“Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again,” so goes the mystery of the Christian faith. The first two events in this three-fold sentence have already taken place. Christ has come in human flesh and lived a good life like no other - teaching, preaching, healing, and then offering his life on the cross as a penalty for our sins. Christ died but he did not remain dead; he rose again, thereby defeating the power of death. He ascended back to heaven where he came from, seated at the right hand of the Father. Since then, up to the present, and until an unknown future day, the world awaits his return. At the end of time, Christ will come again to bring the fullness of salvation to all the living and the dead who have believed in him and lived lives in obedience to his command of love. He will repay everyone according to their works - eternal life to those who seek glory, honor, and immortality through perseverance in good works, but wrath and fury to those who selfishly disobey the truth and obey wickedness (Romans 2:6-8).
While waiting for that biggest event in history, this Sunday’s gospel (Lk 21:5-19) tells us that living in this world will not be easy. There will be wars and insurrections. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues. There will be a terrible persecution of Christians, some even by their own relatives. Others will be dragged to kings and other authorities, and not a few will be put to death because of their faith.
But haven’t all these things happened already in the past? And aren’t the same things still happening today? Yes, and yes. But where is the Lord? Why is he not coming yet?
Nobody knows the exact day and hour when Christ will come again; only the Father knows (Mt 24:36). To those who perceive his coming back to be taking too long to happen, Peter said, “The Lord does not delay his promise, as some regard ‘delay,’ but he is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet 3:9). One thing is certain - that he will do as he said. He said he will come again, and he will. In the meantime, our task is to wait for him, trusting and living his words.
Yes, the world is not becoming any better. Paul wrote that in the last days, “People will be self-centered and lovers of money, proud, haughty, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, irreligious, callous, implacable, slanderous, licentious, brutal, hating what is good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, as they make a pretense of religion but deny its power” (2 Tim 3:2-5). Hard as it may be, we are called not to conform to this pattern of the world. We are to resist the devil and be faithful to God who, in his faithfulness, will see us through all our tests and trials, and in due time, crown us with everlasting life. In death or in Christ’s second coming, whichever comes first, we must be prepared to meet our God.