A musing on the end of the world, eschatology, and egoism
Yesterday, an acquaintance/friend of mine asked me about how I think the world is going to end.
As a Catholic, I don’t think about this topic much, if at all. This young man is not Catholic, and he was raised in the Lutheran Church. However, now he considers himself non-denominational. He did go to the Catholic Mass on campus pretty much every week, so that was good to see (although he received the Holy Eucharist, even after we discussed why he cannot), and he has asserted that he is not against the Catholic Church, and this fact should be well remembered as you go through this musing. There are many things I can say on that matter, but for today, I want to write about the specific topic of an impending doom that many, like my compatriot, sense.
First of all, we were having this conversation over Snapchat messages, which in and of itself is really just a level below texting in the sense that there’s no actual human contact, but I digress. He asked me, “Do you believe that Jesus will take his followers away in a pre Tribulation Rapture?” The Book of Revelation came up, and he said how there’s only one verse in the Bible to “prove it.” Most Catholics, at least that I know, don’t worry about how the end will come because we know neither the time or place, and I told him that. He insisted that I think about it, and as a fairly open-minded person, I replied that I believe it would be peaceful, no matter what happens because it will be when we are forever with God. He said he thought that the Bible said that “those who have died already aren’t in heaven right now; they are resting.” Honestly, I am really not sure where he got this from, but I know for sure that this is not what the Catholic church teaches (Heaven, Hell, Purgatory…will be discussed shortly).
The other thing is…I don’t worry about this because I honestly think it’s fruitless thinking. It does not matter how the world will end. There is a freedom in not knowing how the world will end. It is not up to the human race to worry about it. There is no way to predict God, and, to me at least, trying to predict what will happen shows a complete lack of faith in God. Remember, He made us, and not the other way around. We can’t make God up, and that is what many non-denominational Christians try to do. I understand that they are on a journey to Christ, which is great. However, they only want to do it on their own terms.
One cannot reach the Kingdom of Heaven by being the only subject.
In this disgusting world of egoism and self-entitlement, Christians who have deemed themselves non-denominational have decided that no church is good enough for them. They reject the idea of community and hierarchy in order to practice “faith” at their own leisure, when in fact there is plenty of space to grow and deepen your faith within the Catholic Church. I beg this question to those who reject the idea of organized religion: If humans are so bad, why didn’t God just create one human and be done with it?
My answer to this question is, unsurprisingly, a very Catholic one. The reason we need a faith community is because God can work through us, and we can learn so much from our fellow human beings. Yes, we can find God in nature; in the highest mountains, lowest valleys, deepest water, and highest clouds; in creatures of the deep and creatures of the sky. However, the human being is God’s masterpiece. We are made in His image and likeness, and those who deny the value in that seem to me to be unfit to call themselves Christian, but of course, my word doesn’t hold much weight compared to His. Yes, God is omnipresent, but He also wants us to spend time with Him at Mass in order to be physically united with us. God literally became one of us, and it is a sad case when people reject that miracle in order to give God terms on which they will have a relationship with Him.
This discussion led me to ask if he believed in Purgatory. He didn’t answer the question and instead just literally wrote: “I believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God.”
So, I responded, “Ok, here’s a related question: Do you believe in the Trinity; that there are three persons in One God?” (yes, semicolon and all…I am an English major after all)
He answered the affirmative. Hopefully, he was beginning to see my thought process. The Trinity is not explicitly in the Bible, so those who believe it respect the authority of the Catholic Church. In a similar way, Purgatory is not explicitly in the Bible, but the Catholic Church teaches and validates its existence. I explained the best way I could that every Christian denomination (or non-denomination, I guess) takes beliefs from the Catholic Church. At the Council of Nicea, the teaching on the Trinity was clarified, and every denomination has the Catholic Church to attribute that to. He accepted this with no argument (because there is no argument to be had in logic).
And then he said that “the institution isn’t equal to a relationship with Jesus,” and that was the moment I felt God testing me. The conversation ended pretty much right after he said that. And that, my friends, is a topic for another musing (which I will link here when/if I get to it).
In reality, there is a knowing in not knowing everything about God and all He has planned. We can’t know all that God is, and of course I believe that we can know things about Him, but there are just some things not worth worrying about, such as the end of the world. I hope one day that my friend and I could maybe have a talk show of some sort where we let people watch us live in Theological sparring. I already know of a mutual friend who would watch it.
Thoughtfully,
A Musing Writer 