Prepare ~ Part Two of Two
May 25, 2025
Jesus Christ: Yesterday, Today, and Forever~
This pastor’s column was supposed to be a two pager but when I went to write it last week it was moving toward four pages, so I decided to break it into two parts. This is the second part of the one same message, the first part being on Peace. If you’re going to read this, then for context, you need to read the one on Peace. If you did not read it last week, you can access it on Holy Redeemer’s website under the resources tab or here www.holyredeemervan.org/pastor-columns.
Jesus wants us to know the signs of the times and to be prepared for what naturally follows. “When you see a cloud looming up in the west you say at once that rain is coming, and so it does. And when the wind is from the south you say it will be hot, and so it is. Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the face of the earth and the sky. How is it you do not know how to interpret these times?” (Lk 12:5-56); and “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees; as soon as they come out in leaf, you see for yourselves and know that the summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near” (Lk 21:29-31). What are the signs of the times for us today? That’s as easy as noticing the weather. Here are a few egregious examples:
1. Abortion is legal throughout the world, and through it we murder millions of babies every year—and proudly so!
2. We celebrate sexual depravity, through ubiquitous pornography, fornication, adultery, sodomy, and enshrining sodomitical relationships into law as “marriage.”
3. Popular opinion no longer knows the difference between males and females and thinks gender can be changed; just ask Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Parents and the state mutilate children to maintain this lie.
4. And of course we can’t seem to count anymore, hence global debt is at $100 trillion and rising. Once that Ponzi scheme collapses, so will the world’s economy—for good.
The world we live in now rejects God, His Truth, and laws, going so far as to reject reality itself. We celebrate evil, call them rights, and proudly enshrine them into law. Naturally, God is greatly offended and frightened for our salvation, and because He is so loving, He will not allow us to indulge in grave evil indefinitely. Let’s not forget what He did to the world at the time of Noah, or the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah at the time of Abraham (Gn. 6:5-7:24 & Gn. 18:1-19:29). That same God is still calling the shots, and our sins today are no less serious than their sins thousands of years ago. In fact, we are more accountable for our sins than they were, for we have the Ten Commandments, the Bible, Jesus Christ, and the Church with her sacraments. The people at the time of Noah and Abraham didn’t have any of this and God still chastised them, for they disobeyed what they knew by instinct to be true in their nature. If people with far less culpability, and possibly less sin, were chastised by God, then we will be too.
Jesus returned from the dead to save sinners, not destroy, “For I have not come to condemn the world but to save the world” (Jn 12:47). To be saved though we need Jesus and to obey His commandments. If we want to have peace we need Jesus, to obey His commandments, and to be prepared for what is coming. What is coming? Here are some likely things in the next few years:
1. World War III – Any one of these powder kegs could set it off: Iran and North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs, Russia/Ukraine, China/Taiwan, India/Pakistan, and all the countries that would be drawn into a regional war until it was global. Once a country uses a single nuclear weapon, it creates the license and the justification for other countries to use theirs.
2. Another global pandemic – The next one being far more serious than we made Covid-19 out to be.
3. Global power outage – Last month Spain and Portugal (Iberian Peninsula) had a power outage. Imagine what that would do to America? The banks losing your accounts, the internet down, food not being delivered to stores, utilities going down, no drinking water? Imagine how long it would take to recover? In 1859 a massive solar flare spewed electrified gas and subatomic particles toward Earth, wreaking havoc on telegraph networks. That event is called the Carrington Event, and it will happen again. Imagine all the world’s circuits short-circuiting and the satellites orbiting earth going dark. Everything with an electrical circuit would go out, lights, cars, refrigerators, phones, internet, et-cetera. It would take years to rebuild and replace all the world’s circuits and to put new satellites in space. That power outage could be man-made too; an act of sabotage or nuclear war could bring about a global power outage.
4. Any manner of massive natural disasters – earthquakes, floods, draught, volcanos, et-cetera.
5. Any of the above events, even supernatural, could bring about a global economic collapse – a collapse that America’s public and private debt would prevent us from recovering from in our lifetimes.
What can we do?
Be a saint. The saints did not let the cares of the world worry them. God was always and everywhere enough for them and more. They led a life of daily prayer, strove to be virtuous, and avoided mortal sin. Consequently, they could be led into the arena to face lions and be at peace. If we want peace, then we need Jesus.
Physically speaking, there is something we can do, and do now, and this is important. Prepare Materially. Prepare the following simple things and you’ll have a base level of peace. Being just a little bit ready goes a long way for peace of mind and Jesus wants us to have peace of mind.
1. I’ve heard it said that within two weeks emergency services should be arriving after a major event. So, prepare for two weeks of going-it alone without power, lights, internet, or information.
2. Almost everyone already has two weeks of food in their home (refrigerator, freezer, cupboards, pantry, garage). Drinking water is another thing. Very few households have two weeks of drinking water on hand. Please store two weeks of drinking water.
3. Candles, lamps, and flashlights.
4. Get a “how-to” book on how to feed yourself and provide for basic needs. Not a “prepper” book to outlast something, but a book on how to live as people did two hundred years ago (growing food, heating your home, et-cetera) because that’s closer to what we’ll be living in the new age to come.
5. Prepare to educate your children and the children of most parents who cannot or will not educate their children. Covid-19 school closures were devastating for our kids. They simply lost two years of schooling and socialization. Don’t accept that next time around. Some version of homeschooling or tutoring was the norm until the 19th Century. Historically, adults who could, would teach kids whose parents couldn’t.
6. Finally, prepare to help others too. When things start getting bad, we’ll need to pull together not apart. As Christians, Christ expects us to help others, “What you did for the least of my brothers you did for me.”
Is there any good news in all of this? Absolutely.
What follows the coming chastisement is a profoundly holier world; a time holier than any other in the Catholic Church’s 2000-year history; a time when confusion, division, and apathy in the Catholic Church ends; a time when all Christians return to the one Church Christ established with His Apostles, the Catholic (Universal) Church; a time when the whole world becomes Catholic; a time when evil is rightly condemned and illegalized. No one today is advocating for a return to slavery. Imagine a day when no one is advocating for, let alone legalizing, nuclear weapons, pornography, fornication, contraception, abortion, divorce, adultery, sodomy, homosexuality, transgenderism, or work on Sundays. Imagine an abundance of priestly and religious vocations, and the opening of innumerable parishes where the vast majority of Americans attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of obligation. Simply put, imagine the conversion of the world to Jesus Christ.
We won’t get there with the status quo, so God is going to change the status quo. I wish it didn’t involve surgery (chastisement) but without it the patient dies. With it, the patient can be healthier than ever. Much of what we insist is okay today, and always will be, isn’t okay and won’t always be. Instead, much better things are coming, but first we have to pass through a period of tremendous testing. So, prepare spiritually and if only a little tiny bit, materially. Then be at peace.
I Truly Love You,
Father Thomas Nathe
