Prior to this end there are many terrible things that have been foretold. Many have formed a kind of obsession with the end times and focus all their attention to the great evils that will take place at that time. There is no doubt that it will be a terrible time for the majority of souls because most will be damned. Those who do not love God completely have much to fear. They will be led astray by false prophets and deceived by the anti-Christ. We are informed that almost all men will in that day bow down and worship the anti-Christ as God. This anti-Christ will perform all manner of lying wonders. He will imitate all the miracles that Jesus performed while He was here on earth, except for the restoring of life to the dead.
He (the anti-Christ) will appear to command the weather and storms; he will appear to restore sight to the blind, make the lame walk, etc. Mankind will bow down before him and accept him as God. The believers of the True God will be marginalized or martyred, but for their sake (the elect) the days will be shortened.
Enoch and Elias will return and they will challenge him to raise the dead. We are told that they will be beheaded by the anti-Christ and then Christ will return in all His glory. The entire world that had followed the anti-Christ will now become consumed with fear. They will call out for the mountains and the hills to cover them, but there will be no place to hide. All the dead will rise from their graves.
The damned will rise with all their sins now visible in their bodies. They will be the ugliest and vilest things that man has ever seen. By their very appearance everyone will know that they are among the damned. The Final Judgment will not take but a moment as all will see the sins of men and goodness and justice of God. The foulness of the lives of the damned will be physically seen. They will repulse everyone even themselves. Yet, there will be no escaping from themselves, there will be no alcohol or drugs to numb the senses. These damned men will forever have to live with themselves in this miserable state as well as live with all those like themselves and the devils. They were created to love and be with God and they will know and feel this desire and emptiness in their souls very intensely and for all of eternity. They will forever desire to be with God but will forever hate Him and be repulsed by Him. This unspeakable torment will be much worse than the fires of Hell which we are told is thousands of times more intense than the hottest fires here on earth.
Nothing will be hidden after the General Resurrection. The sins of the damned will be visible and if we could only see them now we would most probably faint away in fear and trembling. The virtues of the faithful, however will be equally visible to all of creation.
The servants of God have sinned and sometimes grievously sinned, but they have repented and have done penance. The scars of their sins will be visible as the wounds of Christ were still visible in His resurrected Body. They will not be signs of their failures but, rather signs of their victories over these falls. The devils and the damned will be eager to point out the failures of the blessed. The angels and saints will also be ready to show that these are not scars for damnation, but badges of honor because they were repented of and amended. The wounds of sin had been shown to the Divine physician and the healing remedies were applied. While the scar remains, it remains now only as a victory of God, and His humble servants, over sin.
As we contemplate the end of the year and the end of the world, may we tremble with fear lest we become complacent and end up among the damned that will tremble when it is too late. May we no longer remain idle, but set about healing our putrid wounds of sin by a true and sincere repentance. In this manner, we can with virtuous humble faith, lift up our eyes to Heaven and longingly sigh along with St. John: 'Come Lord Jesus, Come'.