Going eschatological

WE have to be familiar with this term, and more importantly, we need

to develop its appropriate sense. It’s a necessity in our life, since

it gives a bigger, if not complete picture of our life. It enables us

to go beyond the here and now to enter into the world beyond death.

Eschatology is that part of theology concerned with death, judgment

and the final destination of the soul and humanity itself, that is,

heaven or hell, or the so-called the Last Things. It may sound scary

at first, but it actually is very helpful. We just have to make the

necessary adjustments in our attitude toward it.

So, it’s a part of theology and not a merely empirical science. We

need to have inputs of faith which actually play a directing role in

the study. We cannot simply rely on so-called observable data,

material or sociological, that by definition cannot fathom the

spiritual and supernatural dimensions of our life.

References to this concern in the Bible are many. Among them is the

parable about the rich man and the poor man, Lazarus, recorded in

gospel of St. Luke (16,19-31).

It shows us that how we live our earthly life has eternal effects on

our afterlife. We have to learn how to life our earthly with the view

of our eternal and supernatural destination.

This concern is expressed in one of the prayers during Lent: “You have

given your children a sacred time for the renewing and purifying of

their hearts, so that freed from disordered affections, they may so

deal with the things of this passing world as to hold rather to the

things that eternally endure.”

That’s the challenge we have—how to be renewed and purified of earthly

attachments so that we can see and prepare ourselves appropriately for

our eternal life, hopefully in heaven. We need to learn how to relate

what we are having and doing now with our eternal destination.

At the moment, we are afraid of death and we refuse to consider the

importance that the considerations of judgment, heaven and hell have

on us. We get so attached to the here and now that we become blind to

our life beyond.

It’s a challenge that definitely invites us to live by faith, hope and

charity, the theological virtues or gifts that God gives us so we can

have basis for making our earthly affairs, our temporal concerns

acquire an eternal, supernatural value.

These virtues are God’s ways of sharing what he has with us, such that

what takes place in our life can actually participate in the life of

God in whose image and likeness we are.

This ideal of a life of faith, hope and charity is made available to

us through Christ who is the Son of God who became man, and who

continues to be with us till the end of time through the Church in its

doctrine, sacraments and hierarchy.

We need to see these linkages clearly to realize more deeply that

being with God even now or being able to relate our here and now with

eternity, etc., is possible, and in fact is made available to us if

only we know how to avail ourselves of it.

In other words, we need to learn how to pray, study and assimilate the

teachings of Christ, now transmitted to us through the doctrine of the

Church, then avail of the sacraments, and make ourselves faithful and

obedient subjects of the hierarchy of the Church, in order to have

this eschatological sense.

In other words, we need to sanctify ourselves daily, making use of the

means made available to us and the events of the day to have a

personal and collective encounter with God.

We need to see things at this level. Our usual problem is that we tend

to keep ourselves at the low and shallow levels, and we hardly make

any effort to extricate ourselves from that predicament, if ever in

the first place we consider such situation a predicament.

We need to pray and meditate a lot, to be able to fathom the richness

of the means—doctrine, sacraments, hierarchy—given to us to enter the

spiritual and supernatural reality.

Many times, we prefer to get entangled with the human imperfections

that also accompany these means. We like to find fault, rather than

focus on the real substance that these means offer.

Another helpful exercise in this regard is to make daily examinations

of conscience where we can see more clearly if we are on the right

track.