The Signs of the Times

And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’
You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky,
but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. (Mt. 16:3)

Why would Christ emphasize in our day a doctrine, the Divine Mercy, which has been part of the patrimony of the Faith from the beginning, as well as request new devotional and liturgical expressions of it? In His revelations to St. Faustina Jesus answers this question, connecting it to another doctrine, also sometimes little emphasized though attested in the Nicene Creed, that of His Second Coming.

The Second Coming

In the Gospel, the Lord shows us that His first coming was in humility, as a Servant, to free the world from sin. Yet, He promises to return in glory to judge the world on love, as He makes clear in his discourses on the Kingdom in Matthew chapters 13 and 25. In between these Comings we have the end times or era of the Church, in which the Church ministers reconciliation to the world until the great and terrible Day of the Lord, the Day of Justice. Every Catholic should be familiar with the teaching of the Church on this matter, contained in paragraphs 668 to 679 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Only in the context of public revelation as taught by the Magisterium can we situate the words of private revelation given to Sr. Faustina.

"You will prepare the world for My final coming." (Diary 429)
"Speak to the world about My mercy ... It is a sign for the end times. After it will come the Day of Justice. While there is still time, let them have recourse to the fountain of My mercy." (Diary 848)
"Tell souls about this great mercy of Mine, because the awful day, the day of My justice, is near." (Diary 965).
"I am prolonging the time of mercy for the sake of sinners. But woe to them if they do not recognize this time of My visitation." (Diary 1160)
"Before the Day of Justice, I am sending the Day of Mercy." (Diary 1588)
"He who refuses to pass through the door of My mercy must pass through the door of My justice." (Diary 1146).

In addition to these words of Our Lord Sr. Faustina gives us the Words of the Mother of Mercy, the Blessed Virgin,

"You have to speak to the world about His great mercy and prepare the world for the Second Coming of Him who will come, not as a merciful Savior, but as a just Judge. Oh how terrible is that day! Determined is the day of justice, the day of divine wrath. The angels tremble before it. Speak to souls about this great mercy while it is still the time for granting mercy. (Diary 635)."

It is clear that, like the message of Fátima, the urgency here is the urgency of the Gospel, "repent and believe." The exact timing of the Second Coming is the Lord's. Indeed, as the Pope of Fátima also stated, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, there are many events that must come first - the full evangelization of the Gentiles, the conversion of Israel, and the events of the final trial (CCC 668ff). Only then, will the Lord Return for the Resurrection of the Dead, the Last Judgment and the Consummation of All Things.

However, it is also clear that we have reached some critical phase of the End Times that began with the birth of the Church on Pentecost. To this fact, Pope St. John Paul II alluded at the consecration in 1981 of the Shrine of Merciful Love in Collevalenza, Italy, when he noted the "special task" assigned to him by God "in the present situation of man, the Church and the world." In His Encyclical on the Father, Rich in Mercy, he urges us,

"to implore God's mercy for humanity in this hour of history ... to beg for it at this difficult, critical phase of the history of the Church and of the world as we approach the end of the second millennium." (Rich in Mercy 15)

Two decades into the third millennium, that call which began with Our Lady at Fátima in 1917, and was extended by the Lord through St. Faustina in the 1930s, remains clear: pray and make reparation for sinners, and beg mercy for all those who have need of conversion and divine forgiveness.