THE SECOND (FINAL) COMING OF CHRIST

The Final Coming of the Lord
Sunday 33rd Week in Ordinary Time Year C
Homily: Luke 21:5-19
By Fr. David Michael Engo

I am fond of telling the story of my brief encounter with the followers of Elijah Hong. It happened about seventeen years ago. I was driving through New York City and noticed a group of Hong’s followers standing on the side walk holding big signs that read “Jesus is coming back! October, 1988!” It peeked my interest so I decided to question their “proclamation”. I said “Hey guys, where did you get that date from? Jesus said that no one knows the day or the hour of His return!” They smiled ear to ear. One of them joyfully responded: “Yes! That is true! No one knows the day or the hour. But we know the month and the year!” I chuckled, rolled up my window still wondering about their supposed “knowledge” of dates.

Unfortunately, Jesus did not return that October. Nor did He decide to return on any other date that was previously given by other groups. Actually, the one thing we can know for certain is that if someone claims some great revelation of the date of Jesus’ return, we can rest assured that it won’t be that day. Jesus assured us that no one knows the day or the hour. That, more than likely, also includes the month and the year.

As we draw to the close of the Church liturgical year, the Church asks us to reflect upon the sure truth that Christ will return. Although we don’t know when, we do know that He will come. Today’s first reading from the prophet Malachi and the Gospel both reiterate the truth that Jesus will return to establish His reign. The Second Coming of Christ is one of the “Four Last Things”, the other three being Death, Heaven and Hell.

The Lord does not reveal to us the Day or the Hour of His return, but He does give us the signs that will precede and accompany His return. Over the centuries many saints, fathers of the Church and solid theologians have studied the Scriptures and analyzed the Second Coming. They have been able to deduce several signs that Jesus has revealed in the Gospels, the letters of St. Paul and the Book of Revelation.

One of the first signs will be that the Gospel has been preached to all four corners of the earth. In justice and in mercy, Jesus would not return until His message has been satisfactorily proclaimed and every nation has had the opportunity to embrace Him or reject Him. It is the desire of God that all be saved and come to the knowledge of truth. This can only be fulfilled if everyone had that chance. I say: “had the chance” because free will remains free. God does not force a people to accept His message. He offers it freely. It is up to us to accept it or reject it. We know of many former Christian nations that had the Gospel preached to them. Somewhere along the line, the Gospel was rejected and the nations lost their Christian identity. Other nations rejected it when it came. And others like China are still fighting its reception. In trying to judge whether or not this sign of the proclamation of the Gospel has been accomplished, we must concede to the fact that it is still a work in progress and will be working and progressing on the day of the Lord. (Editor's note: This is not to imply that only those who accept Christ in this life will enter eternal glory. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches in sections 846-848 that salvation is open to those who, through no fault of their own, have never heard of Christ yet are seeking eternal Truth.)

The second sign is also a tough one to pin down; “Wars and rumors of wars.” Humanity has been warring since Cain killed his brother Abel. There is hardly a time that was free of a war somewhere. Perhaps this sign takes on greater significance in our day. We live in a much more global society. Last century saw the world at war twice, and this new Millennium has opened up with a new and more complicated war on terror. A war on terror is a world war. Oddly enough it is a “religious war”. We are at war with “Muslim Terrorists”, people who are terrorizing in the name of God, for God, and with the hope that God will reward them for their murdering. Is this war on terror one of the last signs? I don’t know! We’ll have to wait and see.

The third sign is just as allusive: “The shaking of the heavens and the earth”, or extreme natural disasters. Again, are we seeing it with global warming and pounding Florida hurricanes and so forth? I don’t know. But it is a sign to look for.

The fourth sign will have a direct effect on causing the fifth. The book of Revelation tells us of the two prophets who come to Jerusalem and are martyred there. The Fathers of the Church deduced that these two martyrs would be Enoch and Elijah. (We don't know whether their deductions are correct or not. Editor's note.). They were the two Old Testament figures that never died. Enoch was “taken” and Elijah, one of the greatest Old Testament prophets, was whooshed away by a fiery chariot. In Jerusalem, after returning and proclaiming Christ, they will meet a martyr’s death. Their bodies will lie there for three days.

This witness of these two prophets will give rise to the fifth sign. The fifth sign has to do with the conversion of the Jews. As a result of the preaching of the two witnesses the Jewish people will begin to convert in large numbers. This belief is also based upon the writings of St. Paul when he said, regarding salvation, “First the Gentiles then the Jews.” It seems that it would only be just and merciful of God to give the people of the first promise one last offering to embrace the fulfillment of that promise.

The sixth sign is also the cause of the seventh. The seventh is the great persecution of the Christians and the great apostasy from the faith. As we read in today’s Gospel: “They will put some of you to death”. This passage, as well as many others, reveals a time that will come that will wreak incredible havoc upon the Church. Many, many people will be handed over to torture and death for the sake of the Glory of His name. As a side note, there were more martyrs for the faith in the last century (twentieth) then the combined centuries before. Not all will taste the sweetness of martyrdom. Some will continue the work of the Lord while others will fold and reject the faith or, just as bad, follow the final antichrist.

We here much talk about the antichrist and the number assigned to him, 666. People spend loads of time trying to figure out if he is alive and who it will be. Once again, this is a sign that is shrouded in mystery. We do know that this seventh sign of the coming of the final antichrist will be a terrible time. It is he who will lead many astray and causes the persecution of the faithful. He will not be satan incarnate. Satan can’t become a man as God has done. More than likely he will be a person who has completely and willfully surrendered his will and soul to satan himself. Hence he will be a person “perfectly possessed”. He will claim to be Christ. He will appear to work miracles as Christ had done. He will appear to be good and with his dark, malicious and evil intelligence lead souls to believe that he is Christ and to follow him. Many will follow and apostatize from the Church. This is why Jesus said in today’s Gospel; “See that you not be deceived. Many will come in my name saying ‘I am He’…do not follow them”.

I would like to make a firm statement here. There are some self styled mystics out there saying that the final antichrist will be the Pope. Nothing can be further from the truth. This would contradict the Scriptures, which affirm the infallibility of the Pope in teaching on Faith and Morals. One can be sure that if we remain true to the Church and the teachings of the Church and loyal to the Holy Father we will not fall to the antichrist.

These are the seven signs: 1-The proclamation of the Gospel to all nations. 2-Wars and rumors of wars will occur. 3- The shakings of the heavens and the earth. 4- The return and martyrdom of the two prophets. 5- The conversion of the Jews as a large amount. 6- The great apostasy and the persecution of the Church. 7- The coming of the final antichrist. Have all these signs happened yet? Have any of them happened? All I can say at this time is that I do see some, I’m watching to see if there are others developing, and I’m still waiting for others. I’m not going to presume to know if this is the day or the hour. Nor am I going to presume to know the month and the year. All I know is that I need to be ready. My death is inevitable, so I must be ready to meet God by death or by His Second Coming.

Hollywood is very fond of the end of the world theology, or “Eschatology”. They love to make movies about how the world is going to end and all the great tragedies that surround it. I would venture to say that they are a bit pre-occupied by it. Over and over again they portray Christians in great fear and worry over the final days. Heroes of their stories are usually good faithful people trying to stop the “End Times”. I watch, laughing, thinking to myself “What a load of trash.” It continues to surprise me that Hollywood just can’t seem to figure out us Christians!

We Christians do not live in fear of the Second Coming. To do so would be foolishness. We live in hope and desire for it! We wait for it! We even go so far as to pray for it: “Thy kingdom come”. Every time we pray the Our Father, we pray for the coming of Christ. When we hear of the signs being fulfilled, the news should fill us with joy, and we should stand up and know that our redemption is close at hand. We pray, with the beloved disciple John, “Come Lord Jesus!”

When Jesus does come, He will come accompanied by fire. This fire is symbolic of the reward or punishment that will accompany His return. To the souls alive it will produce three different effects. To those who are in the state of Mortal Sin, it will be the fire of punishment as experienced in Hell. To those alive who would have needed to go to purgatory (recall that purgatory will cease at the Second Coming), it will be the fire of instantaneous purgation leading to love. For the saintly, those who if they had died would have gone straight to heaven, it will be the consuming fire of divine love. This consuming fire of divine love will also be given to those souls being purged. It will be a great day of justice, redemption and glory.

We should not be preoccupied with the Second Coming. By this I mean we should not be searching out every disaster and war as a clue to the end times. What we need to do is two things. One, work out our salvation by striving to be a saint. This way we will be prepared interiorly for His coming or our death, which ever comes first. To be seeking sanctity is the first duty of our Christian life. Second, we should be fully participating, according to our capacity, in the salvation of souls. We must make a strong effort to share the Gospel with those who don’t know it. We must pray and work to bring back those who have gone astray from the Lord. Evangelize through penance, prayer and sharing the Gospel with the baptized that are fallen, the unbaptized that don’t know Him, and each other by helping each other stay strong in the Lord. Don’t grow weak or weary. Remain firm in the Lord. Look with confidence to the day of Christ. Remember what our Blessed Lord said to us in today’s Gospel: “By your perseverance you will secure your lives.”

May God bless you and Mary keep you.
 

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