Preparing for the end times

THIS is just to be realistic. It’s not meant to scare us or to be a killjoy or a wet blanket in our life. Not only do we all die. There is also the end of time itself. Our earthly existence is just a sojourn, a training and testing ground before we enter into our definitive life for all eternity, hopefully in heaven with our Father and Creator God. 

 We need to develop a good and healthy sense of our life’s end, which is our death that can come to us anytime, as well as the end of time itself. If we follow our Christian faith, we know that there is nothing to be afraid or anxious about in these truths of our faith. 

 We would know what truly is the purpose of our life here and of our earthly existence in general. We also would know that we have all the means to pursue that purpose properly. We are somehow reminded of this truth of our faith in that gospel episode where Christ talked about the end of the world. (cfr. Mk 13,24-32) 

 But, yes, we have to develop a good and healthy sense of how to end our life well, properly prepared to meet Christ in our particular judgment as well as in our general judgment during Christ’s second coming. 

 Having a good sense of the end gives us a global picture of our life that spans from time to eternity, and sheds light on the present. It guides us. It gives us a sense of confidence and security. It reassures us that we are on the right track, that we are doing well. 

 The sense of the end motivates us to make plans always, to be thoughtful and anticipative of things. It also teaches us a sense of order and priority. It motivates us to set goals, make schedules and the prudent use of time. Ultimately, it helps us to distinguish between the essential and the non-essential in our life. 

 A person who does not have a sense of the end is obviously an anomaly. He tends to be lazy and prone to his personal weaknesses, to drift off aimlessly and lose control of his life. Such person is usually called a bum, a tramp or a vagrant. 

 In this regard, we have to learn to look forward to the second coming of Christ. That’s when Christ, the pattern of our humanity and the savior of our damaged humanity, will come again to make the final judgment on all of us, establishing the definitive and eternal Kingdom of God that is meant for us. Obviously, we have to prepare ourselves for it. 

 This truth of our faith was implied when some leading Jews once asked Christ when the Kingdom of God would come. To which, Christ answered that “the coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed, and no one will announce, ‘Look, here it is,’ or, ‘There it is.’ For behold, the Kingdom of God is among you.” (cfr. Lk 17,20-25) 

 This attitude of waiting, expecting and making the proper preparation for the second coming of Christ should be learned by all of us. And we can do that by strengthening our belief that Christ is actually already with us. He is everywhere, around us and inside us. We just have to develop the habit of looking for him in order to find him. Only with Christ, can we be properly prepared to face him in the final general judgment during his second coming.

Let’s have proper focus in life

CONSIDERING that our life here on earth offers us a lot of things and options, plus the fact that we of course enjoy freedom, we need to be reminded that we have to learn how to have proper focus in life, especially because we have a lot of distractions in our world. 

 Also we should be ready to leave everything behind when God finally calls us. And, yes, we also have to know how to exercise our freedom properly for a certain law governs it. It just cannot be used in any which way. That would not be freedom, but rather its abuse. 

 All these are somehow implied in that gospel episode where Christ lamented about the loose lifestyle of some people then. “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man,” he said. “They were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage up to the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.” (Lk 17,26-27) 

 To have the proper focus in life is a big challenge today. At the moment, we can see a disturbing development involving many people, especially the young. A big segment of the people is getting addicted to games and the many other novelties played out in the Internet and in the new technologies. 

 They are now getting more self-centered and self-absorbed, prone to idleness, laziness and comfort and pleasure seeking. God and their relationship to others are all but blotted out of their consciousness. 

 We now have the huge challenge of how to make God the be-all-and-end-all of our life. We need to present Christ’s words in this regard in a way that would be attractive to the people of today with their peculiar sensitivity and culture. Let’s remember that Christ himself did everything to adapt himself to us to carry out his redemptive mission. 

 How can we present, for example, the following words of Christ to the people of today without scaring them: “Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you?” (Mt 6,33) 

 We need to understand that our life here on earth is only a training and testing ground God gives us to see if what he wants us to be is also what we would like ourselves to be. We should be ready to leave everything behind when God finally calls us to himself to render account of what he has given us. 

 Yes, to leave everything behind has been more than amply taught and commanded by Christ himself. For example, to the rich young man who wanted to be perfect, Christ told him in no unclear terms, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” (Mt 19,21) These words obviously would give us the impression that we should possess nothing. 

 In another instance, Christ specifies what is required to be worthy of him. “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” (Mt 10,37) 

 We also need to understand that the proper exercise of our freedom is when we use our freedom to do the will of God for us. That’s the law, and no other, that governs our freedom.

Looking forward to Christ’s second coming

WE have to learn to look forward to the second coming of Christ. That’s when Christ, the pattern of our humanity and the savior of our damaged humanity, will come again to make the final judgment on all of us, establishing the definitive and eternal Kingdom of God that is meant for us. Obviously, we have to prepare ourselves for it. 

 This truth of our faith was implied when some leading Jews once asked Christ when the Kingdom of God would come. To which, Christ answered that “the coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed, and no one will announce, ‘Look, here it is,’ or, ‘There it is.’ For behold, the Kingdom of God is among you.” (cfr. Lk 17,20-25) 

 This attitude of waiting, expecting and making the proper preparation for the second coming of Christ should be learned by all of us. And we can do that by strengthening our belief that Christ is actually already with us. He is everywhere, around us and inside us. We just have to develop the habit of looking for him in order to find him. 

 Christ is already with us since he is the God who became man, identifying himself with us in all our conditions, even making himself like sin, the worst condition that we can be in, even if he himself has not committed sin. (cfr. 2 Cor 5,21) Yes, he identified himself with us so that we also can have a way of identifying ourselves with him. 

 We should develop the yearning, the longing, the passionate desire to look for Christ, so we may find him; and in finding him we may learn to love him; and in loving him, we get to identify ourselves with him. 

 And Christ is present everywhere. We have to learn to look for him and find him in the little ordinary things of our life—in our respective homes and communities, in our work, in the things that we use and handle, etc. We actually do not need to go far and to do extraordinary things to find him. 

 And most especially, Christ is present in the sacraments, especially in the Holy Eucharist. That is why we are encouraged by the Church to have frequent recourse to Holy Mass and Holy Communion. 

 In this regard, we have to learn how to go eschatological, for which we have to know what it means and how we can acquire its 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. 

 It shows us that how we live our earthly life has eternal effects in our afterlife. We have to learn how to live our earthly life with the view of our eternal and supernatural destination.