Understanding Advent and the End Times (Judgement) - Explaining the Faith

hi i'm father chris aylar and welcome to the national shrine of the divine mercy coming to you live here as we are preparing tomorrow for the beginning of advent you can see on your screen now before we pray i just wanted to say something about this talk today this talk is going to not probably be the most exciting of talks but i'll tell you there are few more important and you're going to see why because advent we have forgotten the meaning and the message and i'm also going to bring into this the end times and the judgment and i'm going to build on my earlier talks this is not the same as my earlier end times talk actually i had three of them but you can see the connection of what advent is about and why it's so important for us especially in these times so let us take you back to seminary as i'm excited i worked a little bit with chris sparks i worked back on my notes that i had on the liturgical year classes and i'm telling you this is so good that you are here because we are about to begin this season and this journey that's very important so let us pray in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen heavenly father we ask you send the holy spirit down upon us for this incredibly important season of advent to give us the knowledge of our faith so we can love our faith even more and to be able to open our hearts to receive that grace you wish to do to give to us and to dispense into our hearts mother mary we ask that you accompany us on this journey this journey that is going to prepare us for the comings of christ and we ask all this through christ our lord amen in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen well god bless you for joining us we've had some real troopers here we had a big snowstorm here in the brookshire mountains of western massachusetts last night and i didn't think anybody was going to make it but we have some nice people here we even had one former seminary in derrick that came all the way up on a bus from florida to come to this talk so we got a great guy named frank here with us that's battling and keeping going to keep this mission alive so god bless all of you for joining us today now as we said at advent let's look at our um well we showed the first screen this is the meaning of advent and the end times including the judgment the final judgment now latin is the word for advent for uh latin for adventures aventus which means to come to all right to it begins on this people always think that they you know this is a good question for seminarians when does advent begin it begins on the sunday nearest the feast of saint andrew but nobody knows this right so advent begins on the sunday nearest the feast of saint andrew which is november 30th so we are beginning tomorrow this is the beginning of advent and we are gonna get you ready for this it's so important now it goes for four sundays and begins a whole new church year so this is truly happy new year right not the julian or the gregorian calendars really the truly new year if you're living your faith is tomorrow this is the beginning of a new church calendar year now what is it that john the baptist said right prepare the way of the lord so advent is most of all a preparation so it's a preparation and this is where it gets important because we think of just the preparation let's look at our next slide brother mark can show us this is a beautiful picture of the nativity and 95 of catholics when asked what advent was 95 percent when catholics were asked what advent is said preparing for the birth of jesus if they even got it at all but only five percent knew that it is more than just the birth of jesus in the flesh well how could you get more than that father well it's the three comings of christ yes we are preparing for him coming in the flesh the nativity the birth of jesus christmas but also we're preparing for the second coming and that's going to be a big part of this talk today i'm going to add as i said to the end times talk that i've done before and then finally daily the coming of jesus daily into our hearts and holy communion this is the most forgotten of all and do you realize that that's what advent is so we have to prepare this is kind of like mary at cana preparing for the way of jesus what happened to cain basically the jars became empty there's a whole meaning to cain that cain is just not about jesus working a miracle the wedding feast at cana is about us like the jars remember we have to be a vessel jesus told saint faustina and you know you all want to get to heaven i want to get to heaven the only way we get to heaven is grace and and jesus told st faustina that trust is that vessel by which all grace is received so we have to be a vessel to capture this grace that god is pouring upon us now if our vessel is full of junk right if it's full of of ourselves if it's full of leisure and and nothing but pleasure and no sacrifice then we're full of garbage all that grace god wants to pour on us is not gonna it's not gonna fill us we have to be emptied like the jars at cana so that jesus can fill us with that wine of the holy spirit this is the meaning of what we're doing at advent all right so we have to reduce the amount that our jars our vessels are filled with ourselves that's why john the baptist said i must decrease so he can increase he's like a jar of cana decrease himself so that jesus can fill us this is the message now we empty ourselves so rather than indulging this year right we should respond with a prayer and there's a beautiful prayer in our in our prayers and miriam prayers lord hasten to fill the emptiness within me at christmas now you can become empty in two ways as i just said empty ourselves willingly or you can be empty because of your own loneliness your own anxiety your own depression make that prayer lord fill the emptiness within me this christmas as i know only you can fully fill me fill my soul all right so this is what advent is about it's a time of prayer and fasting but it's also a time this is most important of waiting and hope why is this important all right advent is all of this prayer fasting waiting hope but it's also a time of penance did you know this did you know advent's a penitential time now i've heard some other people say and i'm going to explain this that advent is not a penitential season and i'm going to explain this in a minute so stay with us but anyway it is a time of reforming our life in a way similar to lent do you know when lent we wear purple but we also wear purple and advent let's have brother mark show the next slide here is something i didn't even know till seminary did you know there's two different purples when you see a priest wear his purple and i bet if they did a pull on this 95 percent of priests wouldn't know this there's two types of purple look at the purple on your left this is a reddish purple for the blood of the passion and this is called roman purple that we wear and add in lent because it represents the passion the blood that's why some purple is more a plum color it's the red of the blood mixed in with the purple now the other purple on your right is a deep rich dark blue purple we call that royal blue royal purple and that's what the priest wears at advent so they shouldn't really but you know there's i mean let's say put it this way priest could do worse things than wear the wrong color purple at advent but this is the point now advent advent then is a time in a way of pennant some it originated as a 40-day fast how did advent even come about it was a 40-day fast in preparation for christmas in the same way lent is a 40-day fast i'm sorry yes lent is a 40-day fast in preparation for easter so we all know about the lent 40 day fast for easter but how many we know that advent was created by the church as a 40-day fast in preparation for christmas and so they're very similar now in a way why do we fast so that the spirit can control the flesh and not the other way around fasting produces in us a longing a clamoring for things that we willingly gave up why do we give things up again so we can empty ourselves like the jars of cana so that christ can fill us with the holy spirit so important now fasting produces in us this longing now during lent we sometimes give up things we like like soda or chocolate but here's the thing in advent we should go and make more of a sacrifice all right it doesn't have to be material things like i mean it could be but it doesn't have to be how about giving up complaining or gossiping or talking badly about other people now sometimes our brethren need correction okay i never want to get confused here because sometimes we have to call out our loved ones i have to be called out you know there was a couple times that i didn't even realize i was doing something and somebody called me out and later i'm like whoa at first i was defensive and then i was like you know what that was out of love and so we lovingly correct that's a work of mercy right we lovingly correct our brothers if they're on the wrong path our church our priests our bishops even but most of all let's try to keep it in love but anyway maybe you can give up some of your time you know the three t's you've heard me say this your time your treasure and your talent we have we if somebody says well father i have nothing to give i always smile and i said no i understand you may not have any treasure because maybe you're financially falling on hard times understood maybe you don't have too much talents if you're if you're not a good carpenter or a good finance guy maybe there's not a lot of talent you can offer but if you have no treasure and no talent that means you have a lot of time and so you can donate you can volunteer and again we know people are sick people are people are unable sometimes um but something to keep in mind during advent time treasure and talent that's how you're gonna get to heaven do you know i saw a talk online by by one of the priests that said you know jesus really focused on the one way that we could we could end up in hell surprisingly it wasn't a sexual sin or it wasn't you know a sin over anger he said surprisingly the one place jesus said they could end us up in hell is he says not helping others matthew 25 the sheep and the goats feeding the hungry giving drink to the thirsty clothe the naked visit the prisoners and so keep that in mind very very important all right let's keep going now a penitential season in some sense do you know that marriages don't usually happen during lent or advent marriages usually don't happen during those times now they can technically if you get special permission but we usually don't have marriages during lent and advent because this penitential nature now this doesn't make penance bad right the penance of lent as we said why do we do penance of let because it prepares for the joy of easter right and why do we do the penance of advent it prepares for the joy of christmas as i said now there is one sunday however of joyful celebration in both lent and advent do you guys remember this i bet you do from being a kid let's look at our next slide brother mark can put up gaudate sunday godate sunday means rejoice and it is the third sunday in advent and the priest wears rose not pink right rose and so we have a similar sunday in lent let's look at our next slide later sunday this is a beautiful celebration on the fourth sunday of lent now both people or i'm sorry both times the priests wears rose why because in the midst of this penance season of purple the priest is stopping to lead the people and rejoice rejoice and so this is very important so joy joy is what it's about one sunday of that lent and one sunday of that advent is called rejoice now why do they say joy and not happiness i find this very interesting what's the difference are joy and happiness the same father i am so unhappy my relationships with my family my health my job uh the fear of getting sick i'm just really unhappy you can still have joy what's the difference between joy and happiness joy is greater happiness is determined by your circumstances right now i'm not real happy because my family is struggling greatly and i'm not the only one so many people this year have incurred circumstances that have caused some unhappiness health circumstances with work my mom was just removed from the nursing home we spent all that time getting her into a nursing home and they they removed her they said they they they're not equipped to be able to handle my mom her situation is a little too rough and so just before i became to this talk i'm on the phone with my father just heartbroken what are we going to do they won't take my mom and we can't you know we can't my father can't care for her so again i'm looking at plane flights thank you for your prayers to get back home you see our circumstances can lead to unhappiness maybe we lose our job maybe we're running low on money these are circumstances that can cause unhappiness true however joy is knowing that you are a child of god knowing that god still loves you no matter what the circumstances and the joy knowing that eternal life is something greater than what we have right now in this earth that's why if we're spending all our time focused on this life and this earth we're going to be stuck in and out of happiness and sadness but if we keep our eyes focused on heaven all of a sudden joy will permeate us i had a woman drive all the way from buffalo i don't know if she's watching today but her name is kate she drove six hours to come to me yesterday to do a general confession and she said father chris i really believe that i kept asking jesus to you know shouldn't i just go to a local priest and she lives six hours away in buffalo because she drives slowly she's um she's in a wheelchair she has her own separate vehicle and the weather was getting bad we had snow yesterday and she said no the jesus kept putting her heart to come here and i said well god bless you um yes let me make some time to meet with you and we'll do a general confession we met for three hours and at the end of that three hours i looked at her and i said kate i'll tell you this god didn't send you here for you he sent you here for me i said i've listened to you for three hours and i am mortified and she looks at me she says i'm sorry i said no no no not you i said because you have more challenges than almost anybody i've met you can't walk you are degenerating with so many physical ailments but you are maybe the most joyful person i've ever met i said i know why god arranged you to come here today and it wasn't just for you it was for me because the joy that you exhibit she's and like i kept testing her like well what if what if god takes this away from you how would you feel and her just her reaction was just constantly joy and i'm just i'm i'm i'm just wow lord you never stop teaching us especially through other people it really affected me and so i realized that that here we were planning this and i was like well okay she was called here by god to see a particular priest the priest was called the her to learn a lesson and that's how god works and so when we practice the sacraments when we live our faith we run into people like that i am so blessed to have the people that we have here at the shrine as i just look at the people that took their time to spend with us on saturday i see mary every week here on the in the front pew brother mark and brother ken upstairs in the in the in the balcony every every day making these live streams work i see frank is sick who makes it in here through a snow storm to get here today this is the kind of beautiful joy that you have when you live your faith and you surround yourself with other people who have a living faith and all these people like derek today comes up takes a bus from florida in a snowstorm former seminarian just to come here to hear our talks god bless you for and god thank you god for having a family of of this like this in the marian family it's amazing to me and so god never stops teaching us well anyway i'm joyful because i know god loves me no matter what happens joy is a choice joy is a choice that i'm going to live with god we can see this and you know what's interesting because yes we can see that while both seasons joy advent and lent have a character of preparation and penance okay lent is preparing for easter and doing some penance advent is preparing for christmas and doing some penance here's the thing i i saw talk by father mike schmitz and i was doing my research for this and he says advent is not a penitential season and i'm like um that's not what i read and then i started questioning myself what does the church really teach here and father michael schmitz is like no it's not a penitential season it's not a penitential season and then i went on and all these other places are saying it's a penitential season it's a penitential season so i'm like wait a minute father mike schmitz is a good priest and these other people are good priests what is it so i went to the catechism that's where you ought to go don't go to us priests go to the catechism and so the catechism spells this out for us and so does the teachings of the church it says basically this it says while both seasons lent and advent have character of both preparation and penance advent is predominantly preparation with penance and lent is predominantly penance with preparation did you get that so lent is predominantly preparation but in it has a penitential aspect all right most people think that early december is part of christmas okay we're coming up in the next few weeks this is christmas season lights are coming up it's a time to buy gifts um you know for christmas day no no advent ends on december 24th that's a separate season it's entirely separate from christmas all right we are to preparing for the coming of jesus not just the preparing of christmas decorations although that's fine it brings excuse me brings happiness right the christmas season actually starts doesn't end on christmas day and so we'll be talking about that more in future talks and so it ends the christmas also is not just one day christmas is a whole season like advent is the next four weeks christmas is a season all the way to when christmas day to when when does the christmas season end we'll talk more about this the baptism of jesus and we'll talk more about that all right so anyway this is important now um this is a part of the preparation for jesus now how did the wise men prepare for the coming of jesus right they brought the gifts right you need to bring your gifts to jesus what did the wise men bring all you all know this gold frankincense and myrrh right but do you know what they were for gold was for a king right frankincense was for a divine god and myrrh was used for burial showing that he is a man that he will die and so christmas to the epiphany which we'll talk more about as well that's the 12 days of christmas you know that song 12 days of christmas that's christmas to the epiphany and so this is important this is why we you know we sing that song well anyway christmas eve and after is then when we should really have our decorations up but again there's nothing wrong like the priests wearing the different purple if you put your decorations up that's okay but technically my mom we used to always notice the neighbors would take the christmas decorations down on christmas that's actually missing it so don't remember don't forget that all right next slide let's have brother mark show us now when does christmas happen and it ties to advent here because chrisman ha christmas happens right after the witness winter solstice look at your screen the solstice is when the earth is tilted most away from the sun so guess what it's the darkest day of the year then every day gets lighter afterwards this is why christmas where jesus was born was right after the winter solstice because every day after it brought more light into the world and this is what it is each day going to get longer so prepare now for that light now next slide we talked about decorations but one decoration you should have during advent is the advent wreath it's in the shape of a circle take a look at your screen you all see it we have it right here it's a circular uh evergreen wreath with candles right purple and one rose let's talk about that all right the advent wreath is in the shape of a circle why because it symbolizes eternity god is like a circle no beginning no end so the advent wreath that you'll see placed right here tomorrow has no beginning and no end it's a circle right now what's next it has basically holly in it you know what holly is you used to live in holly michigan and these to have the little symbols of the little holly leaf it's prickly if you touch it it can poke ya do you know why there's holly inside the advent wreath it's like that advent wreath is the crown and in it is the thorns so we have holly you know those songs piles of holly fa la la la and all that we're missing the whole meaning here the holly is inside that wreath to represent the thorns that jesus endured when he was crowned with a circle like the advent wreath right this was a crown of victory but the prickly holly were like the crown of thorns now this thing is made of evergreen why because it stays green all the time it doesn't die which is representative of internal life immortal life as we said there's candles there's three purple candles and a rose color candle we represent the purple we said represents penance or waiting and the rose as we said on the third sunday of advent represents what joy goddard day why because christ is only one week away that's why it's on the third sunday of advent because advent's only four weeks long and on the third sunday we're one week away rejoice christ is closer we have the flame then of the candles and do you know if flames don't make shadows if you put a candle and we were to shine a light and you were to see the candle and the shadow of the wall and you would see my hand and you would see the candle but there would be no shadow of the flame why because christ is the ultimate flame itself and so the candle has the flames and this is christ is the light of the world how beautiful and since it's somewhat penitential it's good that you do what during advent confession you know the church only well doesn't demand what's the word requires or gives us the uh direction to go to confession at least once a year and they say a good time is lent that's true but we marian fathers teach that we really should try to go every month or if you can't go every month at least advent and lent the two best times you could go to confession personally i go every week i mean even if i've done something not too stupid this week versus last week where i've done something more stupid i go every week now let's not forget the reason for the season it's not about material goods christ came once to redeem us shall we celebrate in the first coming of christ the nativity the birth and the flesh but then he will come again at the end of time to reconcile us back to him so that's the second coming of christ that we celebrate and then the third in between we receive him daily into our hearts through holy communion those are the three comings of christ that we celebrate on advent one the preparation of coming of jesus at christmas 95 of catholics think that's it it's over no we then celebrate the second coming of christ at the end of time and then we celebrate the third coming of christ which is him daily into our hearts now that's summarized on this slide if brother mark can show it these are the three comings of christ the nativity in the flesh the second coming of christ and him coming daily in our hearts in holy communion so we prepare ourselves through fasting and prayer these are the ways that we get ready for these three comings of christ now fasting and prayer not only like we do in lent lent's probably a little bit more because advent isn't quite as penitential but still we have that kind of feel to the advent season now after this will come the joy of christmas so i'm going to show you just a two minute video now i know it talks this video talks to has been as fast as i do it's really quick they're going to throw a lot of things at you on the screen so don't worry we're going to keep this video posted so if you want to go back later and watch it you can pause it and read everything on the screen it is a quick video but it really does a good job of summarizing so let's watch this summary two-minute summary on what is advent [Music] so [Music] so i told you that video was a little quick but again we'll keep it posted so you can push pause in between we just got the question yes violet uh we use purple as kind of the color that most people know but violet is the church color uh for the season and do you notice one thing do you know there's not one flag in the entire world that has purple of all the flags the red white and blue of the united states and france and the greens and the yellows of italy and mexico but there's not one flag in the whole world with purple kind of interesting right but we know as catholics we need to carry that purple flag and that is giving a little bit of penance to prepare for the joy of what's coming with god what eye is not seen ear has not heard what god has planned for us all right now i i did some more research and i gave you a lot of my seminary notes but i found some stuff when i was doing my research and chris sparks helped me put together and there's a priest out there named father roger landry and i want to summarize some of the things he said because i thought they were very good now remember i mentioned to you earlier that advent starts a new church calendar right it's a new year now each year the church begins focusing on the beginning and on the end of our existence or i should say of christ's presence with us all right so the church begins each year focusing on the beginning and on the end so that we better live in the present three comings of christ the beginning of christ's relationship with us through his birth the end when he comes again and then living in the present through holy communion let's look at this the eucharist you know i don't think it's coincidental that god had in mind i don't think we recognize it but did you notice advent is right after thanksgiving advent is always immediately after thanksgiving most always the sunday after thanksgiving now what does eucharist mean thanksgiving and then if we are in advent preparing for the coming of christ into our hearts what's the most important thing jesus told saint faustina the thing that hurts him the most of all is a lack of gratitude that we receive him like a dead object this is one of the things that so many people in the church now are trying to raise awareness i mentioned frank's here with us and and frank and i've talked about what what does it take to revitalize its recognition of the true presence of jesus in the eucharist body blood soul and divinity when we lose that reverence when we lose that everything else is is just meaningless and so this is why we have i believe god placed advent right after thanksgiving thanksgiving the eucharist means thanksgiving so we don't have to necessarily understand all of this to realize that you know what we should be excited over a new year how many baseball fans get excited over the new season at spring training now wait a minute father this liturgical year is boring we do the same thing all over again all right now every year the liturgical year repeats the same feast days of the saints you have thomas aquinas on july january 28th you have joe command on july 25th you have all the saints days and father it's boring we just repeat them all over again do not baseball teams all right we're in boston red sox country even though watch out for the detroit tigers next year they're gonna be good the the whole new season we're just playing another 162 games against the same teams you played last year but doesn't everybody get excited does anybody say well you know that's really boring because we did the same games against the same teams last year everybody would look at you and say no because the outcome can be different we we got swept by the yankees last year but this year we want to sweep the yankees it's the same schedule but yet our our catholics look at this interesting it's boring we celebrate the same things okay but you should celebrate them in a different way just like the same 162 game schedule in baseballs like the same 162 saints that we have on the church calendar we should redo them each year with something new and invigorating i think that's the way to look at it not something boring and repetitive all right we don't get excited but we should the experience of last year in a baseball season is meant to help us to get better this next year like the detroit tigers had to clean up their bullpen back in the mid 2000s here i'm living in boston territory but back in 2014 there is no way boston should have won that world series it should have been detroit they couldn't touch our starting pitchers couldn't even get a hit off of them but as soon as we went into the seventh inning and they pulled him out our bullpen came in game over because we didn't have a bullpen so the tigers should look at that and say next year we're going to learn from last year and we're going to improve our bullpen so you should look at the last year's liturgical calendar and say where did i fail where did i lack in charity where did i lack in my attentiveness at mass and improve on that does that make sense i think it's very important so it can be like sports i know father seraphim always told me don't waste my time with sports but i think there's a lot of analogies there all right so jesus tells us in the gospel that when he comes there will be winners and losers this is this hogwash if everybody gets a trophy i've said before his craziness people don't believe me but when i was in first and second grade this is the honest truth when i was in first and second grade i played in the holly speaking of holly remember the the crown when i played in holly michigan every week when the games were played a parent was designated to bring the treats and the treats were brought to the kids and if we won this is first grade if we won we got the treats if we lost the parent had to take those treats home now i still keep in touch with some of my friends from that team and not one of us is in therapy because of that not one of us that helped develop our character that helped developed into who we were to appreciate hard work and effort this is what communism wants to destroy everybody gets a trophy well yeah then everybody comes and takes your trophy and so this is important so jesus tells us basically there will be winners and there will be losers jesus doesn't say everybody will get a trophy all right the majority of people let's look at this while the majority of people were drowning at the time of noah they didn't even see the storm coming what was noah doing he was busy building an ark and waiting for god god's word to be fulfilled noah was a winner those who weren't prepared were a loser all right jesus tells us and i don't mean loser in the same like oh you're no good i mean those who are not prepared won't win that's why in first grade we learn we gotta practice we gotta prepare now i i they asked me to coach a couple years ago just kind of helping and there was there was no sense of preparation it was just oh well you know we just we're just we we you know we're just not into that what we got to prepare so jesus tells us how do we know this jesus tells us that history will repeat itself he says when he comes again some will be ready and some will not he tells us the two men will do the same job in the field but one will be ready and one will be not this is not about the the rapture this is about preparation he said two women will be in the kitchen one will be prepared one will not he says a husband and a wife will be in the same bed but only one will be ready one will not that's luke 17 34 this again this is not the rapture this is being in a state of grace being ready in a state of grace this is important [Music] all right next slide brother mark's going to show he has come into the world and basically built us a new ark the church giving us stockpiles of provisions through the sacrament the bible his very presence in the eucharist but we must get on this ark i love this phrase look at your screen the church is like noah's ark it stinks but if you get out of it you'll drown let me repeat that the church is like noah's ark it stinks but if you get out of it you'll drown that's why thank god we got some people that are trying to clean out the manure so that the church doesn't stink but those same people know they can't get off that ark so many people you're on a smelly ark says i'm jumping overboard you're gonna drown the best thing to do is get a shovel and scoop out that stench and that's what we got to do in our church that's what's going on right now this is it's important work right all right jesus tells us in the gospel how to avoid making the same mistake those people did in noah's time basically stay awake this is scripture to remain vigilant and alert for his return so that we won't fall asleep what does he mean by fall asleep spiritually all right don't be caught off guard all right um basically saint paul tells us this he says live honorably he says not in reveling in drunkenness not in debauchery or licentiousness this is the way of our society today not in quarreling and jealousy instead put on the lord jesus christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires now i know that's not easy but with the grace of god we can do it thus each one of you and myself included are faced with a choice all right the choice between light and darkness light and death we have a choice if we elect to do those things we're electing darkness and we'll remain in the dark all right we either have to make we have to choice we have a choice to make provisions for the flesh to gratify our desires or to make provisions for the spirit to have eternal life what's it going to be jesus and his apostle paul sound the alarm wake up as you've heard me say it's not about woke it's about being awake god bless father gomez who just talked about this whole woke movement and he said it's a false religion so don't fall into this lie please please now we know that when christ came into the world the first time some were ready but most were not sound familiar to today all right mary she was ready joseph the shepherds the magi they were all ready god comes into the world mary joseph shepherds magi they were ready but on the other hand who was not ready herod herod was not ready he was only worried about himself the innkeepers they were not ready they were too caught up in their businesses and didn't have room for their own creator the scholars of the law the pharisees the sadducees they were not even ready to make a short six mile journey from jerusalem to bethlehem to see and meet their king the vast majority of the jewish people who had been awaiting the whole advent of their messiah coming advent means coming they weren't ready for centuries they waited but they were not prepared when he first came let's not fall into this trap the surest way for us to be ready when he comes in the future is to be ready now let's take a look at our next slide because he comes to us daily in the eucharist even in a more humble disguise in a little baby so this is why we have to be vigilant to see him to see him in the eucharist our response to jesus in the eucharist now is a very true indication of whether you are awake or not when jesus says stay awake and you ask yourself well gee i'm awake no i'm reading this no are you spiritually awake spiritually awake is an indication of how reverently you receive holy communion this is what it's about how we respond we'll be indicating how we will react when the second coming happens how do we respond go to mass go to the sacraments stay in a state of grace this is the real litmus test are you going to mass are you going to the sacraments are you going to confession are you receiving holy communion are you praying this is your litmus test now if you haven't been this is your time this is your new year's resolution remember everybody always makes a new year's resolution right january 1st we've all done it how about making a new catholic year liturgical year resolution starting tomorrow that i'm going to stay in a state of grace i'm going to receive the sacraments i'm going to go to mass this is what it's about in this new liturgical year let's get it right you know emmanuel god with us has come let us adore him as the magi now this is nothing new because everybody says well father times are really hard right now back then people had faith well you know what today we suffering christians should look at the birth of jesus in a similar way do you know that when the birth of jesus happened it was almost identical to today people don't realize this the same conditions the world was torn a strife there was the dictatorship of rome right the world he was born into knew the evils of roman rule paganism that's what we face today the evil and the sadness that happened with it yet the joy all of a sudden burst on the scene with the birth of jesus they now had a savior to save them and to reward their patients in waiting for him you too will be rewarded if you patiently prepare and wait for him that's why advent is so important in this world of impatience i think impatience is the most under recognized sin it's i got a million faults but impatience is probably for me could be number one we live in a world now that we don't want the microwave even taking 10 minutes to make our food it's got to be done in two minutes second we get into traffic jam we get impatient the second that we can't get a tv program on demand when we want it we get impatient this is a world of impatience so i think it's an absolute excellent opportunity to grow in virtue this advent season by preparing and waiting i always it's when i go to the store i use jockey to get the shortest line maybe we could practice a little penance here's one i bet you've never done pick the longest line and offered up for the holy souls how many of us have done that i just it just like ah i can't i gotta go to the short line it's a beautiful way to prepare for waiting to teach us patience right what a strange world right evil and suffering mixed with now joy when jesus comes it is all that makes christmas a joyful event in every age no matter what the circumstances no matter what our pains and agonies remember happiness is determined by circumstances joy can be ever present no matter what the circumstances so no matter what strife the world is in i remember my father once saying this is not gonna be a joyful christmas no it's maybe not be a happy christmas but it should always be a joyful christmas because you know jesus is with you it is precisely because god understood our suffering that he came into the world in the first place that's mercy what is mercy mercy is a particular mode of love that when love encounters suffering it takes action to do something about it god saw our suffering of sin and decided to do something about it what did he do he sent his son and now we are preparing for that arrival this is so amazing and yep ah the christmas season just gets me depressed no joy this is what our faith teaches is because god understood our suffering that he sent his son in the mercy a child was born who can change the world now he can change you if you let him there's another priest i read and i think this is really good i want to mention some of the things that this gerald father gerald murray mentioned about the coming of advent he said you know the church repeats the liturgical calendar to guide us to heaven now the cycle of days and years is directed to what what is the whole purpose of a cycle of days and years to guide us to heaven and the last day so we're ready for heaven all right when the lord will come let's look at our next slide take a look at this this is the vision i've always had of what it'll look like when jesus comes again you know the reason the jews don't accept jesus is because their idea of a messiah was a conquering hero with a sword coming in on horseback and overthrowing their enemies instead here comes a popper in sandals and torn rags this is why the jews this is why judas betrayed jesus did you know that judas betrayed jesus because jesus wasn't this sword-wheeling slashing down the romans kind of guy and so judas betrayed jesus because of that he's like you're not my id of the messiah and that's why most jews rejected jesus because it wasn't their idea of the messiah he came as a pauper in humility not a conquering hero but how will jesus come the second time let's head for other mark put it back on the screen that is how jesus is going to come the second time and this is amazing to me and i don't know if my the people here can see it in the crowd but this is the picture of it there's going to be jesus the conquering hero with the sword on horseback leading his army to victory we all know that god will win the war but our job right now is to reduce the casualties in the meantime that's why we're pouring it out this is why you're here that's why i'm a priest that's why you're a marian helper because jesus will win this war and this is how he's going to come again that's when the jews will be reconciled fully if not even before that with an illumination of conscience so i think this is important this is critically important now here's the thing all right the first part of advent directs our thoughts to the second coming of christ do you know that the second coming of christ will happen in your lifetime father we don't know the day or the hour oh yes we do ah blasphemy contact the bishop turn in father chris no everybody the second coming will happen in your lifetime either jesus will come again from heaven as we just saw in that picture or you will die both are the second coming of christ for you depending on which one happens first so if you don't die before christ comes again in the second coming that will be the second coming or if you die you're going to meet him and that will be the second coming of christ for you so we have to prepare so the first part of advent the readings of the scriptures talk about the second coming of christ or the end of our life thus we begin christian the year the christian year meditating on the end of time or on death so we will be ready we walk with him in order that we can walk with him when he comes to judge the living and the dead walk with him now so that you will be ready to walk with him when he comes on that horseback as the conquering hero we honor the savior best by making ourselves ready for when he comes again now the second part of advent directs our thoughts to his birth to the person who fulfilled all the prophecies in bible in the bible now the reality of the incarnation calls for our full attention to prepare for christmas now here's what's important the penitential nature of the season as we said violet vestments right purple or violet um there's no gloria at mass right teaches us and that's why it is partially penitential that's why when i hear that evan's not penitential at all that's wrong church says that's wrong because we don't sing the glory at mass in advent all right we we're violet purple because it is penitential it teaches us that sin and the habit of sin need to be addressed we just can't pretend that sin doesn't exist very important this means seeking his pardon for our sins living better as his true followers a good confession as i said a second ago during advent is the most pleasing gift you can give jesus at christmas not gold not frankincense not myrrh the best gift you can give jesus at christmas is yourself in confession and holy communion honor his birth with a spirit of adoration you know what the first adoration was oh i thought it was when when uh jesus gave to margaret mary alicock the holy hour in 1673 no the first holy hour was the magi adoring jesus in the manger they were adoring him that was the first adoration and we can imitate that sharing gifts on christmas is a way to imitate what they did powerful all right now i mentioned advent um i can skip this part here let's do that all right next um all right what about this advent asked us to stay what does that mean father well here i want to turn to elizabeth scalia another i get i didn't do a ton of research on this i found some really gems out there and i want to i want to save you having to read dozens of hours of research and just kind of condense things for you to be able to give you and i'm using like i said my notes from seminary chris sparks and i worked on some of this but this was a really good interesting point um elizabeth said that the liturgical year as it winds down we are each day treated to the apocalypse oh gee father that doesn't sound too enticing right well okay she said well at every mass the church declares that we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our savior jesus christ does that sound familiar i say it every day in the mass as we await in joyful hope for the coming of our savior jesus christ now how is that possible when at the exact same time in the readings we are reading about destruction disaster the apocalypse how can we go from the joyful hope to the readings of the scriptures you ever catch that mass i was sitting here yesterday at mass or uh yes yesterday at mass thinking that and then i saw this online i was like oh my gosh this answer this is exactly what i was thinking about yesterday how can we sit there talk about the joyful hope of the coming of our lord savior jesus christ after reading these readings that talk about the destruction and they're the bells to be able to say yes all right so bottom line is this these readings yes they can feel terrifying but we heard christ jesus say this people and how do you reconcile this jesus said people will die of fright this is luke 21 26-28 let's read this on your screen people will die of fright in anticipation of what is coming upon the world for the powers of the heavens will be shaken and then they will see the son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory but when these signs begin to happen stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand luke 21 okay so joyful hope people dying of fright what gives yeah run away from sin that's what causes the fright and when you run away from sin and to jesus you find joyful hope the medicine is not found in another pill from the pharmacy the medicine is found in the holy eucharist now please don't write letters i'm not saying not to take your medicine please i'm not saying that what i'm saying is the true medicine of the soul yes we need medicine for the body but the medicine for the soul is the eucharist and advent is asking us to do that lift our heads stay to stand and watch because darkness is coming right darkness is coming it's drawing near so to give witness to the victory of light over dark you want to be a part of it and by fact that you're watching with us now you are already holding your head up to even watch this video you gotta hold your head up you're doing it and then stand in those glorious beams of light that light that made all things new you know one of the most moving parts of the passion for me you remember mel gibson's the passion you remember that i think one of the most stirring moments for me is jesus as he was on his way in the passion and he was being beaten and spat upon and he was being kicked and whipped and he looks up at his mother and he says see i make all things new was like wow i was like tears were running down my eyes he's going through that that torture and yet what's he focused on he's making all things new man this is what i want to say to my friends who've left the church we all know them we have family members my own family there are a few things more painful than those who have left or those who are struggling with the church and don't even attend mass maybe haven't formally left but don't go into the darkness don't jump off that ark you jump off that ark you're gonna drown you'd run into the darkness of the forest you're gonna get lost you need the light be willing for now to keep company with christ yes he was deeply wounded by his bride the church consent yes for now to share in these hard times but hold fast don't give up going back to sports jimmy valvano north carolina state when i think it was the 1983 national championship absolutely the biggest underdogs in the history of the ncaa nobody gave him a chance to win and when they won there's a film of him running around the court he didn't know what to do they wanted the buzzer and he's running around the court he's looking for somebody to hug he doesn't even know what to do and later he got cancer and he was dying and he went up for some award and all he said because everybody knew his story everybody knew he was dying for cancer and he could throw in the towel and all he kept saying was don't give up don't ever give up yeah the church is making us grumble and groan right now but don't give up your faith clean up the church hold fast these times they're going to get harder the darkness is going to grow darker hold on because the light is coming that's what advent is about right now up to the solstice the winter solstice is getting darker and darker and darker all the way through advent physically in the universe with the heavens the stars it is getting darker and darker because the earth is tilting farther and farther away from the sun then the winter solstice hits and christmas happens and then all of a sudden everything starts getting lighter and lighter and lighter this is not some pagan sun god this is the real light of christ powerful stuff all right so this is it hold on because the light is coming the darkness will not overcome it remember the word israel you know what israel means struggle israel the word israel means struggle it's not going to be easy we are all little israels right now struggling but hold on because the advent promise is going to prevail advent is an apocalypse here i turn to a guy named carl olson i'll show our next slide advent means well let's jump ahead let's go to apocalypse advent is apocalyptic apocalypse is from the greek word meaning to reveal to unveil that's why the book of revelation called the book of the apocalypse is not about the rapture or the antichrist it's about the mass the book of revelation is about the mass because the mass is an unveiling jesus is hidden in the eucharist even more so than in the crib in the manger and that is unveiled at the mass when mass happens head the roof of the church opens up and heaven and earth are united and it's unveiled scott hahn tells us all the time when you go to mass you're you're in heaven heaven is unveiled we don't want to pass this up so apocalypse means to unveil but advantus the latin for advent let's show back on the screen means it's coming it's coming so advent should be a time where we're we're acknowledging it's coming it's fast approaching jesus said you must also be prepared for an hour you do not expect the son of man will come now that's the second coming monsignor ronald knox said that the problem is that we want our lord to come but just not yet remember saint augustine this was me in my 20s lord make me chase just not yet that was saint augustine lord make me chase just not yet no the time is now make us faithful find our we find ourselves wanting to commit ourselves but we want to hold on to our sins no that's why in a paragraph 299 of the diary it says hi jesus is hiding my rays from the wrath of the father and i remember i was given a talk once and father kaz heard me and i said yeah hide in the rays of of divine mercy from the wrath of the father and father caz looks at me and says no no chris don't don't don't be teaching it like that i said come on father it says it right there in the in the diary and so father seraphim comes in the room and i i quit grandfather said father servant doesn't the diary say hide from the wrath of the father and he says you have it all wrong what he means father seraphim said is that sin is like a lightning rod here is sin and if we are holding on to well here's the point here's sin and god will zap it the wrath of god the father is going to strike at sin so here is sin here is the wrath of god the father he is going to strike at sin the problem is if you're holding on to it you ever held onto a metal rod and then feel a jolt of electricity because it transfers through the rod sin is a lightning rod when sin is going to be zapped by god the father if you're holding on to that sin you're going to get zapped too that's why we let go we detach and so to wrap this whole thing up i want to finish with the end times because this is this is important so this is why we come advent is challenging us to let go to detach to stay awake to be ready to go to confession all right advent is the end of the old covenant basically which genuinely looked for god to come jesus came now the advent of the new covenant started with the birth of christ continued since then with the eucharist and will end when he comes again so you have all this old testament stuff you know what the old testament is the old testament is add that the old testament is a preparation in a waiting for the coming of christ the whole old testament is advent and then when you come to the birth of jesus that's his first coming then at the end of time well his second coming and in between which we are in right now he comes daily in your heart in the eucharist this is the meaning this is the story all right so god's coming to us in every mass and it will make completing this will be completed when he comes the second time this is why jesus said to be prepared at every hour for the hour the hour of the apocalypse it's all tied together so here's where i wanted to finish i got a couple minutes left i want to add to the talk that i did last year called the catholic view of the end times i have three a series of three talks and i'm gonna add to that right now something that i didn't cover there and i want to put the next slide up brother mark signs that are to precede the general judgment all right if the old testament is really a time of advent of waiting for christ then the new covenant comes with the birth of christ that's his first coming and then from there we receive him daily in the eucharist but then the final coming the second coming of jesus is the end we gotta say how to be ready how to be ready for that now i'm gonna add to the five that i said in my talk of my end times talk i gave you five things that must happen in scripture before the end and those five are still correct but when you do some research you'll find out there's four more there's really nine things in scripture that have to happen before the end of time let's look at these all right theologians usually enumerate the following nine events as signs that jesus is coming again all right one is to spread the gospel to the whole world i said that on my last talk the gospel must be spread to the whole world let's look at our next slide how do we know this jesus says and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony to all nations and then the consummation will come very clear you can't get any more clear than that jesus is saying before the end the gospel must be spread to all nations i believe that's happening through things like this live stream the devil thinks he won with the coronavirus jesus is turning us on its head is making a greater good and now we're reaching more people than we've ever reached with the message of divine mercy praise be to all of you watching in all parts of the world all right next the conversion of the jews i also talked about this in my last talk conversion to the jews towards the end of the world is foretold by saint paul in romans 11 25 the jews will be converted now one thing the next one number three that i didn't have and i'm adding now is the return of enoch in elijah why why does that must happen before the end times the belief that these two men did you know they didn't die enoch and elijah did not die so they are reserved they believe theologians believe for the last times to be the precursors of the second coming the second advent this is scriptural regarding elijah you can find it malachi 4 verse 5 and six sirach verse chapter 48 verse 10 and matthew chapter 17 verse 11 concerning enoch you can see him in sirach 44 verse 16. all right last couple notes next i had this one in my talk last time the great apostasy boy are we seeing that now heck yeah we are saint paul says in 2 thessalonians 2 verse 3 that they must not be terrified as if the day of the lord were already at hand because first there must come a great revolt an apostle an apostasia that means a falling away of the faith man are we seeing that today you know the church fathers understood by this revolt a great reduction in the number of the faithful through the abandonment of the christian faith in many nations this is fork this is prophesized in scripture but don't say well then let it happen no you'll be judged and how you tried to stop it from happening getting your loved ones back christ said but yet the son of man when he cometh shall he find think you faith on earth question mark that's luke 18 8 in other words jesus is saying there will be little faith on earth all right here's the next one i had in my previous talk let's look at our next slide the antichrist the reign of the antichrist in that same passage second thessalonians that i just mentioned paul indicates there's another sign the revelation of the man of sin calls him the son of perdition we know it better as the antichrist now people think the antichrist is satan the antichrist is not satan satan cannot become incarnate only god has the power to become incarnate satan cannot walk around in human flesh and become a human only god can so the antichrist will be a man possessed by satan saint john says in first john 2 18 that he has to come in the last days this is not some catholic i i i i don't mean this negatively but i chuckle when we give these talks and people write to us this is not in the bible yeah it is i got one of my end times talk that said this was all catholic invention well it's coming right from the bible it is generally agreed that before the second coming there will come a powerful adversary of christ who will seduce the nation by his wonders and persecute the church all right next the extraordinary disturbances of nature i mention this too the scriptures clearly indicate that the judgment will be preceded by a bunch of physical disasters this is matthew 24 29 luke 21 25 war pestilences famines and earthquakes matthew 24 tells us this they understood as the calamities of the last times next conflagration the earth will be stricken with conflagration what is that that means a great fire in the apostolic writings we are told that at the end of the world there will be a general conflagration but it will not annihilate the present earth or the present condition it will change its form and appearance father you're making this up nah ii peter chapter 3 verse 10-13 first thessalonians chapter 5 verse 2 etc finally two more the trumpet of the resurrection all right the trumpet of the resurrection in the new testament it says a trumpet will awaken the dead to the resurrection that's first corinthians 15 52 and first thessalonians 4 15 and john 5 28 according to saint thomas there is reference in these passages either to a voice of christ or an apparition of christ which will cause the dead to reunite with their bodies a resurrection next slide this is an awesome picture because you wanna how to know i visualize i searched long and hard for this picture because this is how i visualize it the sign of the son of man will appear in the heavens in matthew 24 30. let's look at this picture it was indicated as a sign that would come right before christ was to judge the world is called a cross of light you want to know what's interesting saint faustina told us that before the end jesus said a cross will be in the sky and from the part places on the cross where he was nailed rays of light will come forth hmm powerful all right so those are the nine things according to scripture that must happen but i'm going to lastly mention circumstances about the general judgment the who what when and where let's talk about this when will the judgment happen well these signs that are to precede the judgment tell us nothing about when all right the day the lord will come he says is a thief in the night nobody knows the day or the hour all right where will it happen all right it seems that the general judgment will happen here on earth some infer from first thessalonians 4 16 that the judgment will be in the air jesus will come and we will be risen up in the air the newly risen being carried into the clouds to meet christ but others from the book of joel you know this say the last judgment will be in the valley of jehoshaphat let's look at the next screen that's the valley of jehoshaphat you want to see where the book of joel says the general judgment will be it's a real place it's right there in jerusalem and so that is powerful finally who will judge well the whole trinity yes but the judgment it is told to us will be done by christ not just as god but as man because he's judging his peers we are men he is this is john chapter 5 verse 26. this is because creation why jesus why is he's the judge because creation was through him and in a special manner wisdom was ascribed to him so let's look at our last slide you recognize that picture that's the general judgment on the sistine chapel michelangelo at the second coming christ will appear in the heavens seated on a cloud and surrounded by angelic hosts this is matthew 16 matthew 24 25 the angels will bring all before him this is matthew 24 31 listen to this the elect will aid christ in a judicial capacity that's first corinthians 6 2 and the lives of the just themselves will be a condemnation on the wicked that's matthew 21 verse 41. in other words god doesn't condemn you you condemn yourself and if somebody says there was no way i could live like that lord he will point to the lives of the saints and show that we can with the grace of god live a life like that but the apostles will also be special judges of the world in a deeper way because the promise was that they'll sit on the 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of israel this is matthew 19 and where did the catholic priest come from the apostles and you know what the tribunal or what the confessional is called it's not the tribunal of judgment it'll be at the end of time we'll be judged but right now the confessional is called the tribunal of mercy now is the time of mercy but jesus said take advantage of it now because after that will come the time of justice you don't want to be going through the doors of justice we're not going to make it we want the doors of mercy so saint thomas says that the greatest saints will make known the sentence of christ to others so you know what everybody pray to those saints now get them on your good side now so they can intercede for you all right so who will be judged all of us good and bad we will all appear in the judgment to give an account of our words deeds and prayers the angels and the demons will they be judged ah here's a good question will angels and the demons be judged not directly they were already judged at the time of the fall they were either faithful like saint michael or they either fell like lucifer their eternal destiny has already been fixed but because they played an influence over the fortunes of men their sentence which will be pronounced later the sentence on man will affect the demons so although the demons are allowed to roam the earth right now at the end they'll be thrown into hell hell will be sealed and you don't want to be part of that what is the object of judgment the judgment will embrace all our works good or bad every idle word according to matthew 12 36 and every secret thought uh oh that's scary every secret thought first corinthians 4 verse 5. theologians teach us that even the secret sins of the just will become manifest in order that judgment may be made complete and that justice and mercy of god may be glorified okay father you said a couple months ago that if we go to confession and our sins are confessed they will not be brought up at the general judgment yes that is correct if you are thinking that you've been listening to these talks but what i should have explained was not in a humiliating or embarrassing way what's going to happen is that your pain or embarrassment if you're a saint will not be pain and embarrassment it will add to the glory of god it will be like saint peter and saint mary magdalene saint peter and mary magdalene were sinners but doesn't that give more glory to god when we saw that they fell and then they got up and became saints than if they had never sinned in the first place that's how it'll be for us so actually if you have a sinful past ironically that can give more glory to god if you repent now i think that is amazing so there's more rejoice in heaven over one repentant sinner than 99 righteous peter and mary magdalene sinners but after they repented they became great saints and now that gives glory to god god didn't keep their sins private well father you said it won't become known it won't become known in a degrading way it'll become known in a way that gives glory to god so if you don't want those sins to be a degrading and demoralizing way repent change your life and then those will become part of the glory of god that a great sinner became a great saint we can all do that this is what will add to the glory of god oh wow and then the form of the judgment the procedure of the judgment is described in matthew 25 31-46 and in revelation 20. in the last judgment the conduct of conduct of each of us will be made known not only in our own consciousness but to the whole world that's the difference between the particular judgment and the general judgment in your particular judgment just you will know everything god shows you but in the general judgment you'll know everything about everybody and everybody says oh that's scary father yeah if you haven't repented but if you've repented your past will actually give glory to god and to you it is probable that no words will be spoken in the judgment theologians tell us but in one instant through divine illumination everybody will thoroughly understand your own moral condition and that of all the others romans 2 15. so what is the result of all of this what is the meaning or the purpose of the general judgment the divine purpose will be accomplished what does that mean that the human race will finally achieve its destiny union with god there's something taking you back to seminary that i learned called teleology teleos tilos that means everything has a reason for which it was created and whether or not you achieve that is up to you an acorn histilios is to become an oak tree a kitten teleology is to become a cat you your teleos your teleology is union with god why were you created to know god love him and serve him and be happy with him forever in heaven that's question one of the baltimore catechism my goodness this all fits together there is nothing more beautiful in the existence of the world than this catholic faith nothing and that's why the great scholars of other religions like scott hahn steve ray deakin alex jones tim staples when they sat down to disprove the catholic faith he ended up becoming catholic this is the beauty we have in our faith god bless you all continue to be part of our marian family brother mark can show up on our screen real quick please join us you can visit micprayers.org it doesn't cost anything it takes less than 10 seconds i don't care if you ever give a dollar but i will be responsible before god to bring souls to him and i believe truly this is one of the greatest ways next to the sacraments become a marian helper share in the graces of our penances our rosaries our prayers our masses now if you'd like to hear some of these talks the next slide mother mark you can get our dvd on shopmercy.org or call the number 800-462-7426 and if you want to really get an explanation of how we do it our last slide will be the book understanding divine mercy which you can also get on shopmercy.org or 1-800-462-7426 god bless you you all hung in there with me thank you so much and let's have a great advent season starting tomorrow and may almighty god bless you the father the son and the holy spirit amen wow you

Channel: Divine Mercy

Views: 499,658

Keywords: The meaning of Advent, the end times, Judgement, Catholic teaching on Advent, Catholic teaching on the Judgement, Catholic teaching on the end times, End times Catholic, understanding Advent, understanding the End times, what you need to know the End Times, prepare for the End Times, prepare for Judgment, Catholic Teaching the Second Coming, Catholic Meaning of Advent, Season of Advent, Explaining the faith, fr Chris Alar, Alar, Catholic teaching, Catholic, Advent

Id: SOMxtmT3XPE

Length: 89min 15sec (5355 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 27 2021