One-hundred and seven years ago on October 13th, 1917 — in a muddy sheep field outside Fátima, Portugal — over 70,000 people had a near-death-experience all at once.

Little Lucia and her two cousins, Jacinta and Francisco had been having monthly encounters with a beautiful lady, clad all in white. When people heard that these three little kids were seeing visions of what could very well be the Virgin Mary herself, there were quite a few different reactions.

Most were skeptical.

Many others were convinced it really was the Mother of God.

Still others were downright hostile — actively mocking and threatening the children from going to visit the Woman again. At one point they were even thrown into jail and told they wouldn’t be let go unless they admitted they were lying to everybody.

But the kids stubbornly and devoutly stuck to their story.

And in response, the Lady told them that on their next meeting — October 13th — there would be a great miracle to prove to everyone that they were telling the truth all along.

So the stage was set — word got around that a miracle was supposedly going to happen — and over 70,000 people showed up that day, the size of an NFL stadium crowd — despite the heavy rains and miserably muddy conditions that day.

And as the story goes, the moment came — when the oldest of the three children, Lucia, suddenly felt compelled to point up at the sky and yell out: “Look at the sun!”

And it was at THAT moment, when over 70,000 people started to have a near-death experience.

The sun apparently began to spin and spiral in the sky. Some reported blindingly radiant flashes of rainbow light erupting out from it — Other reports claim that they saw the sun hurtling down towards the earth… coming nearer and nearer and nearer. 

The scene was apparently total insanity for a solid ten minutes. People were crying. They were confessing their sins out loud. Others were praising God, repenting publicly — ready to meet the Lord. Atheists who came just to make fun of the kids when nothing happened… were stunned… speechless… bewildered… many even converted.

They all literally thought it was the end of the world.

As we know now… it wasn’t the end of the world. 

This was the famous Miracle of the Sun.

But guys…this story teaches us a lesson. Because when it’s the end of the world…or when it seems like the end of the world, then everything becomes very clear very fast.

Good and evil becomes much more black and white.

You realize with eternal undeniable clarity: 

I need to get right with God.

I need to be on His side.

Nothing else matters.

My possessions don’t matter.

My bank account doesn’t matter.

My opinion doesn’t matter.

My politics don’t matter.

There’s no hiding! …No escaping.

No excuses… 

No more putting things off till tomorrow…

All that matters in a supreme and indisputable way when the world is ending… is the Lord.

That’s why near-death experiences are wake-up calls.

People who have had them often radically change their lives because they suddenly are able to see with terrible obviousness what has ALWAYS been the case… but they just couldn’t see it before.

Truths like:

The fact that this life is fragile and precious.

That every single breath, every heartbeat is an undeserved gift.

That nothing can be taken for granted.

That we really are quite small.

And that the world does NOT revolve around “me, myself, and I” …

We can forget that. We can sort of distract ourselves from these facts — we can numb ourselves with work, sports, TV, food, drink, hobbies… with entertainment and the general rat-race of the world, the frantic search for more and more and more… but sooner or later, we will need to come to grips with the reality that nothing matters compared to our relationship with God.

And that’s what this weekend’s gospel is really all about.

You could even say that the man in our gospel had sort of a “near death experience” — even if he perhaps didn’t know it at the time! Because when he meets Jesus… he actually encounters the Living God! — “He who has seen me has seen the Father,” Jesus tells us.

And we know that in the Old Testament, if you saw God… you literally died. As the Book of Exodus put it: “No one can see God and live.”

So little did this man know that he was taking his life into his hands when he approached Jesus! Here was the Son of God — the Lord of Lords. King of Kings… God from God, Light from light! The Holy of holies! If you think about it, it’s actually a miracle that this guy did not spontaneously combust on the spot! (…Which could also be said of us every time we receive Holy Communion!)

And Jesus himself hints at the gravity and the importance of this encounter… The man asks: “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 

A very good question! Maybe the only question that ultimately matters. 

Then Jesus stealthily replies:  “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.”

It’s like he’s asking the man: “So…are you calling me God? Because if so… you would be correct.”

But then Jesus moves on, and he recites the commandments that this man knows very well — that he was raised to follow: 

You shall not kill;
you shall not commit adultery;
you shall not steal;
you shall not bear false witness;
you shall not defraud;
honor your father and your mother.”

And to his great credit, the man replies honestly: “All of these I have observed from my youth.”

The next verse is just amazing. It’s beautiful, but it’s also very challenging:

“Jesus, looking at him, loved him” — He looks at him with so much love… He looks at us… at you… with so much love. So much tenderness. Jesus knows how hard what he is about to say is gonna be for this guy…  and yet he doesn’t pull back:

“You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. 

Then come, follow me.”

At this statement, we read that the man’s face “fell,” and he goes away sad, “for he had many possessions.”

St. Josemaría Escrivá calls him “the sad lad” — “[The Sad Lad] lost his happiness,” Escrivá says, “because he refused to hand over his freedom to God.”

The Sad Lad is still very much attached to the world. He’s still attached to temporary comfort and wealth. He’s still attached to his own will and his own ideas. 

Now, of course, we don’t know exactly what happened to this man. Maybe later on he changed his mind and gave everything up to go follow Jesus. 

But the cold hard fact is:

If the world had ended right after this encounter… this man could very well have been separated from God forever… because of his attachment to riches.

“How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” Jesus says… You can hear the difficulty… the pain in his words…

“How hard it is!” 

How easy it is for us to think that because we have investments and cars and air conditioning and electricity and cell phone service… that we are safe, secure, stable… in control.

And I think that’s why near-death experiences can be so powerful for people — when they have that close shave with total oblivion…when everything spins out of control… or the sun starts spinning in the sky! — it becomes much EASIER to see what’s true, what’s actually at stake.

It’s much easier to be given true WISDOM.

Wisdom, from a Biblical point of view — is not about being smarter or more knowledgeable on a subject. No, it’s a gift of the Holy Spirit. According to St. Thomas Aquinas, wisdom is “the ability to judge and direct human affairs according to divine truth.” It’s that ability to see things from the heavenly perspective.

And from the heavenly perspective, “all gold is a little sand” as our first reading from the book of Wisdom put it… Silver is just mud. Health, beauty, even LIGHT… none of that is to be compared with true wisdom.

In a word: None of that compares to God.

I love that line from our psalm this weekend — Psalm 90: “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain wisdom of heart.”

Teach us to number our days, Lord.

Teach us to recognize that every day is sort of like a near-death experience!

That we are NEVER guaranteed another breath on this planet…

When we number our days… we gain wisdom of heart. We gain that heavenly perspective, and by God’s grace, we can more fully surrender our lives to Him. We can let go of all the stuff we’re attached to… because we can see with greater clarity that only God is truly good.

St. Thérèse of Lisieux once famously said: “The world is your ship — not your home.”

When we number our days… when we know that this world is not forever…that it’s just our ship… the vehicle we are all aboard on our way to eternity — then we can put first things first. 

We make Sunday mass an absolute priority. 

We make time for personal prayer every day. 

We crack open our Bibles and meditate on that Word which is “living and effective… sharper than any two-edged sword”

We do our level best to resist temptation. 

We try to love people like Jesus loves them.

Why?

Because we will start to live like every moment could be our very last. 

And whenever that last moment actually does come, we will find ourselves standing before God. Thankfully, He is a merciful judge — but remember He is in fact… still a Judge. Everything will be known. Every unconfessed, un-repented sin will be seen. Our second reading said it best: “No creature is concealed from him, but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must render an account.”

I’ve heard a lot of people today talking about what some call “The Warning.” Lots of Catholic YouTubers are posting videos about it… so I figured I’d address it here.

The Warning is apparently connected to some of the messages that various saints like Saint Faustina have received over the years, as well as some alleged messages from Our Lady within the last century or so. And the basic idea of “The Warning” is what’s called the “illumination of conscience.” This is when God will give each one of us the grace to see very clearly the true state of our souls. It would not be an experience of fear… but rather a profound experience of the Father’s love. It would be an opportunity for us to repent and say yes to following Jesus. Proponents of the Warning say that all of this would take place some time immediately before Jesus’ Second Coming.

Now, whether or not there will actually be a global event where everyone has this overwhelming interior experience — this “illumination of conscience” where they see their sins plain as day and have a chance to repent of them — I don’t know for sure, and the Church has not definitively taught one way or another on this topic. I recommend not going off the deep end one way or the other.

But what the Catechism and Sacred Scripture DO make very clear is this:

We are already at “the last hour.” “Already the final age of the world is with us, and the renewal of the world is irrevocably under way.” 

A lot of people look around today and perhaps wonder: Could this be the end of the world? What with all the wars, hurricanes, strange cosmological events, the widespread abandonment of God, the growing mental health crisis…

A lot of people are asking: IS THIS IT?

ARE WE LIVING IN THE END TIMES?

And the answer is actually definitely YES.

Ever since Jesus’ Life, Death, and Resurrection, the end of the world really is upon us. The world in its present form is passing away. 

It’s urgently important to repent and believe, to get right with God…to be vigilant. We know neither the day nor the hour. The end could come during this mass! Or it could come 3,000 years from now! It doesn’t matter very much either way — because for us here and now, it’s like we’re having a near-death experience as we speak.

And Jesus is still looking at us with so much love.

So… 

Let’s look right back at Him, and let’s tell Him: 

“Lord, I have so many possessions. And I’m still attached to so many things. I don’t want to walk away from You sad. Help me to trust You. Help me to choose You, prefer You, and love You. Teach me to number my days… that I may gain wisdom of heart. Give me grace to live even now like it really was the end of the world.”