The Latin title of Pope Benedict XVI, “Gloria Olivae,” in the list of St. Malachy, had sparked conjectures on the impending end of the world, since “gloria olivae” is the second to the last Pope in the list.
Well, for those who die, that is the end of the world for them. Let us not deal with all the complications of raptures and the following millenium; nor attempt to note dates. What St. Peter said is enough for us. We prepare for our death or the end times with a pure heart and an unblemish soul. That’s all. We leave everything else to the Providence of God.
The Benedictine way of life, which tragically is not reflected in many monasteries today, is supposed to show the union of three visions: the vision of the life in the monastery, the celebration of the liturgy of the Mass and the Apocalyptic vision of heaven. The life in the monastery is the process by which one purifies his heart, the mass is the sacrament by which he expresses his communion with the will of God, and hopefully this will make him deserving to be part of the joys in heaven as portrayed in the Apocalypse.
Catholics do not look at the end times the way other Christians do. The concern of other Christians is on the chastisements, the raptures, the dates, the scientific explanations and the anti-christ. Unfortunately, Catholics are not interested at the end times at all. But one’s true concern must be in preparing one’s soul to face the Divine Judge with a pure heart and unblemish soul. And this the soul does through a fervent monastic life, by daily expressing his desire in the Divine Liturgy with the hope of being part of that heavenly host pictured in the Apocalyse. In this sense, a true Christian soul lives in the sacrament of the present moment, a witness to the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist and hopeful of eternal life in heaven.
The PAROUSIA is the combination of a way of life in communion with God’s will, the celebration of the Liturgy that expresses the desire to be in communion with God’s will and the hope that one attains eternal life in communion with God in heaven.