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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.

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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.

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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?

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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?

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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?

 

Growing up, I heard a story about a young boy whose mother sent him off to Mass. But before he left, she gave him two quarters. (This is back when a quarter was still worth something!)

“This quarter,” she said, “is for God. And this one is for you to get a candy bar after Mass.”

Delighted, the boy runs off.

While making his way into town – just as he’s crossing a bridge – he trips over his shoelaces, causing the two quarters to fly out of his hand.

Fortunately, he’s able to save one of them. But the other rolls off the bridge into the water below.

Looking up at God, back down at the water, and up to God again, he sighs and says, “Sorry God, that one was yours.”

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“Sorry God, that one was yours.”

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In the Gospel, a poor widow empties her life savings into the Temple treasury. By today’s standards, it may have been worth fifty cents … two quarters.

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On the surface, I’m sure we’re all thankful we’re not poor like that widow.

Imagine her stomach growling with hunger, her bones aching with age, her clothes reeking with dust, as she drops her final two coins into the collection.

Where does she go from here? How will she get through the day?

The fact that she’s a widow also means that she has no husband at home – he must have died some years before – and perhaps she has no children, either. She is bitterly poor, truly on the fringe of society.

It’s easy to think, “Thankfully that isn’t me.”

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But, on a deeper level, we may discover a type of envy in our hearts.

This widow gives everything she has to God.

The fact that she gives only two quarters is not the point. What matters is the fact that she hands herself entirely over to God, something only the Saints are able to do.

Deep down, some of us may be thinking, “I wish I could give myself like that to Christ…how my life would be different! I wish I had that kind of radical abandon…that kind of faith, that kind of trust, that level of generosity.”

“I wish I had it…But I don’t. I’m not like that widow at all.”

And so the widow’s story gets filed away in our minds in the same section as the other Saints, whom we admire on Sundays or on their feast days.

We listen to their stories, but walk away unchanged.

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What if that’s a lie? What if we really do have something in common with the widow? What if there is something we can all give to God, something we have very little of?

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We are all limited by our time.

We only have so much of it, and we’re all afraid of when it will run out.

For this reason, time can be harder to share than treasure. You can give a dollar away today and earn another one tomorrow, but you can never get your time back.

Once it’s spent, it’s gone.

That’s why it can be much harder to give God our time than our wallet. But that’s what he’s really after in the end anyway – our undivided attention.

The same is true for our family and friends.

I’ve never met any child who’s said, “I wish my parents worked more.” Or, “I wish my grandparents missed more of my soccer games.” Or, “I wish my best friend moved to another town sooner.”

I’ve never met any couple that’s fallen in love say, “I wish our time together would run out.”

Or any person say, “This has been the best day ever. I hope it ends quickly!”

We always want more time, which is why it may be our most valuable possession.

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So how much of my time do I give to God, to my family, and to serving the poor?

And how much time do I keep for myself?

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Can I give more of my time away?

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As the old saying goes, “Time is money.” Like that widow, let’s spend our time where it really counts – on God, our family and friends, and serving Jesus in the poor.

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“Love your God… Love your neighbor.”

What a timely Gospel this is in light of what happened recently in Pittsburgh, along with countless other acts of violence, hatred and discrimination that will unfold in our nation and in our world today.

The truth is the Gospel challenges us to see everyone as created equally by God, regardless of their race, religion, language, or nationality.

We must love them all, even when they do not love us.

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But let’s zoom in on those neighbors whom we should find easiest to love – our spouse, our children, and our parents.

In a word, our family… Yours and mine.

For many of us, the people whom we live with are our most intimate neighbors, whom we build our lives around and with whom we share our joys and sorrows, successes and failures.

If we are to love anyone the way we love our selves – as the Gospel challenges us to do – then it certainly starts at home.

And loving homes begin with loving couples.

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Perhaps the most famous loving couple in literary history is Romeo and Juliet. Their love has inspired people for centuries. And, they can still inspire us to love one another today.

How many of us have read the play Romeo and Juliet, perhaps in high school English?

You may remember the scene when Juliet looks down from her balcony upon Romeo and says, “Romeo, the more I give to you, the more I seem to have.” 

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“The more I give to you…the more I seem to have.”

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Juliet learned to see the world through Romeo’s eyes to the point that that his happiness led to hers.

That is the strange effect of love.

Love draws us out of our selfish ways; it inspires us to dream our lover’s dreams, to please our lover rather than pleasing ourselves, because the more we give, the more have.

Parents: think of the delight you experience when your children succeed.

Teachers: the joy you experience when your students learn how to read.

Or to all of us: the peace that comes from forgiving a neighbor who’s hurt us…or the satisfaction we find in giving the perfect gift.

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If Juliet is right, then the more we give to anyone, the happier we become.

Seeing the world through another person’s eyes – regardless of their skin color, religion, or nationality – makes us wiser, more joyful, and compassionate people.

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The same is true in our relationship with God. The more time we spend in service, the more we study his Word, the more we pray, the happier we become.

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So how do I give my heart to my family, my hands to my neighbors, and my treasure to the poor?

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How much of myself do I give away to my neighbor? And how much do I keep?

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This is our invitation as Christians, to love like Juliet.

Or, better said, to love like Jesus, who gave everything for us from the balcony of his Cross. There we see Saint Paul’s words on love lived out concretely.

As Paul tells us, “Love is patient, love is kind… It does not seek its own interests, it does not brood over injury. Love believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.”

In every time and place,  the more we give, the more we have.