There has been a bit of internet flutter regarding the rare celestial event of a Tetrad of Blood Moons. In case you have been under a rock these last weeks, the tetrad, or four consecutive and complete lunar eclipses, occurring at approximately six month intervals with each eclipse happening on a major Jewish holy day is seen as a sign by some that big events are in the offing, particularly for Israel.
The general theory goes something like this, when this rare event falls on Jewish holy days, momentous things happen “In 1493, a tetrad occurred while the Jews were being expelled from Spain. Another tetrad occurred in 1949, soon after the state of Israel was founded. The last tetrad happened in 1967, during the Six-Day War between Arabs and Israelis.”
So that is the background. As is usual, there is no shortage of people interpreting the meaning of this event, they range from mild concern to rapture readiness camps and everything in between.
The mainstream press and commentators of various kinds love these types of stories if for no other reasons than it sells copy and gives them a chance to ridicule the rubes who look for such signs.
While I personally do not ascribe much portent to this happening, I would like to remind my fellow Catholics that the ideas represented here are not so far fetched. As faithful Catholics we believe that God has used signs in the heavens to communicate with mankind and we believe He will do it again.
Jesus himself said of his second coming, “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken”
Peter says in Acts “will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.”
And of course, the Birth of Jesus was announced by celestial event. By all indications, since Herod was unaware of the star, the celestial event took some interpretation and faith on the part of the Magi.
God has used celestial signs and God will use celestial signs. I am certainly not saying we should ascribe any particular meaning to this current event, but I won’t make fun of them either. One day, they just might be right.
April 14, 2014 at 5:32 pm
To nitpick a little, I'm not sure the founding of the modern state of Israel or the six-day war were bad things.
April 14, 2014 at 5:36 pm
CLAVDIVS, I agree. Maybe they point to moments of crisis rather than just bad things.
April 14, 2014 at 6:57 pm
Just when I was ready to give up on the spaceship coming from the Planet Goofy to beam me up.
Don't go all Hale-Bopp, Mr. A; Jesus established the Church to work out such matters.
And God bless Israel.
April 14, 2014 at 8:36 pm
What? I mean, what?
April 14, 2014 at 10:03 pm
Hey, just saying what The Voices told me to pass on to you.
April 14, 2014 at 11:19 pm
Pat, Peter was referring to what happened at Pentecost, not the Second Coming.
Jesus said his coming would be like a thief in the night. Thieves don't give any signs of their coming. The stuff Jesus was talking about was what would be happening at hos coming, not before it.
April 15, 2014 at 3:34 am
Certainly is when you think that the Old Covenant is still valid for the modern state of Israel, or that the secular, modern state is the "Israel of God."
April 15, 2014 at 4:11 am
I haven't heard a thing about this, but I'm a grad student so I really do live under the equivalent of a rock. That said, the last tetrad was in 2003-2004 and there are plenty enough of them (they happen in bunches within 250-300 years so there are 17 between 1900 and 2156 but none for almost 400 years before that) that one or two (but not all of them!) will coincide with something important. I know that's not the point your post but it's a useful reminder to people: the future isn't ours to know and God puts plenty enough reminders about our own salvation and those of us around us in clear sight.
April 15, 2014 at 5:09 am
Did I say otherwise? And who cares? My point is that God uses celestial signs.
April 15, 2014 at 5:18 am
Of course God uses the heavens to foretell signs and He told us it would happen again – however, trying to fit these together within the jewish calendar is your typical neocon / protestant / state of Israel / millenarianism / rapture nonsense and should be disregarded. St. Paul said not to regard the old feasts, new moons etc. of the jewish religion. If you're going to connect the dots they should be within Christian framework.
April 15, 2014 at 11:52 am
I saw it, 1am, west coast. It looked like a suspended red/orange ping-pong ball. Didn't look real, rather kind of lifeless. Very creepy! It did not "shine" any light until the shadow of the earth passed. Restoring an extremely bright full moon! Thank God, it was only temporary!
Gives new depth of understanding to the passage. When the moon turns to blood and will no longer give off her light.
April 15, 2014 at 11:59 am
Haaahahaha, awe, that Mack! Just gotta' love em! Must be that peculiar moon! We all get a little moon beamed once in awhile.
April 15, 2014 at 3:30 pm
They weren't bad things; they were utterly tragic. And the results of that tragedy are still with us, as innocent Muslims and Christians are oppressed by these people on a daily basis. The humiliations, the blasphemies against Christian holy sites, the brutality of the occupiers is all there for the world to see. It's sad but there it is.
In such delicate matters it is always important to know both sides of the story. For information on what is really happening over there, google the words of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. You will be, like me, in tears when you hear what he and others have to say. And you will see how mendacious the media and our government is when it comes to the Holy Land.
April 15, 2014 at 3:31 pm
Well said.
April 15, 2014 at 4:04 pm
I didn't say Israel was a utopia, but it's still a much better place for Christians than just about anywhere else in the region.
April 15, 2014 at 5:02 pm
Jesus also said this in the Bible if I am not mistaken. As to the exact day and hour no one knows except the Father. We cannot become superstitious. This goes against the first commandment.
April 15, 2014 at 8:14 pm
With all due respect I'm afraid you would be hard pressed to convince Palestinian Christians of that fact. In the Holy Places Christian prelates are routinely spat upon by the occupiers, the Christian villagers have their olive groves decimated, their homes torn down, their businesses wrecked, their tax revenue withheld, their movements restricted, their people separated by a new Berlin Wall, their women and children arrested, shot and demeaned, etc. The fact remains that these things are done by the illegal Israeli government, and it might be instructive to compare that government's behavior toward its Christians with that of, say, Assad in Syria. They are treated much better under Assad than they are under Netanyahu.
Again, read what the Catholic Patriarchs are saying, and then form your own judgment.