As we await the second coming of Christ will the believers in him be ready?

As we await the second coming of Christ will the believers in him be ready?

The question that always will cause us to ponder the teaching of the bible.  It is not a guessing game if he will come, it becomes the quest of our preparedness if we are still on earth.  

The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection. (cf Rv 19: 1 - 9).  The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God’s victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from heaven.  (cf Rv 13: 8).  God’s triumph over the revolt of evil will take the form of the Last Judgment after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world.  (cf Rv 20: 12).  (CCC 677).

Christ is Lord of eternal life.  Full right to pass definitive judgment on the works and hearts of men belongs to him a redeemer of the world.  He “acquired” this right by his cross.  The Father has given “all judgment to the Son.”  Yet the Son did not come to judge, but to save and to give the life he has in himself.  By rejecting grace in this life, one already judges oneself, receives according to one’s works, and can condemn oneself for all eternity by rejecting the Spirit of love.  (CCC 679).

The resurrection of all the dead, “of both the just and the unjust,” will precede the Last Judgment.  This will be “the hour when all who are in the tombs will hear the Son of man’s voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.”  Then Christ will come in his glory, and all the angels with him……Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left….And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”  (CCC 1038).

A harsh finality to some who have always refused to live with righteousness in their hearts and sought after the pleasures of life at the expense of Christ’s followers.  It isn’t as though these backsliders were not told about their chance to find Christ; and given the opportunity to repent and receive forgiveness promised through the scriptures in the bible.  

This is the very premise of what the Church is constantly placing in front of their foolishness of apostasy and only hearing their cry of “maybe tomorrow.”  “We have much more important events for today.”  “Come back to us when we are old and in need of mercy,”  But, that day may never occur for them.  

Where has this obstinate attitude come from?  The one question that we who are evangelizing our weak brethren who turn their backs on the very words of Christ who came exclusively for them and still waits for that final moment when they turn back before they die. 

At the end of time, the Kingdom of God will come in its fullness.  Then the just will reign with Christ for ever, glorified in body and soul, and the material universe itself will be transformed.  God will then be all in all ” in eternal life.  (CCC 1060).

Through him, with him, in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, almighty Father, God, for ever and ever.  Amen.  

Ralph B. Hathaway