Homily of St. Gregory the Great: The approach of the judgement

Our Lord and Redeemer, wishing to find us ready, foretells the evils that will come on the world as it grows old, that he may wean our hearts from earthly affections. He makes known to us the great convulsions which will come before the end, that if we will not fear God when we are at peace, at least we may be so impressed by these terrible happenings as to dread his judgement when it is at hand.

A little before the passage which has just been read to you from the Gospel are found these words of our Lord: Nation will rise in arms against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes in this region or that, and plagues and famines* After a few more verses come the words you have just heard: The sun and  the moon and the stars will give portents, and on earth the nations will  be in distress, bewildered by the roaring of the sea and of its waves. Some of these things, indeed, have already come to pass; others, we fear, are not far off. In these our days we see nation rise against nation, and their distress over all the earth, more than ever we read of in books. You know also how often we have heard of earthquakes overwhelming countless cities in other parts of the world. We ourselves suffer pestilences without end.

When all this begins, look up, and lift up your heads; it means that the time draws near for your deliverance. He who is the Truth warns his elect very clearly by these words: when calamities are multiplied in the world, when the disturbances of the laws of nature foretell the fearful judgement to come, he bids them lift up their heads, that is, rejoice, for while the world for which they have no love is coming to the end, the deliverance that they have sought will approach. In holy scripture the word "head" often means the mind, for the head governs the members, and likewise the mind orders the thoughts. To lift up the head means, then, to raise the soul to the joys of heaven. Those who love the Lord are invited to draw joy and gaiety from the end of the world, for at this moment they will find him whom they love, while that which they have not loved will disappear.