Latest / The Catholic Current / Are We in the End Times? (Fr. Joseph Gill) 5/19/26

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Are We in the End Times? (Fr. Joseph Gill) 5/19/26 · The Catholic Current

0:00
This is the Catholic Current with Fr. Robert Mottag.
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What would the daily disciplines of a disciple look like?
0:08
Oh, I think the Church has spelled out pretty clearly Word and Sacrament.
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And then this is one area that I still can say that I wish that my Catholic brethren
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could show the zeal that I have seen amongst my Evangelical brethren for the Word of God.
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We still have too many of us who treat the Bible as if it has a sticker on the front that says,
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Don't try this at home.
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Praise be Jesus Christ. This is Fr. Robert Mottag of the Society of Jesus,
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your daily host for the Catholic Current,
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As always, let's start with prayer.
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In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.
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Almighty God, through the intercession of St. Ignatius of Loyola,
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we ask that you pour forth your Holy Spirit upon us,
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a spirit of discernment to hear your voice and obey your command.
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In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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Well, friends, regular listeners to the show know that I often refer to myself on the air
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as a dark, brooding, melancholic Irishman with an apocalyptic imagination.
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And so from time to time, people ask me, say,
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Father, is this the end times? Are these the last days?
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I don't have a short answer to that, but I do like to talk about it
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because there's some illumination there.
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And I happened upon an article recently in Crisis Magazine.
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I said, hey, I think I want to talk to the author about this
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because he's talking about end times and last days.
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And he is a priest of the Diocese of Bridgeport,
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a pastor and a high school chaplain and teacher.
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Father Joseph Gill, welcome to the Catholic Current.
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Thank you. It's an honor to be here.
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I'm looking at your article. It's from April 8th.
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I'm going to link to it in the show notes.
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Are we in the end times?
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And there's a very suggestive image of an hourglass running out of sand.
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What prompted you to write this article?
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Was it a sign in the sky or something else?
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A lot more mundane than that.
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But I will say the article goes all the way back to the days of COVID.
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I wrote this way back when.
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My sister and I were having an online debate about COVID.
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And I was saying that this could be some sort of sign, perhaps,
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because it was such an unprecedented event where the entire world shut down.
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I don't think we've ever had that mystery before.
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And she said, no, no, no.
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There's no use in ever thinking about apocalyptic thinking.
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And so I started to pray about that.
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And it's like, you know, is it is it healthy for a Christian to think about
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where we are in terms of human history,
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where we are in terms of this great larger story that we're all a part of?
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And I realized that, yes, it actually is.
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As Christians, we are called to ask that question.
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In fact, Jesus tells us to be observant of the signs of the times
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and to just be aware of where we are.
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And it doesn't take away from our daily life,
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but actually adds more meaning and purpose to it.
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Well, you know, there is a very great tradition of, you know,
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thinking on the four last things, that's judgment, heaven and hell.
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I mean, I've often said from the pulpit,
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every one of us, regardless of our age, is running out of time and into eternity.
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And history really is going somewhere.
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So it's not a bad thing to think about that.
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But I want to talk about some of the mistakes that people might make,
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because I think some people are paralyzed by fear.
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There can be a sense of, you know, why bother?
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We're all going to die anyway.
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Or there's a sense of, well, if we read the tea leaves just right,
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we can figure out which rainy Wednesday afternoon our Lord is going to come back.
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Can we talk some about different ways of getting it wrong?
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Yeah, absolutely.
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I mean, during my lifetime, I'm 42 years old,
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so I can count at least five times that the world was supposed to end.
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Oh, yeah.
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2000, of course, the Y2K bug, 2012, the Mayan calendar ran out,
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and a few other predictions that had more or less weight to it.
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So Jesus himself says that we know neither the day nor the hour.
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Right.
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And so I think it's a completely fruitless endeavor to try to put a specific day,
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in large part because the end is not a moment but a process.
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Okay, tell us some more about that.
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So one could say, you know, St. John writes in his letters that,
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children, we are in the last days.
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Well, in the sense that when you look at human history as a book,
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you know, and every book has a beginning, a climax, and an end.
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And so the beginning is creation in the fall.
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The climax, the middle, is Christ's birth, death, resurrection,
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to the paschal mystery.
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And then the end is Christ's triumphal return.
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So right now we know we are 2,000 years past the middle,
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which historically is actually as far from Christ as Abraham was from Christ
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prior to the Incarnation.
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It's kind of an interesting thought, right,
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that if Abraham kind of really begins salvation history,
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we're about mirror image of that on the other side of salvation history.
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So, you know, so, I mean, I think we can also look at,
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just even in the last 2,000 years,
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there was a significant major shift in the Renaissance
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because for the first time knowledge was taken off of God
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as the end of knowledge, the end of science and wisdom,
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and instead put on man.
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And taking that, we've really seen over the last 600 years
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kind of the full flourishing of that,
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and to the point where we are here today finding a world where
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26% of people claim to have no religion,
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which is really the first time in human history
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that we've had a thoroughly secular culture
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that's not based on a cultus, a worship religion.
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Right, I think we're in a situation now where things are,
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well, they're certainly strange.
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And I remember during the COVID interruption, you know,
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I was there, these are the last days, you know,
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this is God's, you know, chastisement, et cetera.
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And I said, well, I said, just speaking for myself,
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I don't think God would let me off that easily.
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But I will say this much,
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that this was a time when the thoughts of many
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were being revealed.
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And my goodness, I did not like what I saw
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that was being revealed.
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And so one of the things we have to make clear
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is that the word apocalypse itself means revelation.
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Can you talk some about what is being revealed in time,
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through history, and what it all points to?
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Yeah, I mean, I certainly have seen over the last
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maybe 10 years that the division between good and evil
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is becoming more clear in many respects.
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Right.
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I think, and I'm seeing that in my parish
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and in the school where I teach,
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and a lot of, you know, outlets like the New York Times
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and Washington Post have written articles
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about how Generation Z is embracing faith.
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So you're starting to see a clearer division
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then between those who have faith
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and who are living it passionately,
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and those who have not faith and are living,
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really in a very clear sense, against faith.
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That wasn't necessarily the case 30, 40 years ago
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when you had a lot of baptized Catholics who didn't believe
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and were kind of tangentially, you know, close to the church,
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but whatever, you know, didn't really matter.
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Now I think we are seeing what Simeon prophesied, right?
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That the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed,
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that there's kind of a clear division.
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And Pope Benedict talked about that too,
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when he talked about how the church of the future
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would be smaller and stronger.
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And I think we're seeing that,
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that if you're a Christian in today's society,
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you mean it, you're serious about it.
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Right, I mean, I've said from the pulpit often
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that we are, I think we're on a trajectory
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such that people are going to find out very soon
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that number one, lukewarm Catholicism will not suffice,
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and number two, even lukewarm Catholicism will be too costly.
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That the idea that we can just kind of coast along
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on merely cultural Catholicism,
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that gas tank is empty, that there's no there there anymore.
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And the idea that we can just, you know,
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well, we offer a Mass on Sunday
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because that's where the collection is taken,
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and we're selling anti-hell insurance
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on a weekly subscription.
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That business model is running out.
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So in light of the last things,
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in light of running out of gas for the things that didn't work,
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you're a pastor.
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What do you want people to be thinking about
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in the times that we're in right now?
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And I'm mindful that we've got about three minutes left
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in this segment.
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Well, you know, Father Raniero Cantalamesa,
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now Cardinal Raniero Cantalamesa,
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who's the Pope's papal preacher,
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was once asked the question,
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if you had one word to say to the entire church,
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what would you say?
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And he said, my word would be eternity.
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Eternity, right?
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Just think about your soul more than anything else.
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Think about your soul.
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That's what I would want to try to communicate to my people,
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is that we can trust God because we have an eternal mindset.
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Something that drives me crazy in superhero movies
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is that the entire point of a superhero movie
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is the superheroes trying to save the lives,
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the physical lives of people.
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And a lot of times, as human beings,
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we're so concerned about our physical life.
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We've got to make money so I can have a nice house,
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have food on the table, all of which is good,
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but there's a reason why we should lose that life,
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and that is Jesus Christ.
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And so everything else should be secondary to that reality,
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that our soul will last forever.
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And as you mentioned about the four last things,
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it's so important as Christians to meditate on that
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because it keeps our earthly life in perspective,
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that the stuff we worry about on a day-to-day basis,
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it's very petty compared to what really matters,
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which is our eternal salvation.
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Yes.
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I had a friend who struggles with anxiety,
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and she sent me memes and said,
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99% of the things that I've worried about have never happened.
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See, worry works.
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And when I think of all the things that cause me anxiety
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or things that I broke a sweat over through the years,
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and I'll be signing up for Social Security this year,
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so I've got a lot more in the rearview mirror
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than I do in front of me, at least in terms of this life.
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So many of the things that I thought were so darn important
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just aren't important to me anymore.
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And I think one of the seers of Fatima,
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I think it was young Jacinta who said,
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if people understood how long eternity lasts,
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we would radically change our lives.
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And I say this not for the, you know,
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let's balance pie in the sky when you die with boogeyman stories,
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but rather to say God in his providence
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made us to be immortal creatures.
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And if we cooperate with his grace,
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immortality can be glorious.
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We can share in the divine life.
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We can see the face of God and live or not.
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So the world we live in, the universe we live in,
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is a moral universe where there are real consequences.
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It's the only game in town,
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and the stakes are unimaginably high.
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Please, for the love of God, let's live accordingly.
11:00
Friends, when we come back,
11:01
we're going to continue our conversation with Fr. Joseph Gill.
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We're talking about whether or not we are in the last days.
11:07
Remember, a rallying cry here at the Catholic Courage is
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the love of our neighbor,
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13:26
My guest today is Father Joseph Gill,
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priest of the Diocese of Bridgeport,
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and we're talking about an article he published recently
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in Crisis Magazine asking,
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are we in the end times?
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Father, right before I joined the novitiate,
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there was a book that came out in the late 1980s
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that was popular in evangelical circles,
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and it was called Soothsayers of the Second Advent.
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And this gentleman, who's a Protestant pastor,
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said, look, in 1988,
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the biggest book in the evangelical world
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was called 88 Reasons Why He's Coming Back in 88.
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And it was followed by the even bigger seller in 1989
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called 89 Reasons Why He's Coming Back in 89,
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and presumably the 89th reason was
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because he didn't come back in 88.
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And he said, rightly, this is just embarrassing.
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We shouldn't do that.
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I agree, but is the danger of saying
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nobody knows the day or the hour,
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is an inherent danger to say,
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well, then we won't think about it at all,
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or Christ's reign or Christ's return
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or Christ's completion is so abstract.
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After the Ascension, Christ is just the absentee landlord.
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He'll come back at the end of days to collect the rent,
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but otherwise, we're on our own and there is no urgency.
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Can you draw us kind of a map of the pitfalls
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that should be avoided?
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I think the opposite reaction should be the beneficial one
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to say that because Christ is coming,
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our life has meaning,
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which means that we have to live it for him.
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Of course, in many monastic communities,
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they greet one another with the phrase,
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memento mori, remember your death.
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It's a powerful Christian meditation
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that if you remember, if you keep in mind
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that you will meet Christ someday,
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because that's guaranteed.
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Whether you meet him here on earth when he comes a second time
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or whether you meet him after your death,
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it is guaranteed that you will meet him.
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Part of the genesis of this article
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was me discussing with my sister.
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At the time, she had two kids.
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Now, she's up to four.
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She said, I can't worry about the end times.
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I have kids to take care of.
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I said, well, actually, that should help you.
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That should help you.
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Because we have to remember,
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I think it's Chesterton, correct me if I'm wrong,
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who said that, remember, you've never met a mere mortal.
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That everyone you've ever met-
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C.S. Lewis.
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Is it Lewis?
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Lewis.
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Yeah.
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You've either met somebody who's going to be
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an eternal tragedy or an eternal triumph.
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Right.
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That's a powerful thought.
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You're taking care of your two kids
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and feeding them breakfast, lunch, and dinner,
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realizing that these two kids
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are someday either going to spend eternity with God
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or eternity without God.
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Either they're going to bring about his kingdom
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in a small manner in their own life
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or they're going to destroy his kingdom
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in a small manner in their own life.
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And so thinking about the apocalyptic thought
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is not to discount this life
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and say this life doesn't matter.
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It's actually to imbue this life with meaning.
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Yes.
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Yes.
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Our struggles do help to define us.
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As a Jesuit who takes spiritual warfare seriously,
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we have to acknowledge that we are being contested for.
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I want to talk a little bit about, again,
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the abstraction that our Lord doesn't have
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very much to do with this world anymore
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until the end of days.
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I think that's a mistake.
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Can we talk about Christ reigns now?
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When I first started preaching,
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I talked about Christ crucified and Christ risen.
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Later, I talked about Christ returning, rightly so.
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But Christ reigns now.
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I think we don't know what to do with that truth.
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Why is that?
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I think it's because, first of all,
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we don't see it with our visible eyes.
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We're very much focused on what we can sense.
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Christ himself said,
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the kingdom of God is within you.
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It's not something he says in Matthew's gospel.
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You can't point out and say here it is or there it is
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because what the kingdom of God is
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is when Christ reigns over your life in its entirety.
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He reigns over what you look up on the internet
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and the friendships you have and the jokes you tell
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and the TV shows you watch
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and even in your innermost thoughts.
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It's funny because when I teach in a high school
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and we go through Matthew's gospel
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and I talk about the kingdom of God and say,
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how many of you guys think you're living in Christ's kingdom?
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They say, yes, of course, of course.
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Christ is our king.
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I just ask them,
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is Christ king of your internet history?
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Oh.
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Oh, okay.
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Good for you.
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You get this awkward,
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like, okay, what part of your life
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have you not put under Christ kingship?
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Yeah, it absolutely is.
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It's the here and now.
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It's not something that's in the future,
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but it's invisible because it's primarily interior
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and it's up to us to allow Christ that kingdom ultimately.
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He could take it by force,
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but he doesn't want to.
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He wants to take it by invitation.
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Yes, yes.
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He wants our yes
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and our love is rooted in yes.
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This is where I think we have to refer everything back to Christ.
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I would tell newly married couples from now on,
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you have to judge everything in your life
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by how does this affect my marriage?
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Likewise, I have to take guidance for everything I say or do
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or refrain from saying or doing
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in light of Christ who gives order and meaning
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and value to all of human life.
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He is the logos.
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He is the eternal word of the father.
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We do have times in history
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when we try as a community to live in harmony with Christ.
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Then there are other times as well where we don't do that.
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I like to refer to the French Revolution, 1789,
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where someone said,
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hey, I got a great idea.
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Let's live as if there is no Christ and see what happens.
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Well, 250 years later, a lot of dead bodies, a lot of bad art,
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and here we are.
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What are the practical ways?
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People have to go to work and feed their families
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and school their kids.
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A suffering pastor has to go to another parish finance council meeting.
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How do ordinary people live mindfully the kingship of Christ
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in their own here and now?
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I always tell my parishioners that there are three words
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that can make you a saint.
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The three words are, for you, Jesus.
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Amen.
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If you simply pray that before doing anything,
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then you have sanctified it.
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You've made it holy.
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For you, Jesus.
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For you, Jesus.
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St. Paul tells us to make of our bodies a living sacrifice.
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The challenge with a living sacrifice is that it can crawl off the altar.
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We sometimes don't want to be sacrificed.
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Precisely the sacrifice he asks of us is not something outside of ourselves,
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but our day-to-day ordinary life.
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We just place it before God as an offering and say,
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Lord, this parish finance council is a drag.
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I don't like it.
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It's boring.
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But it's also sanctifying.
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And I offer it to you, Jesus,
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that I may take care of the physical needs of this parish and do it well.
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Anyone should do that with their work of day life.
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Well, yes.
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I mean, suffice to say, I'm not a morning person.
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And in God's providence, I'm supporting a community
20:31
who are very enthusiastic about early morning masses.
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And I think of my friend, Father Charles Murr,
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who said, you know, our Lord gave us the last supper,
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not the first breakfast.
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So I have to kind of force myself to make sure I have an alarm clock
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that doesn't have a snooze button, because that would be the death of me.
20:48
And I make a resolution that, you know,
20:50
I've got to slam my feet on the ground and make a morning offering.
20:55
And so, you know, St. Paul says, whether we live or die,
20:58
we do so as the Lord's.
21:01
And everything can be sacrificed,
21:03
which is to say everything can be sanctified by referring it back to Christ.
21:09
Yes.
21:10
St. Josemaría Escrivá had a great line.
21:13
He said, do you know what the heroic moment of the day is?
21:16
He said, the heroic moment is when your alarm gets off, goes off,
21:19
because that is your first choice of the day.
21:21
Do I get up or do I go back to bed?
21:23
And if you can get up and conquer yourself then,
21:26
then you've made a heroic choice.
21:28
And that puts the rest of your day on a good trajectory.
21:31
So, yeah, that's a powerful moment.
21:33
You know, I think back to my first full day in the novitiate.
21:37
I mean, I arrived at Starfleet Academy in the afternoon.
21:40
And for that day, you're treated like God's gift to the Society of Jesus.
21:44
The next morning, the alarm went off way earlier than what I was used to at that time.
21:51
I'm curious, how early is early for you?
21:53
Well, back then.
21:56
We're talking five, we're talking early?
21:58
No, no, no, no, gosh.
21:59
No, back then I thought I was reaching the pinnacle of sacrifice and mortification.
22:07
I think it was, you know, 630.
22:09
Oh, my goodness.
22:10
Yeah, I know, I know.
22:12
I was young.
22:13
Please don't judge me.
22:14
But, you know, so God help me.
22:17
So I said, you know, if I roll over and go back to sleep,
22:20
I'm going to have to have lunch and then just go home and find another life.
22:25
But if I put my bare feet on the cold floor,
22:28
then I have to hit the ground running and I'm going to stay here forever.
22:31
So I think we have to make a very deliberate choice.
22:36
Am I going to live this day as a servant of Christ?
22:43
And how I answer that question will either invest
22:47
or evacuate meaning in everything that I do.
22:52
Now, I'm saying this from the vantage point of years.
22:55
You work with high school students who, I've been told,
22:59
tend not to take the long view.
23:01
How do you make that work and communicate that to high school students?
23:05
Oh, that is tough because they're very much, yeah, live in the moment,
23:08
just enjoy today.
23:10
And I think it does go back to the idea of eternity.
23:14
But I don't think that's impossible for high school students to realize.
23:17
A powerful moment in my conversion was when I was 14,
23:21
I went to Rome on a pilgrimage.
23:23
And I grew up in a parish where I never once heard a sermon about heaven or hell.
23:28
But going to the Sistine Chapel, everybody kind of ogles at the ceiling.
23:32
The ceiling's kind of all right, I guess.
23:34
I don't know, I could do that.
23:35
But you're looking at a 150-foot wall of Michelangelo's Last Judgment.
23:41
There you see, in invisible form, souls in heaven and souls in hell.
23:45
And that, I remember striking me like,
23:47
whoa, there's only two options at the end of my life.
23:49
And which one am I living for?
23:50
And at that time, it was not heaven.
23:52
So I just think preaching and teaching more about the eternal realities.
23:57
Because I think enough young people realize that their life is full of drama.
24:01
And they're tired of the drama.
24:03
But they don't know anything bigger to live for.
24:05
So just giving them this ultimate mission.
24:07
Because young people are oriented towards mission.
24:09
If they can have a reason to live, a purpose, a burning goal,
24:13
they'll rise to the occasion.
24:14
And that burning goal can be holiness.
24:16
Sure, sure.
24:17
And it's been a commonplace observation that people can endure a lot of different what's
24:24
if they have a why.
24:26
And I think that one of the mistakes in current Christian living and preaching and teaching
24:32
is we haven't given them the why.
24:35
And then I think of St. Paul who said,
24:37
If our hope is for this life only, we are the most pitiable of men.
24:43
And so I think that we have to have a good reason to live, a good reason to die.
24:50
And that this world, as big as it is, cannot contain all the desires of my immortal soul.
24:58
And one of the things that is so captivating and thrilling about the Christian life
25:04
is that I don't have to settle.
25:08
I don't have to settle for toys and trinkets and trophies and passing pleasures
25:15
that I can set my heart on and actually receive the eternal and the immortal.
25:22
Truth with a capital T, Beauty with a capital B, Goodness with a capital G.
25:28
Maybe that's what we can talk about in the next segment.
25:30
Friends, we come back.
25:31
I'm going to continue my conversation with Fr. Joseph Gill.
25:34
He's a priest of the Diocese of Bridgeport.
25:36
We're talking about his recent essay in Crisis Magazine about whether or not we are at the end of days.
25:42
After the broadcast today, go to thestationofthecross.com.
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This is The Catholic Current from the Station of the Cross Catholic Media Network.
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Praised be Jesus Christ.
26:50
This is Fr. Robert McCaig of the Society of Jesus, your daily host for The Catholic Current,
26:54
where we bring Christ to the world and the world to Christ.
26:56
You're listening to us from the Station of the Cross Studios, your local radio station,
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And don't forget to mention the Station of the Cross.
27:23
My guest today is Fr. Joseph Gill.
27:25
He's a priest of the Diocese of Bridgeport.
27:27
We're talking about an article he published recently in Crisis Magazine
27:31
about whether we are in the end of days.
27:34
So Father, if you don't know where you're going, it doesn't matter how you get there.
27:38
We are all destined for eternity.
27:42
The heights that we're called to is to see the face of God and live.
27:46
That doesn't happen by accident.
27:50
But somehow we're caught in a cycle where every funeral is a canonization service.
27:56
We don't pray for the dead.
27:57
We have a celebration of life.
28:00
And I think that's a mistake.
28:01
Let me give you an example.
28:02
I remember talking to a young man who was discussing why he wanted to join the Army.
28:07
And I thought to myself, you know, this guy is a lot younger than I am,
28:10
and he's more overweight than I am, and he's a chain smoker.
28:14
He's going to need to do a little bit of work before he and the Army are going to be a match that works out for each other.
28:24
Can we talk a little bit about we are meant to live and die as saints.
28:30
That doesn't just happen.
28:32
And there are qualifications for sainthood rather than merely than simply being dead.
28:39
Can we talk about what a happy beginning of the end times looks like?
28:45
What does it require?
28:46
You know, I once had a spiritual director say to me that heaven is where God is being enjoyed.
28:52
Oh, I like that.
28:53
That's a lot.
28:54
I thought it was really profound.
28:55
Heaven is where God is being enjoyed.
28:56
Because that means that any time you enjoy the presence of God here on earth, you're already in the foretaste of heaven.
29:01
And I've certainly met people who really it seems that their life is already half in heaven while they're still on this earth, you know.
29:10
And that's a beautiful way to live in that they're so submissive to God's will and so open to it.
29:15
And there's the key, right, is that it's all about him.
29:19
It's he who saves us.
29:20
It's he who redeems us.
29:21
It's his kingdom that has to come.
29:23
So I think the first and foremost is obviously prayer.
29:26
But when we hear prayer, and forgive me, I'm going to – I don't mean to make a Jesuit remark here.
29:34
But I've never been a fan of the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola.
29:39
And the reason why is because it's very formulaic.
29:43
And I guess my spirituality is a little more Franciscan in that I've never been – I've never really encountered Christ through –
29:49
Okay, think of this.
29:50
Now think of that.
29:51
Now think of this.
29:52
Now think of that.
29:53
To me, that has never, for me personally, never helped me encounter Christ.
29:56
But, for example, St. Thomas Aquinas says that God reaches out to us through either truth, beauty, or goodness.
30:02
Right.
30:03
And so for me, I'm very much a beauty guy.
30:05
And so for me, like, last night was a gorgeous, gorgeous evening.
30:09
I took a walk out in nature.
30:10
I went up to this beautiful pinnacle, and I was all alone.
30:13
And for me, that was a really profound encounter with God.
30:16
Just opening my heart, Lord, here I am.
30:18
This is what I'm struggling with.
30:19
This is what I'm grateful for.
30:21
And he met me there in that beauty.
30:23
And so that is when I say prayer, I don't mean necessarily formulaic or reciting words.
30:29
I mean having just that disposition of heart whereby we say, Lord, I'm yours.
30:34
Do with me as you will.
30:35
Right.
30:36
Right.
30:37
I mean, part of – you know, God's really big.
30:40
And he can deal with people in different – with different types of temperaments and dispositions and needs and so on.
30:48
And we discover over time that he really is the full satisfaction of our heart with that reservation.
30:55
You know, I think of C.S. Lewis who said, don't give me a florid list of devotions.
31:03
You know, give me pages from the Summa and tell me the truth.
31:07
And that is something that makes sense to me.
31:11
So when we talk about prayer, can we agree we need not only a prayer time, you know, time for the rosary, for mass, et cetera,
31:21
but we also need a prayer life, a way of practicing the presence of God 24-7.
31:29
Can we talk about that, please?
31:30
Yeah.
31:31
A wise priest once told me, pray as you can, nod as you can't.
31:34
Yes.
31:35
And I think that was also very true, that you find a way that works for you and you do carve out genuine time for prayer.
31:40
But sometimes the best thing is, you know, there's a great theme in our Catholic tradition of practicing the presence of God.
31:47
That if you only have 10 seconds, just simply say, Jesus, I know you're with me, you know, and just be conscious of that reality.
31:54
And that makes everything into a prayer.
31:56
It makes everything into sanctifying.
31:58
Right.
31:59
I mean, God is always present.
32:00
I mean, one of the things that I've learned from St. Ignatius is that God is always at work.
32:06
He's always inviting.
32:09
He's always offering us.
32:12
He's always offering himself to us.
32:15
And there is always a work to be done.
32:19
And this is where, again, turning to St. Ignatius, gratitude is indispensable.
32:25
He said that gratitude is the birth mother of all virtues.
32:29
It is the virtue that is most pleasing to heaven.
32:31
And ingratitude is one of the greatest offenses against heaven.
32:36
And so I've told people in spiritual direction and in confession that if you want to avoid sin, spend a lot of time counting your blessings
32:44
and then looking for opportunities to prove to the Lord that are grateful.
32:48
And if you're doing that, you're going to not have a lot of time and energy from mischief.
32:53
So, yes, we are living in a time of struggle.
32:56
We are certainly mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.
33:00
We are fighting against this present darkness, as St. Paul would say.
33:04
What's the role of gratitude in persevering in this battle?
33:08
Well, that's the great news, right, is that Christ already won.
33:11
What we're about here on this earth is allowing Christ to win in us.
33:16
But we know in the end he wins.
33:19
And that gives us, you know, I actually encounter a lot of people in the confessional who tell me that they feel so much despair at looking at the news.
33:27
And I guess, you know, if you look at it with secular eyes, it can certainly seem that evil is winning.
33:32
But we're not, as Christians, called to look at it with secular eyes.
33:35
Right.
33:36
You know, what we're seeing is the last gasp of a dying empire of Satan.
33:40
Yes.
33:41
And how it's going down under the kingship of Christ.
33:44
And we have to consider what is our role, right?
33:46
I can't control what the president does.
33:48
I can't control what this politician or this, you know, musician does.
33:51
I can't control that.
33:52
I can control my sphere of influence.
33:54
Right.
33:55
And that's what I'm called to.
33:56
And that's what gives me hope.
33:58
And that's, I think, one of the challenges of today's modern world is that we live in a news cycle where we hear all bad news.
34:03
And it's all stuff that we can't do anything about.
34:06
Right, right.
34:07
I don't think we're meant to live that way, are we?
34:10
No.
34:12
No, it definitely drags us down because if you have the eyes to see, there's a lot more good news than bad news.
34:17
And maybe you have to look at it that way and have to seek it out.
34:20
And certainly, you know, I teach a confirmation class.
34:22
We have about 65 kids.
34:24
And, you know, I could focus on the fact that, okay, maybe 40 of them will never come back to church after their confirmation.
34:29
And that would be very depressing.
34:31
But I see God's grace at work within the other 25 in a really powerful way.
34:35
So I choose to focus on that, what God is doing, what he's up to.
34:38
Right.
34:39
I think we have to see, you know, God our Lord is always at work.
34:42
He's always inviting.
34:44
The grace necessary for salvation is always available to us, as St. Ignatius would say.
34:51
And then we also have to attend more closely to what we can actually do and influence.
34:59
I work with a community of religious women, and they're apostolic in their work, but they're monastic in their lives.
35:05
And they said, Father, you know, are we really missing out by not being jacked into the news the way that you are?
35:12
And I said, oh, my God, no, you've definitely chosen the better portion.
35:15
And if ever there was something in the news where I want everyone to run to the chapel for general absolution, I'll ring the bell.
35:21
But short of that, you know, being as well informed as I am is my form of carrying the cross.
35:29
And I don't like it, but there it is.
35:32
So let's focus on what God is doing in our here and now, and let's focus on what we can influence positively.
35:41
So for the folks who've just, they're living regular lives, they're feeding their family, they're going to work, they're paying their bills.
35:50
They can't make a holy hour every day, for example.
35:54
What's best practices for them?
35:57
I think the two for those who can't make the sacraments, obviously, sacraments like the Eucharist are the most valuable ways to pray.
36:03
But if it's not feasible, the rosary and the scriptures are something that we can all do in our own homes.
36:08
Yes. And our lady has asked us, you know, Fatima could be considered perhaps one of the more apocalyptic, if not the most apocalyptic, officially approved vision of Our Lady.
36:18
And that was her great emphasis was pray the rosary, pray it daily.
36:22
And the rosary is extremely powerful because it's really a Christological prayer.
36:26
It uses the words that focus around Jesus Christ through the eyes of Mary.
36:30
And no one loved Christ more than Mary did.
36:33
So it asks Mary's intercession for Christ is in His grace upon the world.
36:37
So the rosary daily and then getting to know Christ in His word.
36:40
So I think everybody can probably spare 10 to 15 minutes, even if you're a busy parent.
36:45
Sure, sure. I think that we have to, we have to be alert.
36:50
And, you know, if you can't get to daily mass, you can still look up the gospel of the day.
36:56
There's any number of little books of daily meditations and so on.
37:00
I think checking in with God every day, having an appointment with God every day is important.
37:08
One of the things I preach very strongly is the urgency of sacramental confession.
37:15
When I was a new priest, I was preaching a parish mission.
37:18
It came time for confession.
37:19
And this woman told to me, she says, you know, Father, I haven't been to confession in 17 years.
37:25
But it's okay because I'm basically a nice person.
37:29
I don't think that's a great standard.
37:31
What do you think?
37:32
I hear that all the time in parish life.
37:34
Yeah, I'm a good person.
37:36
And I say there's a distinction between being good and being holy.
37:39
Because being good means compared to others, you don't commit big sins.
37:43
But being holy means we compare ourselves to Christ.
37:45
And we see that and we've all fallen short of the glory of God.
37:48
Because holiness is Christ living in us.
37:50
Yes, yes.
37:51
And Christ our Lord, as I said, he's always active.
37:55
He is always at work.
37:56
So here's what I say.
37:58
Look, I don't know how you can maintain minimal spiritual hygiene if you're not going to confession at least once a month.
38:09
I think ideally every two weeks.
38:11
More frequently than that, then I think you need to consult with a spiritual director.
38:17
And I don't want people to let calluses grow on their hearts.
38:21
Because that leads to problems.
38:24
Father, we've got about two minutes left here together.
38:26
Can we talk some about the importance of Christian community, Christian fellowship, and Christian friendship for maintaining a faithful Christian life?
38:34
I think that's becoming more and more vital every day.
38:37
The whole article that I wrote about, Are We in the End Times?
38:40
Talks about how there is perhaps a time period right now in the world where there's a new hostility to faith that we've never experienced before.
38:49
Just to faith in general, not even the Christian faith.
38:52
And because of this, we need as Christians to band together.
38:55
I'm a big fan of the book, The Benedict Option by Rod Dreher.
38:59
I'm sure. Yeah, yeah.
39:00
Which really talks about how, I don't think it's possible to change the broader culture and make it a Christian culture.
39:07
I think that's a fruitless endeavor to try to use our efforts to change the broader culture.
39:11
But it's not a fruitless endeavor to make small subcultures that are Christ-centric.
39:16
And find forms that will join you in, whether it's a school or a prayer group or just some sort of organization.
39:22
Could be as loose as you want.
39:24
But that bands together and says, we're all in this and we're all fighting for Christ together.
39:29
Because as we fight against Satan and fight for Christ's kingdom, it's not a fight we can do on our own.
39:34
Because we'll be picked off.
39:35
Right, right.
39:36
There's safety in numbers.
39:37
Yes, indeed.
39:38
Predators always look for the strays.
39:42
They always look for those at the periphery of the herd.
39:46
And so I tell people, get a group of friends together.
39:49
Pray over the upcoming Sunday Scriptures during the week.
39:52
Go to Mass together.
39:53
Go out for coffee and bagels afterwards.
39:55
Talk about the sermon.
39:57
Talk about what God is doing in your life.
39:59
Keep the first Fridays and first Saturdays together.
40:03
This is essential for good spiritual hygiene.
40:06
And our Lord did send us out in two-by-twos, not one-by-one.
40:10
And these are wise lessons to learn.
40:13
Fr. Joseph Gill of the Diocese of Bridgeport, thank you for a fascinating conversation.
40:18
God bless you.
40:19
Good work.
40:20
Glad to have met you today.
40:21
God bless you, too.
40:22
I'm Fr. Robert McTague, your host every day of The Catholic Current.
40:25
It's a timely Tuesday.
40:26
You know what that means?
40:27
You want to stay with us for the rest of the hour?
40:29
Because coming up next, timely thoughts, you and me, reflecting on what we've heard today.
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41:00
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41:01
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41:37
Go to thestationofthecross.com slash askfather and help influence the conversation.
41:50
Praise be Jesus Christ.
41:51
This is Fr. Robert McTague of the Society of Jesus,
41:53
your daily host for The Catholic Current,
41:55
where we bring Christ to the world and the world to Christ.
41:57
You're listening to us from the station of The Cross Studios,
41:59
your local radio station, the iCatholic Radio mobile app,
42:02
where we proclaim the fullness of truth with clarity and charity.
42:06
Here we are on a timely Tuesday, the last segment, you and me.
42:09
You know what that means.
42:10
Usually it's timely thoughts where I reflect on the conversation we just heard
42:15
and relate it to headlines.
42:17
However, we're offering timeless thoughts today rather than timely thoughts.
42:23
Why?
42:24
Because by the time you are listening to this, I will very likely be on the road.
42:29
So this has been recorded somewhat in advance.
42:32
My guest is Fr. Joseph Gill, priest of the Diocese of Bridgeport.
42:36
We're talking about a recent article he published in Crisis Magazine
42:39
about are we in the end times.
42:41
And I was thinking back to a commercial that came out some years ago.
42:45
Maybe if Mr. Engineer is bored, he might want to look for this on YouTube.
42:50
But it was some overnight service.
42:52
It might have been DHL or Federal Express or something like that.
42:56
And it said if this isn't sent out overnight, we're doomed.
43:00
Doomed.
43:02
And I don't want to be that guy.
43:04
I don't want everything to be an occasion of gloom and doom.
43:10
And as we're reflecting on Fr. Gill's article about are we in the end of days,
43:15
I'm looking at a story that I just stumbled upon.
43:20
There is a woman who is a Lutheran minister,
43:24
and she's also running for Congress from the state of Iowa in a toss-up race.
43:29
And she was reflecting on her happy days as a minister in training
43:33
working at a congregation in West Virginia.
43:36
And she was asked to officiate at a Lutheran wedding ceremony for a Satanist couple.
43:45
And she was asked to find the scriptures to preach on.
43:48
And she was flipping through the scriptures,
43:50
wondering if she could find a scripture about Satan so the Satanists can feel at home.
43:56
This was the first wedding that she officiated at.
44:01
And she was talking about how the gentleman of the couple,
44:07
who had a pentagram tattooed on his face,
44:10
and noticed that he was getting teary during the exchange of vows.
44:15
Aww.
44:16
So, if you're a dark-brooding, melancholic Irishman like myself,
44:22
it is easy to riff on, dear God, if we're not in the last days,
44:27
we really need to be, because I don't know how much more of this I can take.
44:31
We can go that route.
44:32
I can sprint down that route effortlessly and set a few world records.
44:38
I've recently been getting feedback from folks that said,
44:40
Father, yes, yes, yes.
44:42
You know, gloom, doom, apocalypse, etc.
44:46
But please, some light, some glimmer of hope,
44:51
some aid in helping us to put one foot in front of the other to get through the day.
44:56
So, yes, I can do that.
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And it needs to be done.
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The most decisive statement in all of human history is this.
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Christ is risen.
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He emerged from the tomb.
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The tomb could not hold him.
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Death could not defeat him.
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Sin, the days of sin are numbered.
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We're all running out of time and into eternity.
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And Christ our Lord offers us everything we need so that as we end our days,
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we can see his face and hear him say,
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Well done, good and faithful servant.
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Now enter into the joy of my Father.
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That is what we are meant for.
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And that glory, that joy, that perfection, that victory becomes the standard
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and measure of everything that we undergo in this life.
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So all the losses and pains we've suffered, and there are many,
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and they're not trivial, are redeemed in this glorious, eternal victory
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should we choose to share that with Christ.
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And all of the happiness and brightness and love that we've experienced so far,
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and those are many and not trivial.
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All of those are perfected in the glory and joy and happiness of heaven.
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So we will not be in this mortal coil forever.
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The world of this present darkness, the world that is in rebellion against Christ,
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that will not last forever.
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And God's justice and God's mercy will fully be revealed.
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And along the way, we can, with God's grace, walk one step after another
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towards the end zone, towards the victory.
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And along the way, we can help others do the same.
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So if your parents, be mindful that you not only have bills to pay
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and diapers to change and meals to prepare and lessons to teach,
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you're also helping to prepare citizens of heaven and helping prepare them for heaven.
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And along the way, the friendships we make, the alliances we form,
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the communities we build, can help all of us, help us to live and die as saints.
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And for the clergy, for my brother priests, especially the pastors,
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those who have the burden of going into the pulpit, I'm mindful of what John Vianney said.
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He said, whether a priest goes to heaven or hell, he will bring a thousand souls with him.
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So friends, please pray for me.
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Please pray for my brother clergy, for we shall face a very terrible and exacting judgment.
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Did we make it easier for people to choose Christ?
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Did we make it easier for people to choose heaven?
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Did we hand on intact the gospel, the deposit of faith,
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and the sacraments that we have received from the bloodstained hands of the martyrs?
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That's among the criteria by which I will be judged.
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Unlike St. Paul, I'm working at my salvation and fear and trembling.
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All that having been said, let's resolve to be happy warriors.
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It's not just a matter of one damn thing after another.
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Fulton Sheen said, let's live the difference between good morning, Lord, and good Lord, morning.
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Let's not face the day as another 24-7 of now what?
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Christ has risen from the dead.
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He is victorious.
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He is eager to share his victory and his joy with us.
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My friends, honestly, I really want to be a hermit.
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I want to spend whatever time I have left in front of the Blessed Sacrament
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praying and reading and writing.
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And I show up every day in front of a microphone and a couple days a week,
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God save us all, in front of a camera,
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not because I want to be noticed or liked,
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but because I want Christ to be known and loved.
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Christ can dry our tears.
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He can heal our wounds.
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He can redeem our pains.
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He can wash away our sin with his own blood.
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He can perfect every joy and bit of happiness.
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We are certainly in the last days because the illusions of the world,
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the flesh, and the devil have been definitively exposed and defeated
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by Christ crucified, by Christ risen,
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by Christ victoriously reigning even now
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and returning to judge the living and the dead and the world by fire.
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Let's be happy warriors in the time we still have left.
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I'm Jesuit Father Robert McTague, your host every day here at The Catholic Current.
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Join us tomorrow for another lively episode of The Catholic Current,
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hot topic, great guests, stimulating conversations.
50:41
What we do here at The Catholic Current and The Station of the Cross
50:44
because, by golly, we are more than merely relevant.
50:49
After the broadcast today, go to thestationofthecross.com,
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get our resources list, download our audio podcast.
50:55
You can find us, follow us on your favorite platform.
50:58
We're at a five-star review.
51:00
We need to attract the attention of the listeners
51:02
so that these conversations get the attention they deserve.
51:04
Take us to your family and friends together.
51:06
We'll take it to the whole world.
51:08
Through the intercession of Our Lady of Mount Carmel,
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we might, God bless you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
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go in peace and please do pray for me for I am a sinner.