The End of Time: A Christian Vision of Hope at the Close of the Liturgical Year

The Last Judgment, fresco by Michelangelo, 1536–41; in the Sistine Chapel, Vatican City.

As the Church approaches the end of another liturgical cycle this Sunday, the readings and prayers are especially put together to draw our hearts toward the profound mystery of the Last Things. Themes of vigilance, judgment, and the coming Kingdom of God dominate the sacred texts proclaimed in our Masses. This is not accidental. The Church, in her wisdom, situates the close of the liturgical year within the horizon of eschatology—the study of the ultimate destiny of the human person and the world. It is precisely in this season that Christians are reminded that history is moving deliberately toward a divinely ordained fulfillment.

Early Christian Expectation and the Thessalonian Question

The fascination with the “End Times” is not a modern phenomenon. From the earliest days of Christianity, believers lived with a heightened expectation of Christ’s imminent return. The Christian communities of Thessalonica, addressed by Saint Paul in his First and Second Letters to the Thessalonians, provide a window into this early eschatological tension. Many of them were convinced that the end of the world was at hand and were deeply concerned about what would happen to those who had died.

Paul responds pastorally and doctrinally: yes, the Lord will indeed return in glory, but the precise moment is unknown and should not be the object of anxious speculation. “The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night” (1 Thess 5:2). Rather than paralyzing fear or frenzied excitement, Paul exhorts the faithful to sober vigilance, moral integrity, and unceasing hope. In this, he establishes the perennial Christian attitude toward the End Times: watchfulness rooted in hope.

The End of the World and the Certainty of Judgment

Although Scripture and Tradition refrain from predicting when the world will end, they firmly teach that it will end—not as a collapse into chaos but as the completion of God’s saving plan. The Catechism reminds us that “the universe itself will be renewed” and brought into perfect harmony under Christ’s reign (cf. CCC 1042–1047). Christians therefore look to the future not with dread but with confident longing for the definitive triumph of divine love.

Yet even as the cosmic end remains a mystery, the Church teaches with absolute clarity the certainty of each person’s particular judgment at the moment of death. This judgment stands as a personal encounter with Christ, who reveals the truth of one’s life, choices, and love. In this sense, the “end of the world” is never completely distant—it begins for each of us when our earthly pilgrimage concludes. The universal and the personal meet in this doctrine: the final judgment of the world mirrors the individual judgment every soul must undergo.

It is for this reason that we can easily answer the often-asked question, “Are we in the End Times?” The answer is yes: in a very real sense, we are always in the End Times. Every moment of our lives unfolds under the horizon of eternity, and every day draws us closer to the definitive encounter with Christ. The End Times are not a distant future event but the ongoing reality of Christian existence—an invitation to live with vigilance, purpose, and hope.

Christian Eschatology versus Doomsday Scenarios

In every age, human imagination is gripped by fears of catastrophic endings—nuclear devastation, climate collapse, meteor impacts, pandemics, and geopolitical turmoil. These secular or scientific doomsday scenarios often envision the end as an accidental, meaningless tragedy brought about by human folly or natural forces.

Christian eschatology, however, stands in marked contrast. The End Times, as understood by the Church, are not the result of random destruction or blind cosmic forces, but the culmination of God’s purposeful and loving plan. History does not drift toward chaos; it moves toward fulfillment. The world will not end because humanity loses control, but because Christ will return to bring creation to its final perfection. This distinguishes Christian hope from secular fear: the Christian does not await annihilation, but consummation. Even the dramatic signs described in Scripture—earthquakes, famine, celestial disturbances—are not to be interpreted as scientific predictions but as biblical symbols pointing to the coming of the Kingdom.

Where secular predictions generate anxiety, Christian eschatology generates hope. Where worldly fears fixate on destruction, the Gospel proclaims renewal. The Christian does not fear the end because He knows Who stands at the end.

The Second Coming and Christ the King

The climax of salvation history will be the glorious Second Coming of Christ, when He will “judge the living and the dead and His kingdom will have no end.” The Church celebrates the Solemnity of Christ the King at the close of the liturgical year precisely to remind the faithful that the kingship of Christ is not merely symbolic or spiritual—it is eschatological. His reign, now present but not yet fully manifested, will be revealed in absolute clarity when He returns.

In a world characterized by instability, conflict, and moral confusion, this feast is a proclamation of hope: Christ will be victorious. Love will be victorious. Truth will be victorious. The end of the liturgical cycle thus mirrors, sacramentally, the destiny of the world—everything begins and ends in Christ.

Eschatology in the Light of Revelation

No biblical book captures the Christian imagination regarding the End Times more than the Book of Revelation. Often misunderstood as a catalogue of apocalyptic predictions, Revelation is, in fact, a liturgical and prophetic vision of God’s ultimate victory over evil. Its imagery—of heavenly worship, cosmic struggle, and the descent of the New Jerusalem—assures the faithful that suffering, persecution, and chaos do not have the final word. The Lamb who was slain is enthroned, and all creation will be renewed in His glory.

Revelation teaches us not how the world will end, but why: because God desires to gather humanity into perfect communion with Himself. Its message is not fear but fidelity; not terror but trust; not speculation but sanctification.

Importantly, Revelation does not predict a nuclear holocaust, a meteor strike, or any catastrophic annihilation of the planet. What it foretells is the end of the world as we know it—a world marked by poverty, injustice, violence, and sin. These realities will pass away as the reign of Christ comes to its fullness. Far from announcing destruction, the Book of Revelation proclaims transformation. The old order of suffering and evil will disappear, giving way to the new creation where “God will wipe every tear from their eyes” and “death shall be no more” (Rev 21:4).

Living in Hope at the End of the Liturgical Year

The Church’s emphasis on the End Times is not morbid curiosity—it is pastoral realism. Human life is brief. Earthly achievements fade. Kingdoms rise and fall. But the Christian’s eyes are fixed on the eternal. The end of the liturgical year invites the faithful to examine their lives under the light of eternity, to reorder priorities, and to renew their commitment to holiness.

The ultimate message of Christian eschatology is Hope. The end of the world is not the end of God’s plan; it is its fulfillment. And every closing liturgical year is a gentle reminder that our own story, and the story of creation itself, is moving toward a glorious conclusion in Jesus Christ, the Alpha and the Omega.