year. The leaves are falling, the days are darker, and the time for harvesting is over. Winter is at hand.
As we prepare to mark the end of this calendar year – and celebrate Thanksgiving this Thursday – we should take a few moments to reflect upon the blessings of 2018.
Where have we felt God working in our lives?
And how have we responded to the needs of others?
***
And though we know neither the day nor the hour, we also know on a deeper level that our own lives are coming to an end.
Think of the person who just received a terminal diagnosis…Or the officer who didn’t return home from work…Or those who’ve lost their lives in the California wildfires.
For them, the world – not just the year – has unexpectedly come to an end.
It’s a sobering truth, but the Gospel urges us to remember that all things are passing, even the world and we who call it home. We should live our lives accordingly, then.
So how ready are we to see the Lord?
Are there any changes we want to make? Or are we content with the direction of our lives?
***
Perhaps the goal of every Christian should be this – to make the words of Saint Paul their own.
At the end of his life, which also came somewhat unexpectedly, Paul wrote in his second letter to Timothy:
“The time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. All that awaits me now is the crown of righteousness. And not only me, but all those who have longed for Christ’s appearing.”
Paul wasn’t concerned about Y2K or the Mayan calendar. The world would end in God’s time, not his. He simply made it his mission to love the Lord with all his heart and his neighbor as himself.
Now Paul rests from his labors in the kingdom of God, where love alone remains.
So how might we follow Paul’s example and love the Lord our God with all our heart and our neighbor as our self for all the remaining days of our lives?