Preparing for, and Fearing Judgement Day

November 30, 2025

Today’s Gospel readings offer us two themes on which I have reflected earlier.  

On the theme of always needing to be ready because Judgement Day will come upon us suddenly, please see  my blog  Do smalls sins really matter 

However, this call to be always ready sometimes creates a 'fear of God'.  In fact, today’s Gospel reading, together with another passage from one of Paul’s letters: ‘’After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever’’ (1 Thessalonians 4:17), have led to a belief in what is called the ‘Rapture’ - i.e. a belief in a sudden taking up into heaven of the faithful ones which would happen at any time that God willed, while the sinners would be left behind.  This belief, found more  often in fundamentalist Christian denominations, and even in many cults, has often led to much ‘fear’, the fear of not being ready when the ‘rapture’ occurs.   As one young women brought up in such a tradition which believed in the rapture wrote:   My childhood and twenties were ruined by this rapture doctrine because I was terrified of being left behind. I would check if my parents were in bed in the middle of the night. I would say the "sinners prayer" many times per day just in case I didn't get it right. This rapture doctrine caused me 30 years of mental illness, scrupulosity (religious-themed OCD), depression, and anxiety.  

While the Catholic Church does not officially subscribe to this ‘rapture' interpretation of these passages, there is no doubt that many Catholics have been taught to live in fear of God's judgement.  In this context please read my two blogs on the 'fear of God'.  Do we need to be a God-fearing people  and   Should we fear God

First Reading: Isaiah: 2:1-5

The word that Isaiah son of Amos saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it.
Many peoples shall come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways, and that we may walk in his paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation;  neither shall they learn war any more.

 

O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!

 Second Reading:  Romans 13:11-14

Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is already the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone; the day is near. Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light;  let us walk decently as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in illicit sex and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy.  Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Gospel: Mathew 24:37-44

For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.  For as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark,  and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so, too, will be the coming of the Son of Man.  Then two will be in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left.  Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken, and one will be left.  Keep awake, therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.  But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.  Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.