This is the first lesson in a series being hosted at St. Genevieve Catholic Church in Las Cruces.

There is much anxiety in the world about the craziness in society today. Yes, it’s bad but are we really in the End Times?

Article 7 in the Catechism discusses “FROM THENCE HE WILL COME AGAIN TO JUDGE THE LIVING AND THE DEAD” which includes paragraphs 668-681 that are repeated below from http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p1s2c2a7.htm

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ARTICLE 7

“FROM THENCE HE WILL COME AGAIN TO JUDGE THE LIVING AND THE DEAD”

I. HE WILL COME AGAIN IN GLORY

Christ already reigns through the Church. . .

668 “Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.”⁵⁴⁹ Christ’s Ascension into heaven signifies his participation, in his humanity, in God’s power and authority. Jesus Christ is Lord: he possesses all power in heaven and on earth. He is “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion”, for the Father “has put all things under his feet.”⁵⁵⁰ Christ is Lord of the cosmos and of history. In him human history and indeed all creation are “set forth” and transcendently fulfilled.⁵⁵¹

669 As Lord, Christ is also head of the Church, which is his Body.⁵⁵² Taken up to heaven and glorified after he had thus fully accomplished his mission, Christ dwells on earth in his Church. The redemption is the source of the authority that Christ, by virtue of the Holy Spirit, exercises over the Church. “The kingdom of Christ [is] already present in mystery”, “on earth, the seed and the beginning of the kingdom”.⁵⁵³

670 Since the Ascension God’s plan has entered into its fulfillment. We are already at “the last hour”.⁵⁵⁴ “Already the final age of the world is with us, and the renewal of the world is irrevocably under way; it is even now anticipated in a certain real way, for the Church on earth is endowed already with a sanctity that is real but imperfect.”⁵⁵⁵ Christ’s kingdom already manifests its presence through the miraculous signs that attend its proclamation by the Church.⁵⁵⁶

. . .until all things are subjected to him

Though already present in his Church, Christ’s reign is nevertheless yet to be fulfilled “with power and great glory” by the King’s return to earth.⁵⁵⁷ This reign is still under attack by the evil powers, even though they have been defeated definitively by Christ’s Passover.⁵⁵⁷ Until everything is subject to him, “until there be realized new heavens and a new earth in which justice dwells, the pilgrim Church, in her sacraments and institutions, which belong to this present age, carries the mark of this world which will pass, and she herself takes her place among the creatures which groan and travail yet and await the revelation of the sons of God.”⁵⁵⁹ That is why Christians pray, above all in the Eucharist, to hasten Christ’s return by saying to him:⁵⁶⁰ Marana tha! “Our Lord, come!”⁵⁶¹

672 Before his Ascension Christ affirmed that the hour had not yet come for the glorious establishment of the messianic kingdom awaited by Israel⁵⁶² which, according to the prophets, was to bring all men the definitive order of justice, love and peace.⁵⁶³ According to the Lord, the present time is the time of the Spirit and of witness, but also a time still marked by “distress” and the trial of evil which does not spare the Church⁵⁶⁴ and ushers in the struggles of the last days. It is a time of waiting and watching.⁵⁶⁵

The glorious advent of Christ, the hope of Israel

673 Since the Ascension Christ’s coming in glory has been imminent,⁵⁶⁶ even though “it is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority.”⁵⁶⁷. This eschatological coming could be accomplished at any moment, even if both it and the final trial that will precede it are “delayed”.⁵⁶⁸

674 The glorious Messiah’s coming is suspended at every moment of history until his recognition by “all Israel”, for “a hardening has come upon part of Israel” in their “unbelief” toward Jesus.⁵⁶⁹ St. Peter says to the Jews of Jerusalem after Pentecost: “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for establishing all that God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old.”⁵⁷⁰ St. Paul echoes him: “For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?”⁵⁷¹ The “full inclusion” of the Jews in the Messiah’s salvation, in the wake of “the full number of the Gentiles”,⁵⁷² will enable the People of God to achieve “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ”, in which “God may be all in all”.⁵⁷³

The Church’s ultimate trial

675 Before Christ’s second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers.⁵⁷⁴ The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth⁵⁷⁵ will unveil the “mystery of iniquity” in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh.⁵⁷⁶

676 The Antichrist’s deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through the eschatological judgment. The Church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of millenarianism,⁵⁷⁷ especially the “intrinsically perverse” political form of a secular messianism.⁵⁷⁸

677 The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection.⁵⁷⁹ The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God’s victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from heaven.⁵⁸⁰ God’s triumph over the revolt of evil will take the form of the Last Judgment after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world.⁵⁸¹

II. TO JUDGE THE LIVING AND THE DEAD

678 Following in the steps of the prophets and John the Baptist, Jesus announced the judgment of the Last Day in his preaching.⁵⁸² Then will the conduct of each one and the secrets of hearts be brought to light.⁵⁸³ Then will the culpable unbelief that counted the offer of God’s grace as nothing be condemned.⁵⁸⁴ Our attitude to our neighbor will disclose acceptance or refusal of grace and divine love.⁵⁸⁵ On the Last Day Jesus will say: “Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.”⁵⁸⁶

679 Christ is Lord of eternal life. Full right to pass definitive judgment on the works and hearts of men belongs to him as redeemer of the world. He “acquired” this right by his cross. The Father has given “all judgment to the Son”.⁵⁸⁷ Yet the Son did not come to judge, but to save and to give the life he has in himself.⁵⁸⁸ By rejecting grace in this life, one already judges oneself, receives according to one’s works, and can even condemn oneself for all eternity by rejecting the Spirit of love.⁵⁸⁹

IN BRIEF

680 Christ the Lord already reigns through the Church, but all the things of this world are not yet subjected to him. The triumph of Christ’s kingdom will not come about without one last assault by the powers of evil.

681 On Judgment Day at the end of the world, Christ will come in glory to achieve the definitive triumph of good over evil which, like the wheat and the tares, have grown up together in the course of history.

682 When he comes at the end of time to judge the living and the dead, the glorious Christ will reveal the secret disposition of hearts and will render to each man according to his works, and according to his acceptance or refusal of grace.

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Fr. Chris Alar discusses 5 signs to the completion of the End Times.

Those 5 signs are:

• Gospel preached to the whole world. (Matt 25)
• The great apostasy of the Gentiles. (Matt 24, 2 The 2)
• Universal conversion of the Jews to Jesus and the Catholic Church (Rom 11:25)
• Revelation of the Antichrist (2 The 2, 2 John)
• Tribulation (Matt 24:9)

Introduction – 00:25-07:30

What Catholics belief, part 1, 10:08-24:00

Preparing for the Tribulation

Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple; and there were flashes of lightning, loud noises, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.

Revelation 11:19

The tribulation specified in Revelation 11:19 is followed by the woman being led to safety in Revelation 12:6.

the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which to be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.

Revelation 12:6

and then a battle ensues between St. Michael and the Dragon,

And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had borne the male child. But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time. The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with the flood. But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river which the dragon had poured from his mouth. Then the dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and bear testimony to Jesus.

Revelation 12:13-17

In many of Our Mother’s messages she has continually stressed the times we are in and the need for prayer, penance, and fasting. There has been a constant mention of chastisement since before Fatima, if we did not change our ways. Fr. Gobbi felt the calling by Our Blessed Mother to start the Marian Movement of Priests in the 1970s and 1980s. Those interior locutions he received continued into the 90s.

As early as 1974, in message 33, she stressed the refuge to protect us. She said “If you live each moment in this refuge, you will always be kept warm by my love and that of my Son Jesus.” She went on to say “Fear neither the cold nor the darkness, because you will be in the Heart of your Mother, and from there you will point out the way to a great multitude of my poor wandering children.” She said that if we are in the refuge we will see all the events which are to follow one upon another as from afar, without allowing ourselves to be in the least affected by them.

Mother Mary proclaimed herself to Fr. Gobbi as the Virgin of Revelation in 1980. She had come to reveal to the priests the “secret of the Word, become flesh in my maternal womb.”

What is that place, that refuge of safety?

Message 72, April 25, 1975, includes “Take refuge now in my Immaculate Heart: I want you here to strengthen you and to protect you at the time of the terrible trial.”

The two wings of the eagle that led the women to safety are: 1) The Word of God, received, loved and kept with faith and 2) The Word of God lived with grace and charity. Mother Mary sought refuge for herself in the desert. She says in message 403, “The desert, in which I have made my habitual dwelling place, is made up of the hearts and the souls of all those children who receive me, who listen to me, who entrust themselves completely to me, who consecrate themselves to my Immaculate Heart.”

God has given Christians a refuge during this storm. For those who do not want to enter “a place prepared by God, in which to be nourished” during this storm, then the dragon is off to make war on “the rest of her offspring.”

At Fatima in 1917, Mother Mary promised that her “Immaculate Heart will triumph in the end.” After the triumph of her Immaculate Heart, Jesus will reign in the hearts and souls of all peoples and a great era of peace will be granted to the world.

That completes this week. Join us next week as we dive deeper into the events of the tribulation and especially the Warning, the Illumination of Conscience, and the Three Days of Darkness.