There is no better, more substantial, or more orthodox school than the liturgical time of the Church (i.e., the sacred calendar). The biblical readings, the specific prayers associated with various feasts, the sacred hymns and liturgical colors—everything, in short—invites us to participate through meditation in the perpetual mystagogical school where God Himself seeks to teach us the profound meanings of His mysteries.
One of the most important episodes of the liturgical calendar is the Christmas season, which has just concluded. An article published on his Substack by Dr. Peter Kwasniewski—“Heaven and Earth Shall Pass Away… The circle of time ultimately ends: a lesson from the liturgy”[i]—draws our attention to a highly significant detail: the liturgical calendar ends with an apocalyptic reading (Matthew 24: 13-25) and begins with an apocalyptic reading (Luke 21: 25-33). Just as the proper ad orientem position of the priest during the Holy Liturgy relates to the anticipation of the Second Coming of Christ, which will occur from the East,[ii] the apocalyptic readings orient our minds in the proper direction for reflection and meditation on the great event of the Savior’s First Coming. What these biblical pericopes concretely tell us is that our Christmas meditation should aim toward the end of history, which will be triggered by the Second Coming of the Savior.
When we look at many of today’s churches, we might wonder what remains to be desecrated.
Beyond its unique stylistic qualities, the value of Dr. Kwasniewski’s text—written by an exceptional connoisseur of rites and the Church calendar—lies in his insistence on the antiphons used during these liturgical moments. His statements, related especially to the antiphon for the Benedictus, are so important that I will quote them in full:
“These antiphons, always derived from the day’s Gospel, provide an interpretive key to the Gospel in its entirety. They give us an authoritative angle from which to approach it, a truth we are especially urged to ponder, as we move from Lauds in the early morning to Vespers in the evening. The Benedictus antiphon is stark:
When you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place: let him who reads understand.
This antiphon brings before our eyes the frightening prospect of a massive desecration or desacralization, an emptying or evacuation of the temple, a violation of the innermost precincts of holiness comparable to the violent crime of rape. The abomination in question, whatever it is, is said to stand, as if firmly established, taking possession of the place, imparting to it its own qualities. So horrible is the prospect that the antiphon is not even a grammatically complete sentence: it trails off: When you see this… let the reader understand.”
Although Dr. Kwasniewski does not dwell on the nature of the key figure who will decisively contribute to the establishment of the “abomination of desolation” in the holy place—the Antichrist—he accurately describes the devastating liturgical consequences of his actions. The words that best characterize these consequences can only be the most dire: sacrilege and de-sacralization. Without delving further into the author’s interpretation, I leave it to you to read and uncover all the nuances of his argumentation.
For my part, however, Dr. Kwasniewski’s article drew my attention to the fact that what he so aptly calls “the mind of the Church” invites us to meditate at the beginning and end of the liturgical year not only on the cosmic event that will mark the end of history but also on its principal sign—the manifestation of the Antichrist—that will precede it. This is the key found in the Antiphon for the Benedictus.
Considering how the Liturgy of the Ages was destroyed (“the old building was demolished, and another was built,” as Joseph Ratzinger said), how could sacred architecture and religious art be desecrated even further?
Unlike Saint Augustine, who considered it impossible to recognize the Antichrist—since doing so would imply an approximate determination of the timing of the Savior’s Second Coming, a knowledge reserved for God alone—the Church not only asserts that the last Christians will be able to discern this but also identifies (in its famous Roman Catechism) the key signs that will allow the recognition of the imminence of the end:
“The Sacred Scriptures inform us that the general judgment will be preceded by these three principal signs: the preaching of the Gospel throughout the world, a falling away from the faith, and the coming of Antichrist. This gospel of the kingdom, says our Lord, shall be preached in the whole world, for a testimony to all nations, and then shall the consummation come. The Apostle also admonishes us that we be not seduced by anyone, as if the day of the Lord were at hand; for unless there comes a revolt first, and the man of sin be revealed, the judgement will not come.”[iii]
In addition to the Roman Catechism, where I learned about the three main signs of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, we also have access to liturgical books that often provide substantial catecheses. For example, the old Latin-Italian Missal, published in 1936 in Turin, offered me a remarkable surprise immediately after I read Dr. Peter Kwasniewski’s article, which I cited at the beginning of my own piece. Thus, on the page of dogmatic (or doctrinal) commentary dedicated to the Feast of Christmas, here is what I read with amazement:
“And the liturgy entrusts to all Christians a role in this divine plan; because, if Jesus came to earth responding to the call of the righteous of the Old Testament, it is in response to the appeal that faithful souls resonate from generation to generation, that He comes ever more into them with His grace during the Christmas festivities; and it is ultimately in response to the invitation of the last Christians, who will be persecuted by the Antichrist at the end of times, that He will hasten His coming to free them.”[iv]
The above quoted commentary is highly significant. It not only shows that, just as the first coming of the Savior was (also) the result of the prayers of the righteous during the Old Testament period, His second coming will (also) be the result of the prayers of the last Christians during the time of the Antichrist. How could they pray with the urgency befitting events of catastrophic proportions if they did not, indeed, recognize the presence of the beast described in the Apocalypse of Saint John, the beast whose number is six-hundred sixty six? And what else could drive the fervent prayers of the last Christians if not the full awareness of the terrible desecration of holy places carried out by the Antichrist?
On the other hand, when we look at many of today’s churches, we might wonder what remains to be desecrated. They no longer reflect a sacred, austere, hierarchical, and truly Christian (i.e., Catholic) vision of art. The canons of sacred architecture have long been abandoned in favor of the most chaotic modernist ideas. It is enough to look at the new altar of Notre-Dame de Paris or the altar of St. Hedwig’s Cathedral in Berlin to immediately realize that they have nothing in common with the Church’s Tradition and the principles of classical Christian art. The only visible elements are the egos of their creators and the iconoclastic tolerance of hierarchs who promote the artistic expressions of authors who lack even the most basic understanding of Christian sacred art.
Considering how the Liturgy of the Ages was destroyed (“the old building was demolished, and another was built,” as Joseph Ratzinger said), how could sacred architecture and religious art be desecrated even further? Given this situation, perhaps we need to recall the prayer conveyed to us in the penultimate verse of Saint John the Theologian’s Apocalypse:
“Veni, Domine Jesu—Come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22: 20).
While we cannot say with certainty that we have recognized the presence of the Antichrist, it seems we can nonetheless acknowledge an unprecedented situation in the Church’s millennia-long history. This very recognition urges us to seek God’s help and intervention with full trust—a thought with which we can begin the new year.
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[i] https://www.traditionsanity.com/p/heaven-and-earth-shall-pass-away [Accessed: 06 January 2025].
[ii] Here is the key verse: “For as lightning cometh out of the east, and appeareth even into the west: so shall the coming of the Son of man be” (Matthew 24: 27).
[iii] Catechism of the Council of Trent for Parish Priests, Translated by John McHugh O.P. and Charles J. Callan O.P., New York, 1923, p. 84.
[iv] Messale Romano, Testo Latino Completo e Traduzione Italiana de. S. Bertola e G. Destefani, Commento di D.G. Lefebvre O.S.B., Disegni di R. de Cramer, Torino, Centro Liturgico di Torino, 1936, p. 122. Published under the coordination of the Archbishop of Turin, M. Card. Fossati, the original text (in Italian) quoted by me reads as follows: “E la liturgia affida a tutti i Cristiani un ufficio in questo disegno divino; perchè, se Gesu è venuto sulla terra rispondendo all chiamata dei giusti dell’Antico Testamento, è rispondendo all’appello che di generazione in generazione fanno risonare le anime fedeli, ch’Egli viene sempre piú in esse con la sua grazia nelle feste di Natale; ed è infine in risposta all’invito degli ultimi cristiani, che saranno perseguitati dallàAnticristo, alla fine dei tempi, che egli affretterà la sua venuta per liberarli.”
