The Mystery Of Iniquity And It’s Destruction – Homily for the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time – Sermon by Father Levine

Fr. Joseph Levine; Holy Family Catholic Church and Missions, Burns, Oregon; November 17, 2024

The 33^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, before the Solemnity of Christ the King, which concludes the liturgical year, could be called “Apocalypse Sunday.”

The word “apocalypse” generally brings with it a sense of fear and of impending doom. Faith, however, puts things in proportion. The word itself simply means “revelation” or “unveiling”: what is revealed is first the mystery of iniquity, which rejects Jesus Christ, then the glory of Jesus Christ, bringing the definitive victory over evil. The teaching of Christ through the Gospel proclaimed in his Church, received in the faith that brings forth hope and charity, will help us consider the present circumstances calmly, in the light of the word of God, without exaggeration and without denial.

It is a certain truth of faith that Jesus Christ, who has risen from the dead and is now seated at the right hand of the Father, will return in glory to judge the living and the dead. It is also a certain truth of faith that the last judgment will be accompanied by the general resurrection. Even though heaven and earth will pass away the words of Christ will stand forever; his promise is sure. At the same time, we must remember that we know neither the day nor the hour.

Now, if we love Jesus Christ, we should long for his coming. We await our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. (Tit 2:13) At the same time, knowing our own weakness and sin, we have reason to be fearful in face of the judgement as we work out our salvation in fear and trembling. (Ph 2:12) For the same reason we can be unsure of ourselves in face of the tribulation or great distress that precedes the end, about which Jesus himself said, If those days had not been shortened, no human being would be saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. (Mt 24:22) He will not submit us to a greater trial than we can, with his help, endure.

In a word, if we look to ourselves and our weakness, we will be fearful; if we look to Jesus Christ and his mercy, we will be filled with hope, confidence, and longing.

Our readings today speak of an unsurpassed distress, followed by a cosmic upheaval, the coming of Christ, the resurrection and the judgment. We need to say something about each of these.

First, then, let’s turn our attention to the “end times” that will precede Jesus’ return in glory, the time of unsurpassed distress. The Catechism of the Catholic Church presents us with a good summary of the tradition.

“Before Christ’s second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the ‘mystery of iniquity’ in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh. … The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through [her] final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection.” (CCC 675,677)

The Catechism here refers to a famous passage in St. Paul’s 2^nd Letter to the Thessalonians, which refers to the mystery of iniquity that was already at work in the time of St. Paul, a great “apostasy” and the man of lawlessness, traditionally identified as the Antichrist, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. (2 Th 2:4) Since Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, is truly the Son of God and is rightly worshipped and glorified together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, “Antichrist” is truly a worthy name for a mere man who demands to be worshipped as God.

Note well, that while the man Jesus Christ demanded faith in his person, because he was the Son of God, he has only received public worship after his death and resurrection, indeed after his glorification at the right hand of the Father. The Antichrist, without the Cross, will demand to be worshipped as a living man here on earth, “offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth.” The great distress, then, is not first of all a matter of economic or natural disaster, nor is it a matter of destructive war; it is a matter of the persecution of the Church by the Antichrist, for the sake of solving the problems of this world.

Evidently, there is not now, nor has there ever been such an Antichrist as described by St. Paul, at least not one who has persuaded a large portion of mankind, from every tribe and people and tongue and nation. (cf. Rev 13:7) At the same time, we can see the “spirit of the Antichrist”, the mystery of iniquity, very much at work in the world today in the rejection of Christ and the exaltation of man in place of God. Yet, this has been going on for some time. More than 100 years ago, Pope St. Pius X spoke of “the enormous and detestable wickedness, so characteristic of our time – the substitution of man for God.” (E Supremi, October 4, 1903)

This substitution of man for God, that has characterized our times for more than a century, is manifest in the various forms of atheism, which like a disease have afflicted the human world. The phenomenon of widespread atheism, rejecting not only God, but any reality higher than the human, indeed higher than the material, is uniquely modern. It has its roots not in science, properly understood, but in the ideology of “scientism,” which going beyond the bounds of a rather limited method of investigation, affirms that there is no truth and no reality beyond what has been established by science, beyond what can be weighed, measured, and numbered by scientific means. That thereby removes realities beyond measurement, like God, the soul, and morality from the realm of “rationality.”

The ideology of “scientism” has not, however, done away with “religion”; rather, it leaves religion to assert itself in the realm of the irrational and emotive and, we could say, the fantastic. The human heart will not be reduced to what can be measured, weighed, and numbered; cut off from the mind and from reality, the heart will seek to “live its dream” and fashions for itself a new world of idols. Hence, we have the manmade religions of modernism, the New Age, and the new paganism. While on the one hand this is all a sort of fantasy dreamworld – or cyberspace dreamworld – it is a dreamworld that gives ready entrance to the sinister reality of the demonic, which is also the real force behind the spirit of the Antichrist. (cf. 2 Th 2:9)

These twin errors of scientism and fantasy religion, often intertwining in curious ways, have pervaded our culture and its institutions for some time now. They have been prevalent in politics, entertainment, the business world, and education.

Francis X Maier, who has been around Church life in this country for quite some time, having served as an advisor to Archbishop Chaput in Denver and Philadelphia for 23 years, recently wrote, “The go-to Catholic posture in this country, especially over the last 60 years, has been assimilation and cooperation with the surrounding culture.  In assimilating, we’ve been digested by the culture we were meant to evangelize.  Too often, our distinct Catholic convictions, along with our sense of mission, have been bleached away. … the Catholic bias toward ‘fitting in’ and getting along makes no sense going forward.” (https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2024/11/06/some-notes-on-resistance/)

Has it ever made sense? Does it make sense for those whose citizenship is in heaven, from where they expect the Savior, to fit in to this passing world? (cf. Ph 3:20) If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied. (1 Cor 15:19)

We may not be living in the times of the great distress, the very time of the Antichrist, but we are certainly living in times of “stress”. The general stress of our times readily leads to anxiety; the anxiety leads people to look for “solutions” or “remedies” ready at hand. This is a danger for Catholics. There are many people, celebrities of sorts, across the spectrum, offering their “solutions” of various sorts, ready-made and pre-packaged “salvation”.

Jesus’ warning about false prophets and false Christs can be adapted here: The days are coming, when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. And they will say to you, “Lo, there!” or “Lo, here!” Do not go. Do not follow them. For as the lightning lights up the sky and flashed from one end to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. (Lk 17:22-24)

The words of the Catechism follow the same line of thinking: “The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God’s victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from heaven. God’s triumph over the revolt of evil will take the form of the Last Judgement after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world.” (CCC 677)

Following the great distress, after the tribulation, then, will be the cosmic upheaval, the coming of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, and the Last Judgment.

The powers of the heavens are shaken because they yield their administration to the God, the King – the Lord alone will be exalted on that day (Is 2:11,17); the mountains will melt like wax before him, (Ps 97[96]:5) because the insignificance of all that seems so solid to us, of all created reality before the Creator will be made manifest – and because they must be transformed, freed from corruption, (cf. Rm 8:21) to become the new heaven and the new earth in which justice dwells. (2 Pe 3:13) Christ’s coming in glory puts a definite end to evil and manifests the temporary character not just of our individual lives, but of the entire world in its present form.

Those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some shall live forever, others shall be an everlasting horror and disgrace. Or in the words of Jesus: The hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear the voice of the Son of God and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. (Jn 5:28)

We can rehearse and prepare for our own judgment by the practice of regular confession. When we depart from this world we must each give an account of our life and all our deeds before the tribunal of Christ. (cf. 2 Cor 5:10).

Those who refuse to believe in him and who reject his love and mercy to the end of their life will be damned forever in hell with the devil and his angels. (cf. Mt 25:41) Those who depart from this life in a state of grace, but imperfectly purified must undergo the purification of purgatory – a cleansing fire – to attain the holiness needed to enter the joy of heaven. (cf. CCC 1030) At the latest that purification will be complete when Christ returns in glory. Those who depart from this life – and if the testimony of the saints is to be believed, they are few – with their souls perfectly purified will enter immediately into the vision of God. (cf. CCC 1023)

Christ, by dying and rising from the dead, has destroyed death. When he comes in glory, he will bring that victory to completion and destroy death forever, even in those who rejected him. That is why everyone will rise from the dead: their souls will be reunited forever to their bodies; their bodies will share eternally the destiny of their souls.

Brought together, body and soul, before Christ in glory, the judgment on every man that ever has lived or will live, will be made public before the whole universe. Nothing is hidden that shall not be made manifest, nor anything secret that shall not be known and come to light. (Lk 8:17) Even the thoughts and intentions of the heart will be laid bare. All the good and evil done by men, with all their consequences, will be made known(cf Heb 4:12)

Then the wise shall shine brightly like the splendor of the firmament and those who lead the many to justice shall be like the stars forever.

Practically what does all this mean for us?

Before writing about the Antichrist St. Paul wrote, Do not be quickly shaken out of your mind. (2 Th 2:2)

The 1^st reading today gives us one name to call upon in time of distress – St. Michael the Archangel. Of course, Christ is our King and our Savior, but he has given us the Archangel as our special protector in the battle against evil. We should know not just his name, but the meaning of his name: “Who is like God?” Who is like God, the Son of God, who became man for our salvation, was crucified and rose again from the dead? Who is like our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ? St. Michael leads us in the battle against evil by helping us attain an unshakeable faith in Jesus Christ. In the words of St. John, This is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. (1 Jn 5:4-5)

So St. Paul urges us that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of deceitful men, by their craftiness and whiles. Rather, speaking the truth in charity, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ. (Eph 4:14-15)

In a word: Regardless of what is happening in the world and in our lives, the coming of Christ gives urgency to what me must do every day: seek to do the will of God, living in faith, hope, and charity. (cf. 1 Cor 13:13)

Why does God allow the distress? Because suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given us. (Rm 5:3-5)