The End of Days

Homily for the Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Given at St. Patrick's Church
By: Rev. Fr. Ronnie P. Floyd.


The idea of the end of days
of a calamity that will wipe clean the face of the earth
has always fascinated man

who is at the same time horrified by the possibility of death
and intrigued by the promise of radical change.

In this way the Apocalypse is an analogy for a more common reality that we prefer not to think about too often
the reality of death, that we all approach each day.

However for the true Christian, the prospect of the end of days,
or simply of the end of our days, our life on Earth,
though still clouded in mystery and uncertainty
no longer causes dread, in those who have received
and believed in the promise of Christ.

You see, from all the great calamities
recounted in the Old Testament
whether the flood, or Israel's slavery in Eygpt,
or the exile of the Jewish people from Israel,
God worked an awesome good in spite of a grave evil.

The waters of the Flood, for example,
killed many and ended almost all life on Earth,
but it also brought an end to a period of horrible
man-made misery, the result of sin,
and gave us the promise of a renewed covenant with God.

Indeed all calamity and disaster is meaningful and good for us
if only it calls us back to that central reality
that we are made for God,
that He is the source of all life and without Him we are nothing,
and that we must never place created things before God.

All suffering, all pain, all lose, and all death
can have good repercussions--because
they bring us closer to God
and the reality of life beyond this mortal world.

That's not to say pain and suffering and death
are good in themselves, but rather that like dieting and exercise
these things can be good if we desire health,
spirtual health, and eternal life, that is.

On the Cross, Jesus accepted death gratefully
from the Father showing us how to live and how to die.

As St. Paul writes so eloquently: If I live it I live for the Lord
and if I die I die for the so that I may be the Lord's in all things

Jesus teaches us to accept God's plan,
even if we don't understand it,
even when we don't like it,
even when it hurts
And more than accepting it, He teaches us to be thankful for it
because God works all things for good for those who love Him.

Jesus, perfect man, and perfect God, died doing the Father's will
revealing the promise of new life,
waiting beyond death for all who love God.
This is the promise we gained in our baptism.
In Baptism we died with Christ so that
when we die we might live with Him.

This is the promise to all the faithful

This is the faith given to us by our parents
who were given it by their parents and their parent's parents
who came before them.

This is the faith that was originally given to the World
by Christ and through His Apostles and the early Church.

This is the faith we have received,
and it is a great gift, because it fills us with hope
and takes away all our fears,
save only the fear of sin, of displeasing God and damnation.

As Christian we should fear neither death,
nor sickness, nor suffering,

We should laugh at death
and look forward hopefully to the worlds end
because we know that death brings with it
the promise of life with Christ.

The darkness of the end of the year is shattered
by the birth of light
and so as we remember the last things
we are not afraid but rather we joyfully pray:
Come Lord Jesus


"In those days after that tribulation
the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light,
and the stars will be falling from the sky,
and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

"At that time there shall arise
Michael, the great prince,
guardian of your people;
it shall be a time unsurpassed in distress
since nations began until that time.

At that time your people shall escape,
everyone who is found written in the book.
“Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake;
some shall live forever,
others shall be an everlasting horror and disgrace.