November 23

What I say to you, I say to all: Keep awake” (Mk 13:37). The most appropriate human response to the special relationship of the risen Lord to the time of the world is not to be found in a philosophy or theology of history but in “watchfulness”. If we examine more closely the signs of the end of time as recorded in the New Testament, we find in Mark 13 the following signs that the end is near: the appearance of false Messiahs, a world totally at war, earthquakes, famine, persecution of Christians, and the “abomination of desolation in the holy place”. As a positive inner prerequisite of the end of time Mark mentions the preaching of the Gospel to all peoples (13:10) and the conversion of Israel to Christ as the first intra-historical step toward the end (cf. Rom 9:11). Do such predictions mean that the end of time is “chronologized” after all and is consequently to be regarded as a calculable event that will, however, occur only at a late date in history? If we analyze the various signs more closely, we discover an answer that enables us to recognize more clearly the inner unity of the two aspects of New Testament thought. The first and more obvious group can be summarized as war—catastrophes—persecution of the Faith by the “world”. Two points here call for special comment. First, it is not some outstanding historical ripeness that prepares for the transition to the end; on the contrary, it is the inner decadence of history, its incompetence vis-à-vis God and, paradoxically, its resistance to him that point to the Yes of God. Secondly, even a fleeting glance at the actual state of each succeeding century shows that these “signs” point to the constant state of this world, for the world has always been torn by wars and catastrophes, and nothing encourages us to hope that any form of “peace research” will ever totally eradicate this mark of humanity. That is why every generation is in a position to feel itself addressed by these signs and to refer them precisely to its own age. The signs make it impossible to set a date for the end of time. They do, in fact, relate the end to history, but in such a way that they compel each age to be watchful. They force us to the conviction that the end is always present. The “readiness to expect” is itself something that transforms, and the world is different depending on whether it waits for nothingness or goes out to meet him whom it recognizes by his signs, so that, precisely in the collapse of its own possibilities, it becomes certain of his nearness.

From: Eschatobgie—Tod und ewiges Leben, pp. 161ff

 Ratzinger, J., Co-Workers of the Truth: Meditations for Every Day of the Year (ed. I. Grassl) (San Francisco 1992) 369-371.