Christ will come again . . . 14th week Tuesday 2013

Today we start our meditation on the 7^th article of the faith wherein we profess in the Apostles Creed that Jesus will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.  Jesus will come again in glory - in this article of faith we affirm that Jesus is already with us, Jesus is in the church and he comes to us daily in his word and in his sacraments, he comes to us in the poor and in the needy, he comes to us in the different events of our lives, but a time will come when he will come to us in glory.  It is a different kind of coming – it is a coming to us in glory.  It is different from his other comings to us for the coming in glory is the fulfillment of everything that Christ promised us, all evil in the world and also in our personal lives will finally be defeated, everything will become subject to Christ.  We do not know exactly when, for Christ said that only the Father knows exactly when.

And so we are a people who wait.  We are looking forward and we await his return in glory.

Looking forward to the glory that is yet to come is a Christian attitude.  There are among us who do not look forward, thus they easily become depressed and laden with sorrow, they are prone to sadness and hopelessness; they are prone to discouragement and pessimism – wala na gid na tsansa, wala na pag-asa.  

But there are also people among us who do not look forward anymore, for they are content with this life and they feel that this is the only kind of life they need and want.  But this feeling never last, for sooner or later they too will find out that this world cannot be the only world – there has to be something better, there has to be something to look forward to.  Christ did not die for us so as to bring us to a world that could not really satisfy, even if we have so many things in life.  Hambal ta lang na nga kon may minilyon ako mangin kontento na ako.  We know for a fact that it cannot satisfy.  What will really satisfy?

The responsorial psalm summarizes so to say our longing for this kind of life - to behold the face of God.  This should be a daily prayer.  In the psalms we also hear the psalmist articulating this longing in our hearts, as “a deer longs for running streams, so my soul is yearning for you my God.”  The yearning is an important attitude.  In the gospel today we notice that even if the crowds were healed of their diseases, even if the crowds were fed of their hunger, Jesus rightly observed that they are still troubled and they still feel abandoned like sheep without a shepherd.  Indeed they do, for didn't Jesus say that man does not live on bread alone?

I believe this is what our vocation, the religious vocation offers which no NGO’s or PO’s or government agencies or charitable institutions can do – it is meant to feed that other hunger – the hunger of the heart, the hunger for the presence of God, the hunger for the word that nourishes the spirit – to address that deep longing for better things.

Christ will come again in glory – the work of Christ is not finished yet, nor is our longing and desire satiated.  We still await the fulfillment  we know that there is still something better, we know that we are still meant for better things and the world cannot provide these.

We take care of the things of this world, we work hard daily for the things of this life – but let us not forget that we are meant for greater things, and that the things of this world shall be used to attain that which can truly satisfy.