A famous line from the movie “Pacific Rim” is this: “Today, we are canceling the apocalypse.” Would that it would be that easy! Brad Pitt in World War Z speaks about the end of the world in the form of some kind of virus that pits (excuse the pun) humanity against humanity as people are transformed into Zombies. Then, the superheroes like Thor, the man of steel and a host of others reappear on occasion to save the world from whatever may be lurking to bring about its premature demise. Who says we don’t care about the end of the world and who can save us?

However, the language of scripture can lead one to think about the end of the world as have novelists and film producers. “Lo, the day is coming like a blazing oven…”, “the Lord comes to rule the earth…”, “nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom”and “you will be hated by all because of my name.”

Our many natural disasters and tragedies can make us wonder what the end will be like. Especially in these situations or when we have personal crises in our lives, we wonder why this is happening to us, what have we done wrong, why is God punishing us.

First of all, we should not confuse the fictional, natural and supernatural. My first examples from the movies are obviously fictional. Fiction enters the danger zone when the author has mastered the art of making he fictional seems real. About 25 years ago, The Davinci Code illustrated that reality.

Natural disasters occur and have always occurred. We should never imagine God as the chief puppeteer pulling the strings in the background creating these natural disasters. Some may ask: “Why doesn’t God prevent them from happening?” Well, that is almost like asking: “Why doesn’t God prevent me from sinning? Why doesn’t God make me realize how dumb I can be sometimes? Why doesn’t God make me rich?” Even worse: “Why doesn’t God do what I tell him to do?”

The supernatural is real but defies our categories of human thought and understanding. Jesus in the Gospels clearly tells his disciples not to be anxious about loss or suffering. Whenever we need to face a life crisis, he will be with us to guide our understanding and response.

As a Church, November is an interesting month. We began by celebrating All Saints and All souls. The liturgical year ends next week with the celebration of Christ the King. In civil society, we are caught up in preparing for Thanksgiving and Christmas. But, just as the church year comes to an end, in just two weeks we will be lighting the first candle of our Advent wreath, the flicker of flame that reminds us again about the enduring presence of God in our lives.

Prophets of doom predict destruction, turmoil, distress and the collapse of civilization as we know it. Jesus’ prophecy is 100% different. No matter what occurs around us, the essence of Christ and his message must endure in us and must be spread through us. The disciples of Jesus know that crisis is never welcome, but when it happens, crisis can purify and unburden us to start again.

Always, for the true disciple of Jesus, if the end is near, a new beginning is not far away. We pray that the message of Jesus may always propel us, not into oblivion and chaos as is so often portrayed in fiction, but into the reality to which he calls us each day.