No End, for now

NO, THE world – as we know it – will not end with the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI.

Notwithstanding lightning striking the cross atop the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica the day His Holiness resigned.

Notwithstanding the coincidental cosmic events of an asteroid on a fly-by rather too proximate to planet Earth, of a meteor exploding over Russia hurting hundreds of people.

As the world did not end on December 21, 2012 with the end of the Mayan calendar, so the world will not end with the renuntiatio of the German Shepherd of the Lord’s Flock.

As the world did not end when Benedict IX resigned in 1045. So colourful is this Benedict who played some game of musical chair with the throne of Peter – reigning as Pope for three non-consecutive terms, and resigning three separate times. Aye, if multiple papal resignations did not end the world, so with this single one.

As the world did not end with the resignation of Celestine V in 1294, after only five months as Pontifex Maximus. Celestine V it was that solemnly decreed papal resignation to be permissible. And set himself up as example, invoking: "The desire for humility, for a purer life, for a stainless conscience, the deficiencies of his own physical strength, his ignorance, the perverseness of the people, his longing for the tranquility of his former life." The pre-Celestine Pietro Angelerio was a monk and a hermit.

Find parallelism there with the scholarly Ratzinger wishing to return to studies, to contemplation, to his books in a cloister behind St. Peter’s.

Celestine V may have indeed served as Benedict’s template.

Before the relics of Celestine V in July 2010, Benedict XVI prayed thus: “So it was Saint Celestine V. He knew how to act according to his conscience, in obedience to God, and therefore without fear and with great courage. Even in difficult moments, as the ones from his brief pontificate, he never feared losing his dignity, knowing that it was full of truth."

As the world did not end when Gregory XII resigned in 1415 to put an end to the Western Schism arising from three claimants to the Seat of Peter: the Roman Pope Gregory XII, the Avignon Antipope Benedict XIII and the Pisan Antipope John XXIII.

Three popes! And the world did not end. So it shall survive the resignation of one!

The antipopes were not considered in the long line of Peter’s successors, hence, we have the Good Pope John XXIII who convened Vatican II in October 1962, over 500 years removed from his antipapal namesake.

So will the world end with the next pope, as believed to be embodied in the “Prophecy of the Popes” attributed to St. Malachy?

In the 1139 prediction of the Irish archbishop canonized in 1190, there would be 112 popes before the Day of Judgment. Benedict XVI is supposedly the 111^th occupant of the papal throne. 

St. Malachy’s prophecy concluded with the cryptic warning: ‘In the extreme persecution of the Holy Roman Church, there will sit…Peter the Roman, who will pasture his sheep in many tribulations: and when these things are finished, the city of seven hills will be destroyed, and the terrible judge will judge his people, The End.”

So what to do?

I remember one time in my infima year in the seminary, we were asked by one of our formators what we would do if the world ended in five minutes.

Most of us answered we would rush to the chapel, go down on our knees and pray most fervently for the salvation of our souls.

One said he would continue what he was doing. His last five minutes would make no difference in his lifetime of 14 years anyway. And it was all up to God to keep him or damn him.

Yeah, why should we be bothered by the end of days when what should concern us is how we live our days.

"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” Thus, Matthew 24:36.

Believe. Live.