The Antichrists Is Not a Person; It's a System and We Are Already Wrestling In It

A friend asked me not too long ago in our conversation about my favorite part of the Catholic Mass-not the music, not the community it provides, but the moment during the celebration by the priest.

Without hesitation, I answered: the Consecration-and, of course, I added, a good homily.

Yesterday, I was given the latter.

The homily was good-truly good an highly pragmatic. Not because it was comforting or polished, but because it was challenging. It left me with so much to ponder that I carried it with me all day, and I am still in fact, turning it over in my mind today.

That, to me, is the mark of a great homily: when it convicts and doesn’t let you go.

As I was reflecting today, a startling thought came to me:

What if the very system that so many of us feel trapped in-exhausted by, bound by it-is actually the antichrist spoken of in the Book of Revelation? 

Think about it.

Here we are, we live inside this system. We breathe its air, play by its rules, check all its boxes. And yet, at the very same time, we want to live according to the Word of God. Can you feel that tension?

But here’s the tension just in case: Nearly everything the Word teaches is opposed by this system.

Yesterday, Jesus said:“Believe in me.”

Such a simple command....but oh, how hard it is to obey when our jobs demand every ounce of our energies; when our monthly expenses often outrun the income; when everything you love and hold dear begins to fall apart. And more importantly, the flesh total opposed everything because we are humans and we see and feel everything.

All of these forces-the grind, the pressure, the loss-are not neutral.

They simply oppose and that my friends, is the anti-Christ.

They demand more from us than our time or our focus. They demand what belongs to God alone: our ultimate attention, our trust, our worship, our believes.

In essence, everything around us is antithetical to the Gospel.

And yet, here we are-called to wrestle with that reality every single day. Called to remain faithful to Jesus, not in spite of the system, but from within it.

That wrestling-that daily, costly, often lonely fight to believe-might just be the greatest challenge we will ever face as believers in Christ.

Not to escape the world-but to love Jesus more than we love surviving in it.

What do you think? leave me a comment. 

Pal Ronnie