Where do we go from here? We have looked at passages in the Bible individually, trying to understand them in the way most consistent with historical events, the views of the early Church, the guidance of the Magisterium, and—most important—the context of Scripture itself. In this last chapter, we will take a slightly wider view, in an attempt to summarize the teaching of the Church concerning the end of the ages. Make no mistake: the Church’s message is a message of hope.

First, we know that Christ will return. Rapturists often imply that because Catholics do not subscribe to an imminent secret rapture of believers only, we do not long for the return of Christ. This is absolute nonsense.

The creed we recite every Sunday makes it abundantly clear that we hope for Christ’s return: “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.” This hope is also considered part of the mystery of faith we proclaim with the priest when we say, “Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.”

The Scriptures read during every Mass declare the hope of Christ’s return as a central focus of the Catholic Faith. This hope has been central since His first advent. The angels asked the disciples at the time of the Ascension, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into Heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into Heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him go into Heaven” (Acts 1:11).

Lest Catholics misunderstand the Liturgy and Scripture, the Catechism emphasizes the Church’s hope in the second coming: “Christ’s reign is yet to be fulfilled ‘with power and great glory’ by the king’s return to earth” (CCC, par. 671).

Modern pessimists can learn a lesson from this unchanging hope of the Church. The fifteenth century saw popular fears similar in many ways to the paranoia of our day. Common wisdom held that the world was soon going to be destroyed. In 1459, Pope Pius II tried to allay these fears by clearly stating that “the world should [not] be naturally destroyed” (CUM). Christ is going to come back to a world that is still in existence. He will be the One to replace this old world with a new Heaven and a new earth. Perhaps it is a sign of twenty-first-century egoism that we believe it is possible for us to destroy the earth completely. No fear: we won’t. God will.

Further, we know that Christ will return in these last days. We have already determined that the end of the ages started with the Messiah’s first advent, so we will not belabor the point (GR9). But next time you see a cartoon depicting a man with a sandwich board declaring, “The end is near!” remember that the Church declares, “The end is already here.” It has been here since the most important event of all history: the coming of the Son of God in the flesh.

This is such a settled issue for the writers of the New Testament that it almost seems superfluous to pick out certain verses. But here are a few of them.

On the day of Pentecost, St. Peter declared in his first apostolic sermon that the promised “last days” had arrived (Acts 2:17–18). St. Paul agreed with this appraisal: he wrote that his generation was the one “upon whom the end of the ages has come” (1 Cor. 10:11). The writer of Hebrews also perceived the first advent as the beginning of the last days: “In these last days He has spoken to us by a Son” (Heb. 1:2).

The present successor to Peter has also reaffirmed this idea. In his general audience on April 22, 1998, Pope John Paul II stated, “We must not forget that for Christians the ‘eschaton,’ that is, the final event, is to be understood not only as a future goal, but as a reality which has already begun with the historical coming of Christ. His Passion, death, and Resurrection are the supreme event in the history of mankind, which has now entered its final phase.”

I suppose we should not find it surprising, then, that the Catechism affirms this principle: “Since the Ascension God’s plan has entered into its fulfillment. We are already at ‘the last hour.’ Already the final age of the world is with us, and the renewal of the world is irrevocably under way.… Christ’s kingdom already manifests its presence” (CCC, par. 670).

Of course, we ought to face up to the fact that we are all within “one generation” of meeting Christ’s judgment. For those of us who do not live long enough to see the second advent, Christ’s promise to come in judgment will not be broken. We, too, will suddenly be ushered into eternity to meet Christ—at our death. As even the Old Testament advises, “Remember your last days. Remember death and decay, and cease from sin!” (Sir. 28:6, NAB).

When Christ does return in these last days, it will be not in a hidden manner, but publicly and unmistakably. All the language of Scripture and the Church is clear on this. The second advent will be gloriously public. There will not be a secret rapture first, because that has never been taught by Scripture or by the Church. Scripture and the Church have never taught it because Jesus never did.

Jesus did teach that “as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of man” (Matt. 24:27). St. Paul taught in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 that “the Lord Himself will descend from Heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.” Both passages speak of the second advent as unmistakably obvious. There is nothing secret about lightning, cries of command, angel calls, or trumpets.

In the general audience of April 22, 1998, Pope John Paul II reminded the faithful of this teaching: “The second coming of the Son of Man will not take place in the weakness of flesh, but in divine power.” This will make it public and obvious to all.

Although it is clear in Scripture that the second coming will be public, it will nevertheless burst upon the world unexpectedly, suddenly, and imminently. Jesus warned us to be prepared lest “that day come upon you suddenly like a snare” (Luke 21:34).

St. Peter reiterated the warning: “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up” (2 Pet. 3:10).

St. Paul coined the “thief in the night” verbiage that has been so often misapplied to a secret, private rapture. But as we determined in our examination of the epistles, this passage is speaking of the second coming. “The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When people say, ‘There is peace and security,’ then sudden destruction will come upon them as travail comes upon a woman with child, and there will be no escape” (1 Thess. 5:2–3). The destruction here is not the Great Tribulation, but our eternal judgment.

The Church has always spoken of the imminent return of Christ. Historically, that term had always meant that Christ could return during any generation. But rapturists have started to teach that it means Christ would rapture His believers at any moment, perhaps even before you finish reading this paragraph. They teach that there are no other events that must precede that rapture, not even the final confrontation between good and evil.

While they are certainly free to use language in their own manner, the Church uses the word as it always has throughout its two-thousand-year history. Christ may come back in our generation, or He may not. Only the Father knows. As the Catechism states, “Since the Ascension Christ’s coming in glory has been imminent, even though ‘it is not for you to know times or seasons.’ This eschatological coming could be accomplished at any moment, even if both it and the final trial that will precede it are ‘delayed’ ” (CCC, par. 673).

The fact that the second advent will come unexpectedly implies that we do not know its timing. But we have such an innate curiosity about the end times, that we will be explicit: The second coming will occur at a time which only God the Father knows. Perhaps the most amazing verse in the entire Bible is found in Mark, where Jesus tells His disciples that even He is not privy to the timing of the second coming! “But of that day or that hour no one knows, not even the angels in Heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (13:32).

In Matthew, Jesus emphasizes that this ignorance extends even to committed Christians: “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of Heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the householder had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have watched and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (24:36–44).

The desire to know the timing of God’s plans is so irresistible that even the disciples fell prey to its allure. Just before the Ascension, they asked the risen Christ whether He would consummate all things at that time. He replied, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by His own authority” (Acts 1:7). That should satisfy us, yet it so often does not. But it should.

That the timing of God’s plan is unknown and unknowable to us was an accepted fact in the early Church. Origen wrote, “We speak on this subject very cautiously and diffidently, rather by way of discussion than coming to definite conclusions. The end and consummation of the world will be granted, [but] God alone knows that time” (TPR, I, VI, 1–4). Origen had some peculiar beliefs, but in this he was solidly in the mainstream of the early Church Fathers.

As we wait for the glorious return of our Lord, we must remember that any apparent delay in the second coming is a result of God’s mercy.

We must keep in mind that God is in eternity, while we are in time. He sees the end from the beginning constantly, while we experience reality in sequential order. This is what St. Peter is referring to here: “With the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise as some count slowness, but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Pet. 3:8–9). Throughout history, some have tried to use this verse to determine the date of the second advent. But the thrust of the passage is not that we can mathematically corner God as to His plans, but that our perception of time is irrelevant.

Many unbelievers may find this delay a cause for derision. When Christian sects persist in setting dates that do not pan out, the mockery increases. This happened even in St. Peter’s time: “First of all, you must understand this, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own Passions and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things have continued as they were from the beginning of creation’ ” (2 Pet. 3:3–4). Things really have not changed all that much, have they?

There is a very good reason for God’s delay: everyone is not ready for Christ’s return just yet. After our study of The Apocalypse, we should anticipate this reason. The judgment of Jerusalem was delayed as long as possible, specifically to allow time for more Jewish people to be saved from judgment (Apoc. 7:3; GR3). The Catechism tells us, “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. The ‘full inclusion’ of the Jews in the Messiah’s salvation, in the wake of ‘the full number of the Gentiles,’ 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’ ” (CCC, par. 674).

The very next event on the “end-times agenda” is not a secret rapture, but the final massive assault upon the Church by the forces of Satan (Apoc. 20:7–9). There is yet to be one final battle between good and evil. Nowhere does Scripture or the Church teach that there is any event that must precede this final cosmic battle.

The Catechism summarizes this by saying, “Before Christ’s second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution … 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” (CCC, par. 675).

Although there may be thousands of years in which peace and godliness prevail before this final apostasy, that peace will not trigger the second advent. There will not be a gradual ascendancy that elevates the world to righteousness until we are good enough to merit Christ’s return.

Indeed, the emergence and ascendancy of evil will be the catalyst for the second coming. The Catechism states, “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” (CCC, par. 677).

True, the assault of evil upon good has been almost without pause since the first advent. Both the New Testament writers and the Catechism recognize this. St. John wrote that many antichrists have come (1 John 2:18). The Catechism states, “Christ’s reign is still under attack by the evil powers, even though they have been defeated definitively by Christ’s Passover.… The present time is … a time still marked by ‘distress’ and the trial of evil which does not spare the Church.… 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 … millenarianism, especially the ‘intrinsically perverse’ political form of a secular messianism” (CCC, pars. 671, 672, 676).

But the final assault of evil will be so intense that many will be in danger of losing their faith. St. Paul’s letter to Bishop Timothy records, “Now, the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the Faith by giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons” (1 Tim. 4:1). Satan’s ability to deceive humanity is now restrained by God. But during the final distress, Satan will be “released” from this restraint once again to weave his deceptive web with all his cunning (Apoc. 20:1–3, 7–10; 2 Thess. 2:7).

Has that final assault begun? I don’t know. But of one thing I am quite certain. If the final trial of evil is upon us, we are in its very early stages. Why do I believe that? There have been times when it was much harder to be a Christian than it is now: during Hitler’s Germany, Mao’s China, Stalin’s Russia, Elizabeth’s England, Voltaire’s France, Domitian’s Rome, and even Arian Egypt.

This intense assault of evil will be orchestrated by a man commonly referred to as the antichrist, the man of sin, and the son of perdition. St. Paul warns not to let anyone “deceive you in any way; for that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of perdition” (2 Thess. 2:3).

The early Church fully anticipated the revelation of the antichrist before the second coming. St. Jerome wrote, “I told you that Christ would not come unless antichrist has come before” (EPS). St. John Chrysostom preached, “The time of antichrist will be a sign of the coming of Christ” (HFT, 9). St. Augustine clearly concurred, “The kingdom of antichrist shall fiercely, though for a short time, assail the Church” (COG, XX, 23). It might be nice to be safely tucked away in Heaven when this happens, but all early Christians expected the Church to be party to this struggle.

The antichrist need not be of Middle Eastern descent, as some rapturists have claimed. The final battle against Gog and Magog will be a spiritual struggle—which could very well begin anywhere in the world—and will present all Christians with a choice. The choice will be between God’s narrow way and the broad path to destruction, but it will not be presented by Satan’s side in those terms. “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” (CCC, par. 675).

The antichrist will attack Truth at its core. He will attempt to replace the true worship of the Church with a counterfeit: “The son of perdition … [will take] his seat in the Temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God” (2 Thess. 2:3–4). Exactly how he will insert himself into the worship of the Church is unclear. But it seems likely that he will attempt a victory over the Church’s belief from within.

This antichrist will be impossible to resist without God’s grace: “The coming of the lawless one by the activity of Satan will be with all power and with pretended signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are to perish.… Therefore God sends upon them a strong delusion, to make them believe what is false” (2 Thess. 2:9–11).

The first-century Church certainly knew what persecution entailed: they endured the Great Tribulation! As a result, this theme of the antichrist loomed large in their faith. The author of the Epistle of Barnabas most likely had seen the Great Tribulation firsthand, and he stated, “The final stumbling block approaches.… Withstand … that the Black One may find no means of entrance.”

Yet even early on, the Church knew that the final confrontation would be similar, but worse than their experience. About halfway through the second century, Melito wrote, “With all his strength did the adversary assail us, even then giving a foretaste of his activity among us which is to be without restraint” (DRE, I, 8).

St. Athanasius fled before the persecution by the Arians. He said of the Church’s enemies, “They have not spared Thy servants, but are preparing the way for antichrist” (HOA, VIII, 79). This antichrist will do everything in his power to destroy Christ’s Church.

On one point we can agree with rapturists. We know how the battle with the antichrist ends up: “The lawless one will be revealed, and the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of His mouth and destroy him by His appearing and His coming” (2 Thess. 2:8).

It will not be a long, drawn-out battle once Christ appears. The antichrist and his forces “surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city; but fire came down from Heaven and consumed them” (Apoc. 20:9).

We have finally arrived at the actual second coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. While it is certainly our job to resist evil at all times, the final victory cannot be won without Christ’s second advent. The victory will be won at the glorious appearance of Christ. Our responsibility is to endure and believe the Truth: “Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints” (Apoc. 13:10).

God’s mercy—in allowing time for more people to enter His Kingdom—is evident when we survey the series of events that transpire on the heels of the second advent. At the second coming, all people will then be resurrected. In his first letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul outlined a compelling argument refuting those who reject any future resurrection of the body. He completes his argument by saying, “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Cor. 15:12–22).

Whether we are alive or dead at the second advent, we will be raised. “For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we wake or sleep we might live with Him” (1 Thess. 5:9–10).

This second resurrection is being postponed in mercy to allow more people to experience the first resurrection. Pope John Paul II stated in his April 22, 1998 General Audience, “The resurrection of the dead expected at the end of time already receives its first, decisive realization in spiritual resurrection, the primary objective of the work of salvation. It consists in the new life given by the risen Christ as the fruit of His redemptive work.”

At the time of our resurrection, everyone will face the final judgment. The first-century Churchman Polycarp wrote, “Christ comes as the Judge of the living and the dead” (EPP, II). Although rapturists teach that Christians will not be judged at the Great White Throne, the Bible clearly teaches that they will. We examined this in the final vision of The Apocalypse, but first saw it in the Olivet Discourse. In Jesus’ parable, the Master rewards the works of His servants: “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your master” (Matt. 25:21). These are servants of the Master, not enemies.

The Church’s voice has been loud and clear concerning the certitude of judgment: “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” (CCC, par. 677). This final, general judgment does not negate the particular judgment that each of us will undergo immediately after death. As the Catechism clearly states, “The New Testament speaks of judgment primarily in its aspect of the final encounter with Christ in His second coming, but also repeatedly affirms that each will be rewarded immediately after death in accordance with his works and faith” (CCC, par. 1021).

Many of us shrink from a discussion of Hell and judgment, but Jesus spoke of Hell more than two dozen times. The wicked will spend eternity without any good or God. Rejection of God now leads to an eternity of anguish at being judged and sent out of God’s joyful presence forever. “Behold, the Lord came with His holy myriads, to execute judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness which they have committed in such an ungodly way” (Jude 14–15). “Those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus … shall suffer the punishment of eternal destruction and exclusion from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might, when He comes on that day to be glorified” (2 Thess. 1:8–10).

Hell was not designed for mankind. It was created for rebellious angels such as Lucifer. But “for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, the murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their lot shall be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death” (Apoc. 21:8). These will join the demons in Hell forever.

On the other side of the final judgment stands eternity. Time has been destroyed along with the old Heaven and earth. Those who have responded to God throughout their lives, the righteous, will experience no more death.

This is the consummation of God’s plan. In John 3:16, we read, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” Jesus offered eternal life to everyone: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes Him who sent me, has eternal life” (John 5:24).

With death conquered, sorrow itself will also be overcome. God “will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Apoc. 21:4).

Just as Christ’s body was resurrected, the righteous will now have glorified bodies. This new body will still be ours, but glorified. The Catechism states our belief simply and succinctly: “After the universal judgment, the righteous will reign forever with Christ, glorified in body and soul” (CCC, par. 1042).

St. Paul is very thorough in his treatment of our eternal bodies: “What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a physical body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body.… For this perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’ ‘O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?’ ” (1 Cor. 15:42–44, 53–55).

Catholic theologians have discerned four qualities of the resurrected body described in this passage. If we follow St. Paul’s order, our new bodies will have incorruptibility, clarity, agility, and subtlety.

• Incorruptibility is also known as impassability. Our new bodies will not be susceptible to the elements, as are our present bodies. Temperature, food, stress, and pain will no longer affect us. As St. John states, we “shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore, the sun shall not strike [us], nor any scorching heat” (Apoc. 7:16).

• Clarity. The second glorious aspect of our new bodies has been described as clarity. An example of this quality can be found in the Transfiguration of Christ. Jesus’ “face shone like the sun” (Matt. 17:2). It seems that the glorious joy of being with God overflows from the soul into the body. The body brims up with this joy and becomes virtually luminous! This is what awaits those who love God!

• Agility. Our new bodies will have agility—that is, they will have powers that at present belong only to the mind. For example, presently we can imagine ourselves in a certain place instantaneously. After the resurrection, the body will accompany the mind at that same lightning speed. To think of being in another location will be no swifter than traveling there in our glorified bodies. The mechanics of this are hard to comprehend, but we know that Jesus moved at will through space in His glorified body. Our abilities will be similar, because our bodies will be like His.

• Subtlety. Finally, our glorified bodies will have subtlety; that is, they will be spiritual. This does not mean they will not be physical, but that the physical will be completely controlled by the spiritual. The best illustration of this can be found in the body of the resurrected Christ. His body was able to pass through walls and doors, yet at another time He could eat fish. His body was real and physical, but did exactly what He demanded of it (John 20:19, 26). It might seem like a trivialization, but in a sense it boils down to “mind over matter.”

We should remember that it was no easier for the early Church to accept this on faith than it is for us. Irenaeus died around 200 A.D., after a lifelong battle with the Gnostics. Like modernists, the Gnostics rejected any supernatural resurrection of the body. In answering them, Irenaeus wrote, “If men think only of the weakness of the flesh, and do not consider the power of Him who raises it from the dead, they ignore the might of God. We ought to infer God’s power in all these things from a consideration of our beginning; God took clay from the earth, and fashioned man.… This was a task far harder, far more incredible, than to restore this creature when it had been created and then re-dissolved into the earth. If God gave existence, when He so willed, to those who did not exist, much more will He restore those who have come into being to the life which He gave them, if He so wills” (AG, V, II, 2–3).

It is our present responsibility to treat our body and its appetites in the knowledge of its future total subjection to the spirit. Every committed Christian is in a lifelong struggle to keep his body and its appetites in subjection to his will. As we become more and more like Christ, we should be more and more in control of our earthly appetites. St. Paul expresses this thought like this: “When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you” (Col. 3:4–5).

What will happen throughout all eternity? Christians will live without fear of death and will enjoy the Beatific Vision forever. It is hard to imagine the joy that God’s presence will bring to Christians: “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face-to-face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood” (1 Cor. 13:12). But while this joy is ultimately inexpressible, we already know that it will never fade. It is a joy reserved for the purified righteous ones. Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matt. 5:8).

The Catechism quotes from St. Augustine’s City of God: “The New Testament uses several expressions to characterize the beatitude to which God calls man: the coming of the Kingdom of God; the vision of God; entering into the joy of the Lord; entering into God’s rest. ‘There we shall rest and see, we shall see and love, we shall love and praise. Behold what will be at the end without end. For what other end do we have, if not to reach the Kingdom which has no end?’ ” (CCC, par. 1720).

The prospect of this future joy should cause us to be hopeful in the present. In fact, this is the true meaning of the “blessed hope” of the Bible. The blessed hope is not some secret, private rapture designed to rescue believers from a Great Tribulation here on earth. Our hope awaits “the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). Our joy at His second advent will be evident and eternal; our hope will have been realized. We will see Christ as He is, for we will be like Him and with Him forever.

Not only should we be presently hopeful. We should also be watchfully prepared. This is the message of Jesus: “Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time will come. Watch therefore—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning—lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Watch” (Mark 13:33–37). “Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the marriage feast, so that they may open to him at once when he comes and knocks” (Luke 12:35–36).

Cyril of Jerusalem told catachumens of the fourth century, “The Church declares … thou shouldest make thyself ready beforehand” (CAT, 15, 9).

The New Testament exhortations to watchfulness are so abundant that perhaps the best strategy would be to cite the Catechism in summary: “The present time is … a time of waiting and watching” (CCC, 673).

I have often been asked how to wait for the blessed hope. Besides living a holy life, how do we demonstrate daily our hopefulness and readiness? There is one method that surpasses all others in its efficacy and involves the battle strategy of the Lamb of The Apocalypse. We should be faithful in Eucharistic celebration! When we fully appreciate the hope that we have in our Faith, we will prepare ourselves with the best means available.

The Eucharist is the finest form of faithfulness in watching and waiting for three reasons. First, it is the best way to proclaim our Faith. Yes, the best way to tell the world about the mystery of salvation and the Lord’s sacrifice for them is not through writing or speaking, but through participation in the celebration of the Eucharist. St. Paul is very clear on this: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes” (1 Cor. 11:26). The Greek word for proclaim is kataggello, which means to “tell thoroughly.” It is more commonly translated as “preach” or “teach” in the New Testament. We should continue our faithful celebration of the Mass until the second coming; doing this thoroughly teaches the gospel to us and to others.

What is this gospel? Remember the strategy of the Lamb and the Church? It involved telling the Truth through the Eucharist: that what you see with your eyes is not all of reality, that humans are eternal beings who will live forever either in Heaven or in Hell, and that the choices we make in this life determine where we will spend eternity. The Eucharist explains this to the world “thoroughly.”

The second reason the Eucharist is the finest form of faithfulness is also a major lesson of The Apocalypse. Remember the strategy of the dragon? It promised earthly success to its allies through deceit and earthly power. In response to the lies of Satan, the Eucharist not only preaches the Truth; the celebration of the Eucharist supernaturally empowers us to adopt the mindset of the Lamb. Because the Eucharist is a sacrament, it not only symbolizes the sacrifice of the one Man to lead us to eternal life; it is Christ: Body, Blood, soul, and divinity. As such, it builds the Truth of the Eucharist into our daily lives. Once imbedded, that Truth helps us to wait in hope.

Not too long ago, I attended Mass at a conference at which I was a speaker. As it began, I realized anew the gospel message being played out before me. On my left was a Catholic man from the Middle East who had recently converted from Islam. On my right was a Nigerian priest. Next to him was a young Oriental man. In front of me were two little old ladies with white hair. Several rows up knelt a woman who had converted from Judaism a few years earlier. Behind me was a typical Catholic family with five or six young children. As the Mass progressed, I was in Heaven. I really was. Here was the family of God eating the marriage supper of the Lamb as one people. Here was revealed the mystery of the Kingdom, and the Kingdom values exhibited around me were being planted in my soul by Christ.

The third reason the Eucharist is the finest form of faithfulness is closely allied to the second. When we faithfully and hopefully celebrate the Eucharist, we participate in a spiritual adventure that actually hastens the second coming! That’s right. We may not know the time of Christ’s coming, but we do know that Christ’s return can be “hastened” through our worship. We find this truth in the Catechism: “The Holy Spirit’s transforming power in the Liturgy hastens the coming of the Kingdom and the consummation of the mystery of salvation. While we wait in hope He causes us really to anticipate the fullness of communion with the Holy Trinity” (CCC, par. 1107).

Sacraments not only symbolize a Truth; they actually have the supernatural power to accomplish what they symbolize. The joining of our hearts and souls in worship to the heart of the Church Triumphant as they celebrate the marriage supper of the Lamb transforms us. The Church Militant is supernaturally drawn to the Church Triumphant, and the Holy Spirit draws the New Jerusalem closer to that day when it will descend in glory to subsume the Church here on earth. The Eucharist transforms not only my personal inner reality, but the greater reality of the Church as well. As The Apocalypse makes clear, in the Mass, the Church on earth is most closely allied with the Church in Heaven. The Eucharist is the purest foretaste of Heaven on earth.

“The Church celebrates the mystery of her Lord ‘until He comes.’ Since the apostolic age the Liturgy has been drawn toward its goal by the Spirit’s groaning in the Church: Maranatha! The Liturgy thus shares in Jesus’ desire: ‘I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you … until it is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.’ In the sacraments of Christ the Church already receives the guarantee of her inheritance and even now shares in everlasting life, while ‘awaiting our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus’ ” (CCC, par. 1130).

“Maranatha! Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!”