The End

   If the world were to end tomorrow would you be ready?  If you knew the exact date and time what would you do to prepare?  We aren’t intended to know when the end is coming.  When asked when the end would come Jesus told His disciples “But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Mark 13: 32).

   We can't know when the end of the world will come, but there is another end that each of us will experience.  Even if the end of the world is centuries into the future all of us face the end of our world at the moment of our death.  Like the end of the world, we don’t know the exact day and hour of the end of our earthly life.

   Not knowing can be both a blessing and a curse.  I think if we knew the exact time of our death we would be in terrible anxiety as that time came nearer and nearer.  God has blessed us with the ability to not spend our life contemplating our death.  Yet, not knowing also means that we always need to be prepared.

   I’ve often wondered how people would approach life if they knew exactly when it would end.  Would they realize that they were blessed to have the time remaining to do the will of God and leave this world knowing they had done their best?  Or would they instead live a life of debauchery and sin, believing that they could repent at the last moment and be saved?

   We live our lives never knowing when they will end.  Many fear death and the closure they believe it brings.  What we should fear is our place in eternity.  Death will come regardless, we make the choice of whether eternity is heaven or hell by the way we live .  When Jesus told His apostles that the day and time was not known He also warned them, “Be watchful!  Be alert!  You do not know when the time will come.” (Mark 13: 33).

Father, only you know the day and time of the end.

Thank you for the chance to seek you before that end.

May we always be aware that the time may be near.

May we live so as to join you when it comes

Amen