The End vs CARPE DIEM: Jesus' apocalyptic stories

Yesterday at Mass, we heard the Gospel about the end times coming. But when?? Well, that part we don't know... "But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." (Mark 13:32) 

Jesus doesn’t give us apocalyptic stories to scare us. He also doesn't tell them to us so that we spend our time trying to predict when He’s coming back… He tells us these stories so that we live everyday to be the person that we've always wanted to be. 

Fr. Mitch celebrated the 9 pm mass that I went to at St. Lawrence last night. His homily really hit me: “When Jesus goes apocalyptic, He is not just forwarding the apocalyptic story. He is fulfilling the story.  Jesus is the apocalypse.  He is the unveiling of all things as they really are... There is a point of no return for each one of us, a point where we either become the person we always wanted to become or we don't.”

In Jesus Christ, we are able to see ourselves how we REALLY are. And there is that point of no return. When we've done what we've done, and that's that. 

You know those things in life where we always say, "Yes. I'm totally doing this! ... tomorrow." What if there was no tomorrow? What if today was it? What would you do today? 

Carpe Diem. It means "seize the day." It's the idea that “Hey, TODAY is the day. Not tomorrow. Not two and a half weeks. Not 7 months. TODAY.” And finally getting down to actually becoming the person you’ve always wanted to be. As Pope John Paul II said it: "The future starts today, not tomorrow."

Today is your day. 

If you need to forgive someone, do it.

If you need to call someone and tell them you love them, do it.

If you need to reach out to someone to repair are fading friendship, do it. 

It's all up to you. 

Bob Goff, author of Love Does, put it perfectly: "Each of us gets to decide every time whether to lean in or step back—to say yes, ignore it, or tell God why he has the wrong person." God definitely doesn't have the wrong person... He wants you. He wants you and I to be the people that he created us to be. To say yes and become the person that we've always wanted to be. 

“Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.” –St. Catherine of Siena. Let’s freaking set this world ABLAZE. Can you imagine how awesome it would be if Christ came back here to a flaming earth (in a good way!). If every single person here accepted the mission given to them by Christ, He would come back and this place would be like a huge Easy Bake oven that went up in flames…

So, hey, we’re here. Let's live everyday like it could be our last, and become the people that we've always wanted to be. 

Carpe Diem.