Hear ye! Hear ye! The world is going to end on December 22, 2012! The world is going to end on December 22, 2012! Don’t believe such foolishness. Instead believe in the words of Jesus in today’s Gospel that says, “But of that day or hour, no one knows,

neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." Jesus said that no man will know the day or hour when Jesus will come in glory. So if someone claims they know they are just plain wrong. We have heard many of these false prophets before.

Remember around the turn of the great millennium, there were many who believed as the page turned toward the year 2000 that the world would end. And Oh, they must have been so disappointed. Every generation believes that the world will end or that the signs are showing that Christ’s return will be immanent. The Apostles believed that it would be in their lifetime. When the year 1000 approached many believed it would be then. Many thought that during World War II that Hitler was the antichrist and that Jesus’ return would be soon after a period of great trial and tribulation.

I suppose that it is human nature to want to know what the future will hold. I suppose the great unknown is scary and so we would rather put our stock on someone’s wild idea. But, the reality is that we will never know the date or time of Jesus’ second coming. We can only be prepared.

This is a good introduction for the meaning of today’s readings. Here in November, every year we have these readings which are apocalyptic in nature. Most of the time, when we hear the word apocalypse we think of the end of the world. We think of a meteor hitting the world or such a great calamity. However, when the church uses the world she is referring to a revelation of something. Think of the Book of Revelation. It is also known as the Book of the Apocalypse. How many of you have tried to read the book of Revelation? How many of you perfectly understood it? How many had nightmares after reading it of 7 horned creatures? Well, the Book of Revelation is not meant to be read literally. It is a form of apocalyptic literature. St. John wrote it to reveal something about us and God and he used all sorts of symbolism in the process. Try reading the Book of Revelation with the idea of it really being about the Mass. Your eyes might just be opened.

For hundreds of years prior to Jesus Christ and the years following, there were many writers that wrote in an apocalyptic style. The Book of Daniel which we heard about in the first reading is such a style. Likewise, Jesus picked up on this style and placed himself at the center of it in the Gospel of Mark.This style always had three characteristics. First, there would be two entities, two groups warring with each other. Second, there would be signs of God’s presence in the sky or in the world. Thirdly, there would be a remnant that would remain faithful to God. These three things would be in all of this form of apocalyptic literature.

So you might be wondering what this means for us? Well first, this literature is meant for us here and now. It is not necessarily meant for a far away time period although there may be some foreshadowings and prophesies because God’s word is eternal. It is however meant for us now. We live in the end times, ever since Jesus ascended into Heaven we have lived in the end times. This is what it means for us. It is to reveal something about ourselves to God.

First, we are in a midst of a war. I am not talking about Hamas lobbing missiles into Israel and vice versa. I am not talking about the battle for life we are fighting in the United States. I am talking about the battle for our soul that is raging in our very person. If we are honest with ourselves there is a part of us that wants to hurt, wants to do evil, wants destroy. This comes from our fall or from the temptation of the evil one. But, it is there. We also have the voice of God telling us to love, to spend time with him and to do good. This ultimately is a battle for our souls. Which voice do we listen to? In the cartoons they depicted it as a devil sitting on one shoulder and an angel on the other. But, the reality is that it exists and we are in the midst of the battle. That is why we are called the Church militant. The battle is for the salvation of our souls and those that are around us.

There are great signs in our lives by God. On Friday night at the healing service, many came to me in the back of the Church and said how Frank Kelly spoke to them exactly about what they were going through. They saw these things as signs. We have had in our prayer lives or in our personal lives these moments where God has revealed something special to us and we knew that it was a sign. The signs of the times.

Finally, we are the remnant who are faithful to God and who have chosen to continue on his road. So we are living out the apocalypse. We are living out the scriptures now. Its not a future time, but are meant for us here and now. The battle, the signs, and those who remain faithful are point to this fact.

It is proper at this time of year to talk about the last things. 2 weeks ago I spoke about heaven and how we need to think about heaven. It is our goal and we need to know our goal so that we can walk towards it. A hiker knows where he is going and uses a compass to get him there. A person working on a project thinks of the goal and then comes up with the processes to get there. The same is true with us. If we want to be with Jesus for ever in heaven, we need to be thinking about our goal in life. Our goal is for us and for our loved ones to make it to heaven.

Before we make it to heaven, we will all be judged. We call this either a particular judgment or general judgement. We do not know when this will happen. The general judgment is when Jesus Christ comes back. That could happen tomorrow or 2000 years from now. The particular judgment is what we each will have upon our death. Most likely this is what will happen to you and me. We dont know when this will be. We dont know if it will be in 5 minutes or in 50 years. But, one day we will die, and we will be judged by God for how we lived our life.

In this judgement we will have only two places we will go, heaven or hell. Since we already talked about heaven, let’s spend a little bit of time talking about hell. William Blake in the middle of the 19th century wrote a work entitled, “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” where he tried to claim that there was no hell. It was just created. Sadly many today live their lives with no understanding of the reality of hell. It was the devil’s greatest trick to make us believe that neither he nor hell exists. C.S. Lewis in the 20th century wrote a rebuttal, “The Great Divorce.” In it he states the time honored claim of the reality of this place of eternal suffering. He says that heaven is where we say to God, “Thy will be done.” Hell is where God says to us, “thy will be done.” Frank Sinatra’s great hit, “I did it my way” is the theme song in hell. Some may say, how could a loving merciful God permit us to go to hell. His justice demands it. He made us with free-will. This was his great wager. That we would respond with love. The only way we could soar to the heights of love is if we were free otherwise we would be robots. Unfortunately, some have chosen to live their lives not with love but with hate. These souls when they die without repentance, God’s justice mandates that they go to the place of torture.

What is your imagery of hell? Many people see hell as a place where there is a guy in a red suit with a pitchfork and some flames. I would like to offer you another image given to us by C.S. Lewis. Hell is a cold, darkened place. It is a place of total desolation and isolation. In hell, we are totally and completely without love and without others. We are alone for eternity. We are without God. This is a state of indeterminable suffering. Think about prisoners who are placed in solitary confinement. They are placed there for days or weeks and the isolation eats at them and breaks them. Think of an eternity of this. This is hell.

I have a priest friend that I studied with in Rome. Actually, there was three of us who studied together. An Irishmen, an Australian, and a Texas went to a Roman bar. It sounds like a bad joke. Actually, we would go to the bar daily to drink our fix of cappucinos. But the Irishmen told me at the end of our time together. He said, “Father, you tell your people. That if they try for heaven, they just might get their through purgatory. But, if they just try for purgatory they might just get hell. You tell your people, Father. You tell your people.” He had a great point. We need to aim for the high road. We need to root out anything that is keeping us from living a life of radical love and goodness. Those sinful habits, those moments of selfishness, those moments of neglecting to sacrifice, to love. The road to hell is the easy one that consumes us quickly. The road to heaven is one which we constantly need to help each other.

Finally, my friend brings up my last point. The point about purgatory. Purgatory is not a destination. It is a process. Upon our judgment there are only two places that we will go. Heaven or Hell. Purgatory is the cleansing process for all those who are on their way to heaven. You see we have to be perfect to be in the presence of God. Few of us dies in perfection and therefore we have purgatory which perfects us so that we can spend eternity with God and all of the saints.

It is like this. Imagine, the girl or boy of your dreams. They person you are so madly in love with and you get a call that that person is in your house waiting for you too go to the great dance. The one problem is that you have been shoveling manure and is covered from head to toe with the most foul-smelling stuff. So, you go up to take a shower. your thoughts are with the beloved and you cant wait to be with him/her and then you realize that the manure is not coming off very easily, actually it is just coming off a little at a time. Your heart is pained because you so want to be with your beloved. That is what happens at purgatory. We are in a shower with no control over when the shower finishes. The hope we have is that the Beloved is waiting for us.

So when you read these apocalyptic books of the bible, think of the battle in your own lives. Choose the high road, the road that leads to Christ. You will then be judged as one who remained faithful to the end and you will see him face to face, with all the saints, and angels for eternity.