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When the Lord called me to this writing apostolate some twenty years ago, few people in mainstream Catholicism would even entertain the idea that we could be living in extraordinary times. People were either too scared, too complacent, or too skeptical to even consider that our generation could be passing through the change of epochs. “Ah, everybody says their times are the end times.” I have heard that a thousand times. But as I began to publish what the popes were saying about these times, what authentic prophecy was addressing, and raised awareness of the accompanying “signs of the times,” many people started to see — like St. John Newman — that, yes, something unusual is unfolding all around us.
I know that all times are perilous, and that in every time serious and anxious minds, alive to the honor of God and the needs of man, are apt to consider no times so perilous as their own… still I think… ours has a darkness different in kind from any that has been before it. The special peril of the time before us is the spread of that plague of infidelity, that the Apostles and our Lord Himself have predicted as the worst calamity of the last times of the Church. And at least a shadow, a typical image of the last times is coming over the world. —St. John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890 A.D.), sermon at opening of St. Bernard’s Seminary, October 2, 1873, The Infidelity of the Future
The question is, if we indeed are about to pass through a “Great Storm,” as I call it, how should we be living?
Satan’s Greatest Fear
What do you think the devil’s greatest fear is in these times? The name of Jesus? The “Hail Mary” (which exorcists say drives demons crazy)? Miracles? Healings? The Eucharist?
I actually think what Satan fears most is Christians who incarnate these words of Jesus:
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength’ [and] ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these. (Mark 12:30-31)
Why? Because the one who lives these two commandments to the fullest becomes another Christ on earth, for “God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.” [1]1 John 4:16 While anyone with eyes can see that the “labor pains” Jesus described in Matthew 24 are all around us — wars and rumors of wars, nation rising against nation, etc. — I believe one of the greatest signs of this hour is the collapse of Christ’s presence in the Church throughout the world:
…because of the increase of evildoing, the love of many will grow cold. (Matthew 24:12)
Yes, this is the “that plague of infidelity” that St. John Newman referred to — that the Church herself has grown cold. Thus it this, not wars, earthquakes and famines that is “the worst calamity of the last times.”
In 2010 during a visit to Fatima, Pope Benedict XVI prayed that the following seven years would “hasten the fulfilment of the prophecy of the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”[2]POPE BENEDICT XIV, Esplanade of the Shrine of Our Lady of Fátima, May 13th, 2010; vatican.va The fulfillment of that prophecy is ultimately a “period of peace” throughout the world.
Yes, a miracle was promised at Fatima, the greatest miracle in the history of the world, second only to the Resurrection. And that miracle will be an era of peace which has never really been granted before to the world. —Mario Luigi Cardinal Ciappi, October 9th, 1994, Family Catechism, p. 35, papal theologian for Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI, and John Paul I, and John Paul II
This “Era of Peace” is the equivalent of the fulfillment of the “Our Father” and the coming of Christ’s Kingdom to reign in the hearts of His People in what Pope John Paul II called a “new and divine holiness.”[3]cf. The Coming New and Divine Holiness But Benedict later explained how this fulfillment would be achieved, at least in part:
This is equivalent in meaning to our praying for the coming of God’s Kingdom… The point was … that the power of evil is restrained again and again, that again and again the power of God himself is shown in the Mother’s power and keeps it alive. The Church is always called upon to do what God asked of Abraham, which is to see to it that there are enough righteous men to repress evil and destruction. I understood my words as a prayer that the energies of the good might regain their vigor. So you could say the triumph of God, the triumph of Mary, are quiet, they are real nonetheless.—Light of the World, p. 166, A Conversation With Peter Seewald (Ignatius Press)
At the heart of the Triumph is that there are “enough righteous men to repress evil and destruction.”[4]cf. Enough Good Souls Put another way, John Paul II said:
Holy people alone can renew humanity.—POPE JOHN PAUL II, Message to the Youth of the World, World Youth Day; n. 7; Cologne Germany, 2005
And what is the pinnacle of holiness but to become like God? And “God is love.”
Life in the Apocalypse
Hence, what should the life of a Christian look like as we literally pass through the Apocalypse? In the ecclesiastically approved messages of Medjugorje, which have been given precisely for this very hour, Our Lady said something beautiful recently:
Dear children, in this time of grace, I am calling you to be people of hope, peace and joy, so that every person may be a peacemaker and a lover of life. (May 25, 2025)
She wants us to be lovers of life — not holed up in a bunker in fear. To be a people of hope, peace, and joy, means we have to live the first commandment to the fullest: to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. This means we have to be a person who is in love with Jesus; who spends time alone with Him each day in prayer; who frequents the Sacraments, particularly of the Eucharist and Confession, so that He can heal and renew us when we inevitably fall short. It is in falling in love with He-who-is-love that enables us to fulfill the second commandment: to love others as He has loved us.
I think the greatest crisis in our times right now is that few can find the Face of love, of Jesus. Ego has become the face of politics; ego, the face of sports, music, and movie stars; ego, the face of social media… but where is the Face of Love, of Jesus? It is supposed to be us.
I honestly believe we have reached a point where even genuine signs and wonders are no longer able to move the hearts of this generation. Miracles? Healings? Icons and statues miraculously weeping? People see these things and are momentarily fascinated… and then two seconds later are scrolling to the next dopamine hit.
No, I think what this generation is thirsting for — even if it does not realize it — is a genuine encounter with God. And that encounter is supposed to take place in and through you and me.
It is often said nowadays that the present century thirsts for authenticity. Especially in regard to young people, it is said that they have a horror of the artificial or false and that they are searching above all for truth and honesty. These “signs of the times” should find us vigilant. Either tacitly or aloud — but always forcefully — we are being asked: Do you really believe what you are proclaiming? Do you live what you believe? Do you really preach what you live? The witness of life has become more than ever an essential condition for real effectiveness in preaching. Precisely because of this we are, to a certain extent, responsible for the progress of the Gospel that we proclaim. —POPE ST. PAUL VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, n. 76
Yes, responsible for the progress of the triumph of the Immaculate Heart.
If we Christians truly become selfless lovers of God and our neighbor, I believe we will begin to see the transformation of those around us, or at the very least, the planting of powerful seeds in their hearts. Forget about saving the world — that’s Christ’s business; He asks you and I to begin where we are, with whom we live, work, study, and interact — to begin to selflessly love as Christ has loved us. This is what holiness is.
Without this mark of holiness, our word will have difficulty in touching the heart of modern man. It risks being vain and sterile. —POPE ST. PAUL VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, n. 76
The love of many has grown cold today because of the increase of evil doing. I suspect what the devil fears most are souls so transformed by the fire of Love that they would begin to melt his wicked work erected in the hearts of mankind. But knowing that many Christians will never come to his side, it is enough to just keep them dazzled by technology, distracted by pleasure, compromised in even the little things. In a word, lukewarm. And lukewarm may not be what you think…
In today’s Gospel, Jesus says something startling:
Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?’ Then I will declare to them solemnly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.’ (Matt 7:21-23)
He says He does not know them… is it because He is love, and they do not resemble Him? What is the will of the Father, then? I’ll let St. Paul answer:
If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, [love] is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13:1-8)
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Footnotes
| ↑1 | 1 John 4:16 |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | POPE BENEDICT XIV, Esplanade of the Shrine of Our Lady of Fátima, May 13th, 2010; vatican.va |
| ↑3 | cf. The Coming New and Divine Holiness |
| ↑4 | cf. Enough Good Souls |