Do you know
that the world
was supposed to end in 2012?
That's according to
an old Mayan calendar.
According to St Malachi
Pope Francis is supposed
to be the last.
Nostradamus
predicts an apocalyptic event
in 1999.
And perhaps you remember
Harold Camping
who very publicly
proclaims the end of the World.
When that doesn't happen
he says he's got his sums wrong
and gives another date.
When the world doesn't end
on that day either,
he says it is a spiritual apocalypse.
Prophets of doom
have an expiry date
when we know whether
they are truly foreseeing the future.
By the fruit of their prophecy
we will know them.
Until then,
we might laugh off
a prediction about the end of the world
but still keep an eye
on the calendar.
But we know that
not all prophets are
as easy to test.
The fruit of a prophet's testimony
always lies in the future.
[PAUSE]
The future is the place
where all our work is tested
and sometimes waiting to see
the outcome of our labours
is uncomfortable.
But it is the prophet of God
whose work will be
most rigorously tested
in the passage of Time.
And that makes it
uncomfortable for us
because we cannot see
whether this prophet is true
or false
for the foreseeable future.
A prophet
may do wonderful deeds now
but turn out to be
a damp squib.
For us with the benefit
of 20-20 hindsight
we can see clearly
that Our Lord's prophecy
is reliable
and that He truly is
the Son of God.
When we think
that His testimony
is snuffed out on the cross,
He rises again
not only proving Himself
to be the Son of God
but also proving the worth
of the Old Testament prophets
who said that He would.
He rises again
according to the Scriptures.
The prophets of the past
though dead
live again
and are proved to be truly
the messengers of God
which is why we,
in their future,
venerate their prophecy
in our Bible.
Our Lord Jesus
in His resurrection
binds up the past, present and future -
Jesus Christ
the same yesterday,
today
and forever.
[PAUSE]
This is important for us.
We are born in time,
haunted by the past
and worried about the future.
Around us are sheep
that have always looked like sheep
but who will be
unmasked by the future
as ravening wolves.
People and institutions
that we thought were good
may turn out to be far from good.
Do we have any way of knowing?
Is there anything
or anyone who can
give us confidence?
Such a one must be
the same yesterday, today
and forever.
[PAUSE]
We don't put our trust
in anyone but Christ.
Even the saints
receptive their trustworthiness
through Christ.
Even Our Lady,
the Queen of Heaven
can only be a true saint
because of her son,
Our Lord.
The Church can only ever be
One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic
if it is true to the One Lord Jesus Christ,
separated from the World
by His Holiness,
according to the sane Catholic Faith
proclaimed everywhere
by His faithful Apostles
and their successors.
In order to see the future,
we Christians
must hold onto the past,
but we only hold onto the past
in order to sanctify the future.
As Christians,
we embrace past, present and future
altogether.
We might not see the future
but we can be confident
in what is coming
by holding on to what
we have always been taught.
What we Christians see in the future
is the return of Christ,
the judgement of the world
by Him
and the exaltation of
all who believe in Him.
In the future,
we will see the union
of all Christians
because all Christians
will gather at the feet of Christ.
For this reason
we must see the sacraments
as passports to the future.
Our priests aren't ordained
just for now but for ever
after the order of Melchisedek;
our bishops are consecrated
in order to keep the Apostolic line going
for our brothers and sisters yet to come.
And the same is true
of all Christians.
Whatever we do,
we must do it for Christ and,
in doing what we do for Christ,
we are doing it also
for our brothers and sisters yet to come:
the Christians who aren't yet born,
the Christians who will live
long after we are dead and gone,
the Christians we will only meet
at the Resurrection of the Dead.
[PAUSE]
We Christians aren't meant
to live just for now.
Our behaviour shouldn't be
just for pleasures
that seem wonderful now
but are blown into oblivion
on the winds of Time.
Our lives are to be built on
the rock that is Christ
and this means
living faithfully to Him
despite what those winds of Time
blow at us.
We must live
as if we are building something
that we would expect
to be permanent
for God.
If we do,
then we should not find
the future a worry for us
but rather the arena
in which we will meet God
face to face.
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