Millenarianism and Prophecy (part 1)

19 January 1999 09:09

Following on from the 1996 talk by Fr. Gobbi which has just been forwarded to this list, it seems appropriate to forward also this article, dealing with the same topics, written by Fr. “X” back in 1994. As with the Fr. Gobbi item, it will be sent in three separate instalments over the next few days.


MILLENARIANISM AND PROPHECY:
REVELATION 20: 1-14 REVISITED
Rev. James M. Fannan, PIME

INTRODUCTION

The origin of this all too brief look at the problem outlined in the title arose from many personal conversations and almost eight years of study of the writings of a now well-known personality in the world of ecumenism, Vassula Ryden. I was the first priest to oppose strenuously the writings of Vassula, now published as True Life in God. I saw them in their unpublished form when she presented them to me in 1986 as “messages from Jesus”.

Chief among the things that brought me to realize my error in rejecting her yet unpublished writing in 1986, besides the grace of God, was my gradual recognition of their profound fidelity to the apostolic teaching. By that I mean that the contents correspond to what I already knew at the time to be the teaching of the Church. As time went on, however, I began to discover that often things in her writings which were fresh insights for me, were in fact reminders of things that are found in the early writings of the Church. More and more, in examining her writings, I recognized for the first time certain classical teachings of the Fathers of the Church or the Scriptures themselves, that had escaped my attention till then.

One of the most impressive examples of this for me has been her teaching on the imminent “reign” of Christ. The more I research the Fathers of the

Church, the more I realize that an important doctrine has not just been gathering dust, for most of us it has been completely buried, and it is Vassula’s messages and those of other recent mystics that are now bringing it once again to light.

My research on what the Fathers had to say about the coming reign of Christ was brought about by a criticism of Vassula, which accused her of the “heresy” of millenarianism. In trying to formulate a response, I discovered how little contemporary writers have seriously studied the patristic teaching in this area. It is through Vassula that I discovered what the Fathers had said. Moreover, Vassula’s writings are also an important clarification and elucidation of the true nature of this event which is coming “soon”.

Reflecting on my own experience, I can now say that like almost everyone else, priest or layman, I grew up with an overly simplified notion of eschatology. Like most other people, I thought that after Pentecost Sunday, we were simply to struggle and wait till the end of the world; at which time Jesus would come and bring all to an end with the Last Judgement.

Fatima

I suppose that the promises of Our Lady at Fatima should have made me realize that something quite extraordinary must await us in the future before the Last Judgement. In fact, at Fatima in 1917, Our Lady promised that after the conversion of Russia, the world would be granted a certain “period of peace” and the “triumph of Her Immaculate Heart”. I should have reflected more on what Our Lady’s promise implied.

Anyone who takes seriously the promises at Fatima, and the Church certainly does, should today ask the question: how can there be peace unless the very hearts of people change? How can the hearts of people change without a most special grace of God?

This question becomes all the more urgent in the light of the proliferation of nuclear weapons and the catastrophic decline in public and private morals that we are witnessing today.

It was my studies of Vassula’s writings that produced in me an effect similar to the disciples on the road to Emmaus as Jesus explained the meaning of the Scriptures to them. It wasn’t that I had never heard these Scriptures; I had never really understood them.

This is also the situation of contemporary Catholic biblical scholarship which is often totally out of touch with contemporary mystical developments and the supernatural messages that are being received by people like Vassula: we need someone to remove the veil that has darkened our understanding of these very earth shaking teachings of the Apostles. Providentially, God is helping us just now when all of these predictions take on a new urgency and are beginning to come true.

The Reign of Christ

Probably the best way to start the section is with a rather long quote from the Book of Revelation.

The Book of Revelation (19: 11 – 20 : 14) contains a narrative that perplexed the early Church Fathers and has been glossed over in more recent times. Ask almost any clergyman what the Fathers of the Church had to say about this passage, and you will immediately find that the whole topic has been undeservedly put to one side, and yet in fact we are speaking of a major moment in salvation history.

In this passage one immediately notes, among other things, that there clearly is a reference to a “first resurrection” which occurs before a reign of one thousand years by Christ. What are we to think of such a thing? In fact, the Book of Revelation is so full of mysterious passages, that by the time a student or even a scholar comes to this point, he has already had to scratch his head and wonder about much that he has read in the preceding pages. Though various authors claim to have solved these puzzles, they fail to agree among themselves. Thus, the mystery remains.

The reason for puzzlement here is that we tend mistakenly to think that we already know all the major events of salvation history that are yet to come. We mistakenly believe that the only thing that remains is the Last Judgement, which will take place at the end of the world. That is why we try to “squeeze” all these events into that perspective.

However, this view seems to be mistaken, and a careful reading of the Bible points to something wonderful that many in the early Church were already aware of but that we contemporary Christians have been ignoring: a coming reign of grace and truth which the Apocalypse called the reign of Jesus, and Our Lady of Fatima called an era of peace and the triumph of Her Immaculate Heart.

to be continued……..