Various social media posts repeat the story of an asteroid that would crash into Earth on May 6, bringing about the end of the world. Will it really be the end of time? Two priests respond to this concern.
The social media posts refer to asteroid 2009 JF1, which is around 10 meters in diameter.
Despite the fact that various media, including the Spanish newspaper La Razón, took the story as a supposed threat of destruction of our planet, the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), has not warned or communicated some about its alleged dangerousness.
According to NASA, this asteroid has a 0.00074% chance of hitting the earth.
Despite the null scientific evidence of a possible end of the world caused by this asteroid, there are still those who are fascinated by these apocalyptic scenarios, so two priests spoke about it.
Speaking to ACI Prensa, the Dominican priest Fray Nelson Medina, Doctor of Fundamental Theology from the Milltown Institute in Dublin (Ireland), stressed that the fall of this asteroid “is not an event that we should worry about.”
“Rather, what we need to worry about comes from this other question: Why those catastrophe announcements, when the scientific data in no way supports it?”
“What is in the hearts of so many people that makes them so inclined to admit and spread this kind of news? Are there particular interests of people who for pleasure or mental pathology spread, exaggerate, this kind of information?
The priest pointed out that although “I would leave these questions open”, what “does seem important to me is to ask ourselves the other question: In the face of these situations of destruction, what does our faith tell us?”
The Doctor of Fundamental Theology stressed that “our lives are governed by Divine Providence. And this means the Providence of an infinitely wise, infinitely powerful, and infinitely compassionate God.”
“If we want to think about the end of humanity, be it because of an asteroid or for another reason, Christ invites us to a healthy prudence, and a great humility: Nobody knows the day or the hour”, he said.
Fray Nelson highlighted that “that blunt expression of Our Lord must be sustained. Do not diminish it, do not dissolve it, do not twist it. Christ says: neither the day nor the hour is known”.
This, he specified, “is not an invitation to irresponsibility, but it is even less an invitation to panic.”
Furthermore, the priest said, “this has to become a call to our responsibility as believers.”
“If as believers we give it strength, we give wings to doubtful or even false information, not only is the information discredited, and not only are those who spread that information discredited, but faith, faith itself, is discredited.”
“Saying scientifically ridiculous things does a lot of damage to faith, because it presents our faith as the content of minds, of brains that do not understand basic scientific knowledge, or that without any basis deviate from it,” he said.
Brother Nelson recalled that, as “As so many popes have said, faith and reason are both gifts from God.”.
“And, therefore, far from being in conflict, they invite us to recognize the magnificence of the divine work and the imprint of his providence everywhere,” he indicated.
For his part, Fr. Mario Arroyo, Doctor of Philosophy from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome and professor at the Pan-American University in Mexico City, pointed out that people present “a cyclical concern” for “the end of the world and any pretext is sought”.
After highlighting that due to the small dimensions of the asteroid it is an “almost ridiculous” concern, the important thing “is to point out why that concern”.
“First, we are aware of our finitude, our vulnerability, our precariousness, even more so with the recent pandemic we have suffered,” he said.
“But those concerns, however superficial, should lead us to think about the ultimate character of human life. That is indeed the world is going to end, that this world in which we live is not definitive, it is not permanent”, he indicated.
Fr. Arroyo recalled that human beings “are passing through, we are travelers, walkers and this world is also passing through and, as Saint Paul points out, yearns for the manifestation of the children of God. The entire creation is subject to sin and anxiously awaits the liberation of the children of God.
The Mexican priest indicated that for Christians “the thought of the end of the world, rather than terrifying us or producing unnecessary panic, has to make us consider precisely the finitude of our life and make us look up towards the other life, that life that does not pass, that knows no sunset, that knows no end.”
“And for this reason, from these cyclical concerns about the end of the world, we should draw spiritual fruit,” he stressed.
This fruit, he pointed out, can be “realizing that this world is not definitive, that our definitive abode is Heaven, eternal life.”
“We yearn for that end of the world, because we know that Jesus is going to do justice therebecause there God is going to give what they deserve to each one of the people,” he said, pointing out that in addition “we have the certainty that eternal life is a life that does not end and in which there is no pain, there is no disease and there is no death.
“That’s why, rather than being worried about the end of the world, we have to be ready to give reason for our hopeto give reason to God for our life at any time he wants to call us,” he said.