Developing the eschatological sense

WE have to be familiar with this aspect or dimension of our earthly life. We need to develop what is known as the eschatological sense or the eschatological mind. That is to say, we need to realize that there are such things as the Last Things, namely, death, judgment, hell or heaven. It also involves the realization that there is such thing as the second coming of Christ, for which we should always be prepared. 

 We are somehow reminded of this dimension in the gospel when Christ was asked by some Pharisees about when the Kingdom of God is coming. (Lk 17,20-25) Christ’s response was that its coming cannot be observed since that Kingdom is among us. That is to say, its coming depends on how we are preparing ourselves for it or leading ourselves to it. 

 We have to remember that our earthly life is not our definitive life. It is only transitory that is meant to be some test God is giving us. It is to see if what God wants us to be, that is, to be his image and likeness, is also what we ourselves would choose to be. Every event in our life here on earth is actually a test, an occasion to make our choice. We therefore need to know how to make the right choice. 

 For this, we of course need to be guided by our Christian faith, which definitely is first of all God’s gift to us before it is something that we have to develop and live by. As creatures of God endowed with intelligence and will and given his grace, we are not meant to be guided only by our empirical sciences and technologies. 

 With our intelligence and will, plus God’s grace, we are meant and equipped to transcend the natural dimension of our humanity in order to enter into the spiritual and supernatural reality of our life. This is something that we have to understand very well so that we do not get unduly entangled with our earthly and temporal affairs, not knowing how to make use of them to lead us to the Kingdom of God. 

 Otherwise, we can be accused of what Christ said about what would it profit us if we gain the whole world but would lose our soul which comes from God and is meant to be with God, sharing his life and nature. (cfr. Mk 8,36) 

 We should therefore need to develop the eschatological sense and to be always prepared for the second coming of Christ who will establish the definitive Kingdom of God among us. Doing so is not meant to scare us, but rather to put us in a very realistic mode about our life. 

 There will come a time when we will die or when the world itself comes to an end. That realization should sharpen our sense of what is essential in our life and of what is the true and ultimate purpose of our life here on earth. It’s not meant to give us a gloomy picture of life and the world in general, or to put us into unnecessary worry and stress. 

 If we truly abide by our Christian faith, we know that we are assured of a happy ending, given God’s proven goodness and eagerness to give us mercy in case we find ourselves in the worst of conditions. We just have to be open to God’s will through our faith and trust in his providence even if we cannot fully follow it.

The Church is sacred in spite of…

WE are reminded of this character of the Church on the Feast of the Dedication of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome on November 9. This basilica is honored as the episcopal seat of the Pope as Bishop of Rome. It is the “mother and head of all churches of Rome and the world.” 

 In the gospel reading of this feast, we are told about how Christ drove away those who turned the temple area in Jerusalem into a marketplace. (cfr. Jn 2,13-22) “Take these out of here, and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace,” he said. 

 The gospel obviously tells us that the church is a sacred place. As Christ said, it is his Father’s house, the house of God. It’s where we are supposed to have our definitive home for all eternity, united with God and all the saints. Of course, while here on earth, the church can only approximate that ideal, but we should treat it as best that we can as a sacred place. 

 The gospel also highlights the truth that there is such thing as righteous anger as shown by Christ himself in that episode. Anger is a human emotion that has a rightful place in our nature. But we should learn to deal with it properly, because unless inspired by faith, hope and charity, that emotion can only be harmful to us. 

 We just have to be wary of our anger because as St. James already warned us in his letter, “man’s anger does not bring about the righteousness of God.” (1,20) We always tend to go overboard, and our anger can already go beyond the scope of charity and righteousness. 

 Let’s never forget that we have a wounded condition here in our earthly life. We may appear strong and clearly endowed with powerful talents and resources, but all these good things can blind and intoxicate us also and can plunge us into a very subtle forms of pride, vanity, arrogance and self-righteousness. 

 We can feel that we have all the truth and fairness in our side, but just the same all that can still be held outside of charity. And let’s remember that charity is the fullness of knowledge, truth, justice. Where there is no charity, the charity of God, all the other virtues can at best be only apparent. They can look and feel like virtues, but in reality are not. 

 But in spite of all our weaknesses, we have to realize also that the Church is actually for all, both the saintly and the sinful. It is meant to help everyone in the way they need to be helped. We always have that need. And the Church has all the things we need to achieve our final goal despite the varying conditions of our life here on earth. 

 Let’s remember that the fullness of our quality of life is when we are truly with God who can help us to deal with whatever situation or condition we may find ourselves in this life. Let’s overcome the thinking that the quality of our life simply depends on whether we are lucky enough to be rich, intelligent, talented, powerful, etc. 

 We may be poor, not gifted or lucky enough to be intelligent, talented, or powerful, but if we are with God, we actually have the best quality of life!

Gratuitous and generous self-giving

THAT’S how our self-giving should be. It should be both gratuitous and generous, without expecting any reward nor counting the cost. We should just give and give, knowing that God can never be outdone in generosity. He gives himself completely to us. We should learn to give ourselves to him completely as well. 

 We are reminded of this condition in our life in that gospel where Christ talked about the unprofitable servant. (cfr. Lk 17,7-10) “When you have done all you have been commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do,’” he said. (Lk 17,10) 

 This should be the attitude in our self-giving. We should not worry about anything, because God knows everything and gives us everything that we need. The more we give of ourselves, the more he will reward us. 

 We just have to do our self-giving very freely. As Christ himself told his apostles, “Freely you have received, freely give.” (Mt 10,8) And the first one to live by this principle is Christ himself. He gave himself freely to us, including his own life. He did not mind the sacrifices, the insults and mistreatment he underwent. 

 This is what true love is. It is a total self-giving. But the mysterious part of it is that it actually generates more love and self-giving in others. It inspires others to give themselves in the way of true love. That is why true love has its own reward. It has the dynamic of being repaid also with love. 

 We should always be encouraged to give ourselves to others gratuitously without strings attached, without conditions. Even if instead of being reciprocated properly and requited, our love is misunderstood and rejected, we just have to go on loving. The only reason for loving is because that is what true love is. It is this love that is the real essence of God, of whom we are his image and likeness. 

 Loving in this way can only mean giving all the glory to God. We have to be careful because we always have the tendency to give glory to ourselves, if not totally then at least partially. Our motto should be “Deo omnis gloria,” all the glory to God. 

 We should not worry about our own glorification because God will take care of it. This is what St. Paul said in this regard: “For those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son…And those he predestined he also called. Those he called he also justified. Those he justified he also glorified…If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Rom 8,29-31) 

 And we should be generous in our self-giving, because the more generous we are with God and with others, the more generous God will be with us. This is just a simple law of ‘we reap what we sow.’ We usually sow just a seed, but with the generosity with which we take care of that seed, we are bound to get a lot of fruit later on. 

 We have been repeatedly assured that if we are generous with God and with others, we will also be the object of a greater generosity from God and from others as well. 

 Christ said so. “Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or property, for my sake, will receive a hundred times as much in return and will inherit eternal life.” (Mt 19,29) Yes, God cannot be outdone in generosity.