[24] "But in those days after that tribulation the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, [25] and the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. [26] And then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in the clouds' with great power and glory, [27] and then he will send out the angels and gather (his) elect from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of the sky.
(CCC 675) Before Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers (Cf. Lk 18:8; Mt 24:12). The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth (Cf. Lk 21:12; Jn 15:19-20) will unveil the "mystery of iniquity" in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh (Cf. 2 Th 2:4-12; 1 Th 5:2-3; 2 Jn 7; 1 Jn 2:18, 22).
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