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By his coming, which never ceases, the Holy Spirit causes the world to enter into the “last days,” the time of the Church... (CCC 732). Help me be ready. - The Personal Rosary
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By his coming, which never ceases, the Holy Spirit causes the world to enter into the “last days,” the time of the Church… (CCC 732). Help me be ready.

By his coming, which never ceases, the Holy Spirit causes the world to enter into the “last days,” the time of the Church… (CCC 732). Help me be ready.

I view history in three epochs. The first epoch is the Old Testament (BC) period. The second is the time of the Gospels. The third is the time of the Church (AD) period. Each is defined by our relationship with God in the three persons of the Holy Trinity. Each expands and matures our relationship with our Heavenly Father. Each is a season of growth for His people. Each ends in a harvest of His people.

The Old Testament begins with the creation of all things, including our first parents. They walked with God and were given the task to cultivate and care for the Garden. Their Fall from Grace led to their expulsion from the Garden and the beginnings of our sojourn in this valley of tears. Through a series of covenants (explained more fully elsewhere), God raised His wayward children and reformed His family.

In the Epoch of the Old Testament, God the Father is our understanding of God as a person. He is stern in the discipline of His children and guides them to grow in their relationship with Him. It’s a time of spiritual childhood when children mostly hear, “thou shalt not” and “because I said so” in response to their inquiries. The people of God received His Ten Commandments directly from Him… but rebelled immediately. Stricter discipline was implemented for their infidelity in the Mosaic Law.

The last books of the Old Testament Bible are the books of Maccabees in the deuterocanonical works. These tell the story of Israel as a remnant nation fighting to restore their religious observances. Among the stories of rebellion are heroic stories of faithfulness through incredible adversity. The Martyrdom of a Mother and Her Seven Sons tells of steadfastness in faith even through the pain of torture and death (2 Macc 7). Maccabees tells of a scattering of the flock and a harvest of the faithful.

The Gospels are the story of God walking among us in the person of Christ. He came to gather His sheep lost through fear of death (Heb 2:14-15). It is a time of spiritual adolescence as we come to understand the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of Christ. He came to show us how to love and serve God. He came to be our pascal sacrifice on the cross. All of His life led to the cross. In our Lord’s final hours, the flock was scattered… but He was faithful to them. This short Epoch of the Incarnation showed Christ living out the Old Testament in Himself (Luke 24:27) to become the harvest.

Our Lord spent 40 days with His Apostles after His Resurrection and until His Ascension teaching them of the Kingdom (Acts 1:3). He established His Church in the world, the visible Kingdom (CCC 567). The Epoch of the Church brings humanity to spiritual adulthood. Our Lord promised the Holy Spirit to the Church to teach and remind us of all that He taught the Apostles (John 14:26). In this epoch, we have Tradition (2 Thess 2:15) to ground our faith, New Testament Scripture to hear God’s voice (2 Tim 3:16), and the Magisterium of the Church to teach and expound upon truth (Acts 2:42).

Scripture and the teachings of the Church tell us there will be a harvest at the end of this epoch as well (Rev 14:15). There will be a scattering of the flock and a harvest of the faithful. Our Lord will come like a thief in the night (1 Thess 5:1-2) with no one knowing the hour or the day. We must be ready for His return. We must be vigilant in our faith. We must be ready for the harvest.

If the Epochs of the Church may be described as I have here, we may see a triune God reaching out as individual persons to a maturing humanity. Our story begins with God the Father as our primary image in the Old Testament. We meet God the Son who is Christ in the Gospels. We move with God the Holy Spirit in the age of the Church. Each epoch involves our growing and deepening relationship with the Trinity. Each epoch ends in a harvest of the faithful.

2 Comments

  • Patrick
    Posted February 14, 2023 at 5:03 pm

    I want to share a conversation with a relative here because I think it is edifying. I will remove personally identifying information.

    From my relative:

    Another very good blog, Patrick! So, do you believe in the Rapture of the Church before the Tribulation? Is that what you are referring to in the second-to-last paragraph? That would be Christ removing the Church (His people) from this earth, which would bring the rest of the world into the End Times of the Tribulation, which is His appointed time of wrath and righteous judgment against those who do not believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

    That is what we believe is coming next, and probably sooner than later. After the Rapture comes the Tribulation. Then Armageddon. Then the Millenium. Then the Great White Throne Judgment. And finally, the New Heaven and the New Earth. A lot to look forward to!

  • Patrick
    Posted February 14, 2023 at 5:04 pm

    My reply:

    Thank you!

    No, I don’t see a rapture before the tribulation. In the Parable of the Weeds (Matt 13:24-30), our Lord tells of the Kingdom growing with weeds in our midst. At the end of time, there will be a harvest where the weeds will be bundled for burning but the wheat will be gathered into His barn. This is the harvest I see referenced in Rev 14 and the one to which I refer in my article.

    We are in the age of the Church now. St Peter tells us that 1,000 years are like a day to God and a day like 1,000 years… we shouldn’t be caught up in clock-watching. Watch the seasons. We can see the world going mad around us. We can see signs in the heavens and on the earth. Does it mean we now know the hour or the day? No. Our Lord will come like a thief in the night (1 Thess 5:1-2) in an hour we don’t expect. Knowing the season doesn’t mean we know His timing.

    The age of the Church are the last days. So far, we have been in the age of the Church for over 2,000 years. We don’t know when our Lord is coming… but we must remain vigilant. We will undergo trials and experience the tumult of tribulations but the days will be shortened for the sake of the elect (Matt 24:21-22). We will not discover the secret timing of His coming, He will come in His own time and with the glory of Heaven. We will know when He comes because the heavens will announce Him, not the wisdom of men (Matt 24:23, 30-31).

    When He comes, there will be the harvest and the judgement.

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Todays Reflection

The Sorrowful mysteries

The Sorrowful Mysteries are the greatest love story ever told. No man has greater love than to die for his friends ( John 15:13 )... how much greater the love when dying for his torturers! What is love if not self-denial for someone else? What is self-denial without sacrifice? Christ was crucified, died, and was buried for us while we were yet sinners. He suffered a death we deserve. Sinless Himself, He took on our shame and bore it in His flesh. We are called to take up our crosses and follow His example of sacrificial love.

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