Jesus' love is everlasting

Tonight’s reading tells us that: “Jesus is always able to save those who approach God through him, since he lives forever to make intercession for them.”  Christ’s priesthood is an expression of his love, from which it cannot be separated. Since his love is everlasting, so too is his priesthood. In the first place, his priesthood is everlasting because it is linked to the Incarnation, which is permanent.  And it is everlasting because Christ’s mission is that of saving all men in all periods of history. And it is everlasting because Christ continues to be present in the prayers of the Church, particularly in the sacrifice of the cross constantly renewed in the Mass and in the praying of the Liturgy of the Hours, as we are tonight. Finally, it is everlasting because Christ’s sacrifice is perpetuated until the end of time in the ministerial priesthood, the bishops and priests consecrated to preach the Gospel, shepherd the faithful and celebrate divine worship.

If Jesus love is everlasting, how long is everlasting? When will our world end? When will Jesus return for the final judgment?  Harold Camping—president of the Protestant radio outreach known as Family Radio—has been predicting for some time that the long-awaited Rapture will occur on May 21st of this year. I realize that it’s now May 25th and this date is passed, but I am writing this on May 17th, so I’m waiting to see if I will be able to give this reflection. 

Camping’s argument has a form something like this:
1) Noah’s Flood occurred in 4990 B.C.
2) Noah was warned seven days before the Flood that it would occur, per Genesis 7.
3) A day with the Lord is like a thousand years, per 2 Peter 3.
4) Therefore, 7,000 years after Noah’s Flood some great, Flood-like judgment will occur.
5) 4990 B.C. + 7000 -1 = A.D. 2011.
6) Therefore, the end of the world will occur in 2011.
Of course, Mr. Camping made similar predictions before. He famously got his followers worked up back in 1994 about that being the year the world would end. But this time is different!

You have to admire the courage of people like this gentleman who spent his life savings promoting these speculations, but not their wisdom. God help everyone on Sunday morning who had bought into this. Of course, that’s not to say Christ couldn’t come back on Saturday. I don’t see the signs being right for that, but who am I to say it couldn’t happen?

Most people in the early Church thought that Christ would come again very soon. In fact, this is one reason why the Gospels weren’t written for a generation or more after Jesus died. They thought that there wouldn’t be any need.  Eventually, when more and more of those who lived when Jesus walked the earth began to die, they realized that they must get his words written down and the Gospels were the result. 
Now, two thousand years later, we are still trying to figure out when Jesus will return. Some, like Mr. Camping, try to use the dates and times in the bible literally to come up with these predictions. For Catholics, it is reassuring to know that he does come again, body, blood, soul, and divinity, in the Eucharist, at every mass. As Catholics, we don’t believe in the rapture, that is, Christ coming to take his followers to heaven and leaving others for a period of tribulation. We also don’t interpret dates in the bible literally, as Mr. Camping does. So, in faith, we are very confident that this date and any other prediction about the end of the world need not be seriously considered. 

Although we don’t know the date or the time when the world will end, we do know that our world, our life, will be a short 70, 80, 90, or even 100 years. We must be vigilant and be prepared. If these predictions remind us that our time on this life is short, it might help us be better prepared.