Why I DON'T Expect the World to End Tomorrow!

I hate to get caught up in silly news that journalists and broadcasters occasionally decide we need to hear... like last week's quirky story about a group (from California, I think) who had gathered in Washington DC to await the end of the world on May 21, 2011. (From this November 2010 New York Times report, I see the story has been in the news a little longer than that!)

(If you've missed it, consider yourself lucky!)

Terry - who follows the news more carefully than I do - informed me that this is their second try at predicting the end of the world... The first time they were (obviously) unsuccessful. But this time they believe that they have the numbers just right!

It bothers me because - as a Christian - when a group calling themselves Christian goes out on a limb like this, it makes the rest of us look pretty silly, too.

It is normal for people to be curious about the end of the world... I mean, life on our planet must have begun at some point, so it's not unfathomable that it will someday end. Scientists have made predictions... Christianity also has its point of view, based on the words of Jesus, who very clearly stated:

• First that the end will come like a thief in the night - nobody will expect it.
  
• And when his disciples specifically asked when these things will happen, he said that Nobody knows - except God the Father. NOBODY!

Not even this group of religious numerologists from California... or the young man who went into a cave near Jerusalem when I was living there... So certain was he that the end was near, that he took no food or water with him. He waited... and died of starvation waiting! The end came for him - but what a waste of religious fervor!

I admit, it is hard living your life as if TODAY could be the last day - EVERY DAY of your life! But it's a tension that is part of life, whether a person is religious or not.

Fifteen hundred years ago, St. Benedict told his monastic flock: Day by day, remind yourself that you are going to die. Hour by hour keep careful watch over all you do, aware that God's gaze is upon you, wherever you may be. (RB 4:46-49)

I tend to think of statements like this as hyperbole - exaggeration, to make a point. I find it very hard to constantly reflect on my mortality. So I view at the situation (not surprisingly) as a TEACHER... Remember the teacher who tells the class at the beginning of the term, I give pop-quizzes every now and then, without advance notice... So be ready...

The wise student reviews his or her notes every evening - and again on the weekend - just to be on the safe side... Then, if a pop-quiz is announced, this student smiles, knowing all will be well. Learning the subject has become a way of life, day in and day out.

For religious people, preparedness for anything God brings should be part of their spiritual discipline. Because none of us knows what tomorrow may bring!

But when a group calling themselves Christian claims that they know something that Jesus said NOBODY will ever know, I simply walk away...