Catholic Christians believe we are living in the end times. But, the day or hour when the Heaven and Earth will pass away, we do not know (Matthew 24:35-36). Only God the Father knows (Acts 1:7).
“The Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:2).
As I read the Early Church Fathers, most believed that Jesus did know the day and hour in His divine nature, but spoke of “ignorance” relative to His human nature, as a teaching device, or simply withholding of information for their own good.
Theophylact of Ochrid (1107 AD): “Here He teaches the disciples not to seek to know things that exceed human knowledge. By saying, ‘not the angels,’ He restrains them from seeking to learn now that which even the angels do not know. By saying, ‘My Father only,’ He also prevents them from seeking to learn thereafter. For if He had said, ‘I know, but I do not wish to tell you,’ they would have been grieved as though He had disdained them. But now by saying, ‘Not even the Son knows, but my Father only,’ He prevents them from asking… to put an end to the desire of the Apostles to know the day and the hour.”
He also draws an analogy of a child who want something that his father is holding and the father will playfully hide the object behind his back and pretend like he doesn’t have anything. The child understand that he is not to inquire further about what is not his. And Jesus held something that was not His to give. It belongs to the Father.
St. Jerome (420 AD): “It was not expedient for the Apostles to know, that being in uncertainty of the coming of their Judge, they should live every day as though they were to be judged that day.”
John Chrysostom (407 AD): “He has made our end invisible, so that we might demonstrate clearly our diligence and forethought.”