By Fr. Glenn Jones

Well … it’s been a little while since I’ve seen a doomsayer prediction in the news … “The end is coming! … at X o’clock on [insert specific date here … rinse and repeat]” type. One can’t help but wonder why some who ascribe to the inerrancy of Biblical scriptures seem to forget Jesus: “Heaven and earth will pass away…But of that day and hour NO ONE knows…” (Matthew 24:35-36) Yet, despite such assurances from Jesus Himself, such predictions linger. Hopefully the doomsayer in his sincerity will be so kind as to discontinue the collection/tithing that week. “Ah … mortgage, schmortgage!”

And yet … only the foolish person would deny that his/her own end is coming … at some unknowable time in the future. Today, tomorrow … fifty years from now … who knows? … but it will come. Certainly the folks on 9/11 had no inkling that they had only a minute left … or the guy with the almost-blocked artery, or a car’s occupants a half-mile from the oncoming drunk driver. So … how to prepare? CAN we prepare? Hmmm….

In the secular world we want to be “remembered”—whatever that means, whatever good it does us. But we might be “remembered” for good or bad; after all, Hitler, Jeffrey Dahmer, Vlad the Impaler are “remembered”, but not exactly favorably. Mass shooters often have that idea of “going out in a blaze of glory”—as inglorious as it really is … names remembered (not for very long, or by very many) only with a curse … such as a comment heard about a recent suicide shooter: “Good! Saved the state a lot of money by offing himself.” Imagine that being your remembrance.

Would that we sought to be remembered with a blessing rather than a curse! … people lamenting our demise rather than “good riddance!” But, of course, such takes effort—often entailing denial of one’s own apparent ease, comfort or material gain in preference for the good of another. Mother Teresa, for example, with her intelligence, determination and organizational ability could likely have been the CEO of a global business. But she chose rather to sacrifice ephemeral material gain for  the eternal … seeking to help the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta and elsewhere … not seeking fame, even though fame came to her nonetheless. But why did someone with no glitz or glamor attain fame? Because in our depths we admire goodness and self-sacrifice above all, recognizing those things as the highest ideal. Real worth lay not in the boxes we drive or live in, or in the rocks, metal, cloth and currency we accumulate to flaunt, but rather in the goodness—the love—we practice.

Now, returning to our theme above, it IS integral to the Christian faith that “the end”—whatever the mechanics of its manifestation—is indeed in the future … nearer today than yesterday. Yet it’s not so much an “end” that is foretold, but a beginning, as we hear in the book of Revelation speaking of that time: “Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people…he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:3-4)

“Well … sounds pretty ‘pie-in-the-sky’, priest.” Yup, it does … like winning the lotto, except much better. Why put credence in such an idyllic promise? Where’s the evidence?

Well, ultimately, such credence is based on faith, defined in scripture as “…the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrew 11:1). Sort of like dark matter in physics. And yet, with physics we may (likely will) materially discern/measure the theoretical as knowledge and abilities advance. But the spiritual world is a realm for which we are physically unequipped—like trying to smell sounds or hear odor. Only one capable of both worlds (God) can pull back such a veil. 

Yet, as I’ve mentioned in previous columns, the Christian faith does have historical (one might say “evidentiary”) basis. As St. John Chrysostom wrote: “How…could twelve uneducated men [Jesus’ apostles—fishermen, tax collectors, etc.] who lived on lakes and rivers, get the idea of such an immense enterprise?”… an enterprise—the Christian faith—which spans the world today. Pre-resurrection cowering apostles suddenly transform into post-resurrection champions of Him who died upon a cross. A faith they went out into the world to promote spread(s) globally—pretty good for a bunch of country bumpkins promoting what would otherwise be outlandish claims and at-the-time revolutionary teachings of a dead uneducated carpenter. Unless…

And so we remember the words of the wise rabbi Gamaliel … words of 2000 years ago: “…if this plan or this undertaking is of men, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them.” (Acts 5:38-39) And, yes, our end is near, whether it be today, fifty or a hundred years from now—a blink in the span of time. Our current physical end, anyway. 

But we ask again the age-old paradoxical questions: If nothing exists in itself, whence came existence? Mustn’t there then be a self-existent being (a.k.a., “God”) from which came other existents [things]? And one might add: If something creates existents, might it not create different modes of existents … perhaps indiscernible between themselves? And, if God is self-existent and the source of existence, He is then necessarily eternally existent, and thus that which He creates can exist eternally henceforth should He create it to be so—ever sustaining it (e.g., the human soul) in existence.

So … should we fear an “end”? Well, by the preceding we Christians believe there IS no end for us; the soul continues … and later, our own resurrection in the body. But that’s another topic … also supported by the above. The only “end” we really need fear is being excluded from God, who is love—the result of excluding love from our earthly lives—love of God and goodness, and love of neighbor. For “…the measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more will be given you. For to him who has will more be given; and from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” (Mark 4:24-25) Therefore, in the words of Moses: “…therefore choose life…loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice, and cleaving to him; for that means life to you and length of days…” (Deuteronomy 30:19-20)

Rev. Glenn Jones is the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and former pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Los Alamos.