Good News Reflection
Thursday the 7th Day in the Octave of Christmas
December 31, 2009
Today's Readings:
1 John 2:18-21
Ps 96:1-2, 11-13
John 1:1-18
http://www.usccb.org/nab/123109.shtml
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
http://ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/09_12_31.mp3
The final hour
The first reading says, "Children, it is the last hour." And yet, 2000-plus years later, here we are, still waiting for the Second Coming of Christ.
We are still in the "final hour".
For 2000 years, people have been looking for the Second Coming of Christ and expecting it to happen soon. It seems like now would be a good time for it, right? People of every generation of thought so.
In today's world, we're more keenly aware of bad news and rampant immorality, thanks to the technologies of mass media. Add to that our limited knowledge of the evil-doings of past ages, due to our ignorance of the details of history, and we think that today's world more desperately needs Jesus to return than ever before.
Christians have been feeling this way for 2000 years.
Tired of suffering, we hope that Jesus will hurry up and bring us total victory over evil and restore earth to the paradise that it was before the Original Sin. We want evil-doers to get punished. We want them removed from our lives and even from our thoughts. We want Satan's butt to get kicked the hell off of earth.
The final hour is the hour of salvation. And this is what we're living in now! It's the era of the New Covenant, the time when God's Holy Spirit dwells on the earth and helps us do what Jesus did to make the world a better place, the era when WE are the body of Christ on earth continuing his mission of conquering evil.
So why are we waiting for Jesus to show up? We should live as if his Second Comingwere going to happen before the end of the day today, but instead of watching for signs that Jesus is going to soon rescue the world from evil, we need to be doing the works of Jesus now, rescuing the world from evil now.
Until the end of this age, Jesus is coming to earth through you and me. Or at least, that's what he wants to do. How much are we each doing and how hard are we all working together to be Jesus in the world? What are we doing to bring other people to Christ and his redemptive victory over evil?
Are we continuing the mission of Jesus with so much effort that the non-involved Christians around us are inspired to join in and work hard too?
Today's Gospel reading harkens back to the first hour: "In the beginning was the Word." Jesus is the first and last Word, the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega.
As the year 2009 ends and 2010 begins, let us ask: "Is Jesus truly the first and last Word in my life? The end-all and be-all of my existence? The Alpha and Omega of my day from beginning to end? What will I do in the new year to let the Holy Spirit transform me so that Christ is the Lord of every moment of my every day?"
© 2009 by Terry A. Modica
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