"By your endurance, you will gain your souls. Your endurance will win you your lives"
Gospel of Luke
We can always tell when the season of Advent is approaching because the scripture readings focus on the "end of times" and the signs we may expect.
A discussion on "end times" has always had a fascination to our curiosity. Many stories have been written, many movies have been filmed that describe what this might be like. We are probably all familiar with Harold Camping's prediction of when the world will end. He, as you know, was the American Christian radio broadcaster who projected the end of the world would happen on May 21, 2011. When it didn't happen, he move the date to October 21. These predictions were made at considerable financial costs, not only to himself, but also to his followers. I understand that now he has rightly concluded that no one can know the time for the end of the world.
The purpose of the scripture readings on the "end times" are not given to forewarn us as to the time that these events will happen. The purpose is to place out minds and hearts in a state of preparedness for the Gospel of Christ, for the coming of Christ and His kingdom in our hearts.
The "end times" are a reminder to us that most of the things in life that we hold in such high importance are really very transit in nature. Reflecting on "end times" or "death" breaks the illusion that we can find permanence, continuity and security in the things of the world that are merely changing and passing from view. We have to look elsewhere for the permanence, continuity and security that we seek. Where do we find this? We find it in our endurance that leads to hope.
In the Gospel quote from Luke above, Jesus says: "By your endurance, you will gain your souls", or as it is written in the Jerusalem bible, "Your endurance will win you your lives." So what is it that we will win? What is it that we will gain?
It is Christ's promise of God's salvation. It is a life now, and a life later where we participate in God's plan for creation, to embrace His Kingdom, to be one with Him in all things.
Endurance has nothing to do with being forewarned. Endurance is much more than human effort. We can direct our effort towards many things which have nothing to do with endurance. Endurance is a supernatural gift of the Spirit which enables us to bear up under trial, temptation, and from any form of rejection or persecution. Endurance holds us fast to our position because it is strengthened by hope, a hope that we discover in God and through Christ.
Jesus was able to endure the cross, to move in the direction of God's will because He was strengthened by the hope that He found in God whom He called Father.
I like to think of Jesus as the one who showed us the way to live by the way He lived. I like to think of Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life because by sharing with us His Spirit, He reveals to us the way, the truth and the life so that we also may have life. His kingdom is revealed to us now, and through our endurance, that is holding fast to our position of faith strengthened by hope, the full revelation of God's will be realized.
Our task today is not to focus on the "end times" and the destruction of the world, but to prepare our hearts for the coming of Christ in our hearts in a new way. That is, to experience Christ anew, to move closer to the Kingdom that has been prepared for us, and to bring it to fuller realization so that we may be where He is.
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