The opening lines of the Acts of the Apostles summarizes the last few weeks Jesus spent on Earth from the resurrection to his ascension into heaven. The book narrates the exact moment Jesus had prepared his disciples for – the moment they would have to let go of him. Sad and confused, they must have found hope in the words of the two men dressed in white, “This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.” These words gave them something to look forward to – He would return.
In the Gospel passage we hear another hopeful message, this time spoken by Jesus himself. He promises his disciples to be with them until the end of the age. In these passages we find two important revelations: (1) Jesus will come again. (2) The world will end.
These teachings have always fascinated us human beings throughout the centuries. Many modern-day religious groups have been founded around the idea that the end is very near, some setting forth an exact date for the end. Many misunderstandings have arisen, especially among Catholics. Unfortunately many Catholics are getting their catechesis about the end of the world from the Left Behind Series and preachers who predict the world will end on a specific date. What do we believe as a church about the end of the world?
We believe Jesus will return once and once only at some point in the future. Scripture teaches his return will be public and visible, no one will miss him, just as he went up he will come down. It will be announced by a loud trumpet, he will be accompanied by all the angels, and every eye will see him coming on the clouds with great power and glory. We believe that when this happens, the world will end and the final judgment will take place.
At this time, those who have died already (the saved and the damned) will rise from their graves to receive their bodies back. Those who are alive will not experience death, but will immediately receive their immortal bodies and be taken up (or raptured, as Saint Paul calls it) to Christ. The entire human race will be gathered for the Last Judgment where all things, good and bad, will be exposed and revealed. The Earth will pass away and a new heavens and a new earth will remain.
We summarize all this into one line in the creed which we recite every week, “He [Jesus] will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.”
Scripture gives us signs that will precede the end times – the rise of the anti-Christ, mass defection from the faith, the conversion of all Jews, the Gospel preached to all the world, signs in the sky, natural and man-made disasters. Many try to interpret world events today and link them to Scriptural predictions. But don’t you think early Christians thought the world was ending when in 70AD Jerusalem was destroyed and an estimated one million died? Christian Europe prepared for the end of the world in the year 1000 since the Book of Revelation says that God had bound Satan for 1000 years. How about the same Europeans in the 14th century when one-third of them died of the bubonic plague? Scripture does not give us an exact sequence of events or time intervals. The signs described could be more severe in the future still, we just don’t know.
Regardless of when Jesus returns in glory at the end times, it is more certain we will meet our own end time. Those who obsess with the end of the world lose precious time and energy that could be spent developing a solid relationship with Christ. Yes, the Lord is coming, but there is no need to panic or need to be afraid. The right attitude is found in the prayer the priest prays at every Mass, “that, by the help of your mercy, we may be always free from sin and safe from all distress, as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.”
We keep waiting free from distress and full of hope. As the apostles saw Jesus go up, perhaps in our lifetimes we will have the joy of seeing him come down, but if that is not so, we will have remained vigilant by the way we live, and vigilant by coming here to the Eucharist where Christ certainly comes to us as he promised.
Picture: Mosque of the Ascension of Jesus, Jerusalem, 2007
Pictures are mine, all rights reserved.
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