It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way–in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. ~ A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens

Someone today experiences their best of times; someone else experiences their worst of times. There are times in my life when I believed I was experiencing either the best or the worst. The factors that determine which is which are many, some obvious, some subtle.

The best days included the day I married and the days when my children were born. The worst days included a couple stays in the hospital and the funerals of loved ones.

But the little question that has been sneaking into my mind of late is whether we are in “the last days,” the time of trial and tribulation before the end of the earth.

There is ample evidence that we are nearing the end:

 The United State no longer has a real border. Anyone and everyone simply walk into the country and signs up for benefits.
 In our major cities crime actually does pay because criminals are seldom caught and are unlikely to be prosecuted.
 We have a significant number of “gender-confused” people who think they might be the opposite sex from how they were born – and doctors ready, able, and willing to give them mass doses of hormones and cut off their genitals.
 We have all but abandoned the Biblical, sacramental, natural law definition of marriage being between one man and one woman.
 Millions of people live a “hook-up” lifestyle, sleeping around, having abortions, suffering from sexual addiction and disease, rejecting all reasonable moral codes.
 We have a President and wide swath of government leaders who lie constantly, using the threat of COVID, climate change, and war to justify ceding the freedom of the people they represent over to an unseen global leadership. (The Catholic Church is doing the same.)
 Russia and Ukraine are at war. Israel and Hamas are at war. Communist China threatens Taiwan. Millions are enslaved in Africa and the Far East.
 In the United States, government is trying to control everything, from what you think, to what you eat, to how often you can flush a toilet.
 You can turn on your computer and watch any sort of violent, sexual perversion the mind of Satan can imagine.
 In short, it seems as if everything that is decent, true, and eternal is being abandoned for the power of pure evil.

Lest we think we are the only ones in history to wonder if humans have reached the end of their rope, let me recall a few groups of people in the past who may have thought the world was coming to an end:

 The residents of Pompei being drenched in volcanic ask.
 The residents of Rome when the city was sacked in 420 by the Visigoths.
 The soldiers collecting the dead and wounded following the Battle of Gettysburg.
 The soldiers in trenches facing a brutal attack during World War I.
 The millions sent to the gas chambers by Hitler.
 The millions sent to the gulag by Stalin.
 The troops landing on Omaha Beach on D-Day.
 The residents of two Japanese Cities destroyed by atomic bombs.
 The tortured soul’s dying in Cambodia’s killing fields.
I could go on, but the point is that there are times when it certainly must seem like the end is near.

Perhaps it is right now. I don’t know and I don’t know anyone who does.

What I do know is it is time for me to repent of my sins and pray as if the end is near. Please do the same. Just in case…