 | Father Richard James Cleary was born and reared in Wichita. After graduation from Cathedral High School in 1947, he attended the seminary operated by the Benedictine monks of Conception Abbey in Northwestern Missouri. There he came to appreciate the life of the monks and, having obtained the permission of Bishop Mark Carroll of Wichita, he became a monk of that monastery. After being ordained a priest in 1955, his superiors sent him to get his master’s degree at the University of Ottawa, Canada, then to study in Athens, Greece, and then in Rome, Italy, where he obtained his doctor’s degree in Theology. Finally, he spent a year of study at Harvard University. Later, Fr. Cleary was assigned to teach for many years in Rome. In 1998, he returned to Wichita, where he served in parish ministry at St. Mary’s Cathedral and at Blessed Sacrament parishes. In 2001, his abbot (superior) transferred him to Arkansas, where he served as chaplain of the Benedictine Sisters of Holy Angels Convent in Jonesboro, and helped in the parishes of northeast Arkansas. In March 2010, he was re-assigned to his monastery, Conception Abbey, Conception, in Missouri 64433. He can be contacted there at, 660-944-2877, or by email: rjcleary@juno.com. |
Religion
2002-07-01 10:27:00
End of times... what will happen and when?
Question: What will be the sequence of events at the end of time? What are the supposed three warnings?
Answer: Most writings about the end of time are mere speculation on the part of individuals. The Bible offers only a few facts, and these are not in sequential order. In his 2nd epistle to the Thessalonians, chapter 2, St. Paul warns against deceptions in this matter: "Do not be alarmed either by a spirit or by an oral statement . . . that the day of the Lord is at hand. Let no one deceive you in any way. For unless the apostasy comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the one doomed to perdition . . . and you know what is restraining him. . . . But the one who restrains him is to do so only for the present . . . and then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill . . . and render powerless by the manifestation of his coming."By the term "lawless one" is understood the Anti-Christ, who represents the devil.In his first epistle St. John states: "The last hour is at hand; and, just as you have heard the the Anti-Christ was coming, so now many anti-christs have appeared. Thus we know this is the last hour" (2:18). Commenting on this text around the year 420, St. Augustine says: "This last hour may be a long one, but it is definitely the last. It is St. John's expression for the last days, during which our Lord Jesus Christ will come."The Old Testament book of Daniel (7:21-22) is referring probably to the wicked King Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who invaded the Holy Land and even God's temple at Jerusalem, only to die a wretched death. But this text might also refer to the end of time and the Anti-Christ: "I watched as that horn made war against the holy ones and was victorious until the Ancient One arrived; judgment was pronounced in favor of the holy ones of the Most High, and the time came when the holy ones possessed the kingdom." The imagery in the context, both of Daniel and St. Paul, suggests an attempt to install someone in the place of God, pretending that he is a god (confer also Ezekiel 28:2). In his epistle to the Romans (chapter 11), St. Paul writes authoritatively that the rejection of Jesus by a majority of the Jewish people is only temporary: until the full number of the Gentiles will come into the Church. Then the Jews will accept Jesus as their Messiah, "and thus all Israel will be saved" (verse 26). The Apostle warns his non-Jewish converts to not look down on the Jews, who reject Jesus, because mercy has been shown to them (the Gentiles). The Jews remain God's chosen people! They have temporarily rejected God's plan of salvation through Jesus, but eventually will come to accept it. Likewise, non-Jewish Gentiles for the most part also will reject Jesus, while the Jews will come to accept him. And this exchange will happen so that no one can pride themselves before God: because both Jews and Gentiles will have rejected Jesus as Messiah, and all who will be saved have received God's mercy, and by that grace will have come to receive the Messiah.Throughout the history of the Church in every year some Jews come to accept Jesus and become faithful Christians; at the same time in every place some non-Jewish Christians give up their faith in Jesus and abandon his Church. And this phenomenon will continue until the final times. The New Testament book of Revelation (Apocalypse) was written to console and encourage the 2nd and 3rd generation of Christian believers, who were suffering persecution. With many symbols and in apocalyptic language St. John writes about the end of time, the final judgment and heaven and hell. But it is impossible to establish a real sequence of events in this book of visions, which are outside the order of time. The only sequence of events, about which we can be certain, is that those who have done evil in this life will be judged strictly and suffer forever punishments proportionate to their evil deeds; while those who have struggled to be friends of God and obeyed his commandments in this life, will receive a merciful judgment and will be happy forever with God and his angels and saints in heaven. In the Gospel of Matthew (25:31-46) we have a parable of Jesus about the last judgment, which confirms my previous statement.As to the "supposed three warnings," I am unaware of what they might be and to what they refer.As such, they do not figure in Christian tradition, although one can find any number of warnings in the Bible and in other writings about the final things.
