THE GRAVITY OF HEAVEN

Wednesday, April 11, 2018

When will Christ return?

“And let me assure you that I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” – Matthew 28:20b

And yet … so many times He spoke of leaving this earth and then returning. An apparent contradiction? Maybe. But I offer it is a subtle revelation as to this idea of the Second Coming.

Some hold with scriptural argument that things will keep getting worse and, in the End, Christ will return to save us. Others hold with scriptural argument that the new Realm of God will grow and grow until Christ is evident in all aspects of the world, in this manner He has truly returned. But, of late, I have considered that this enigma of two understandings may instead be an insight into the process of the Incarnation being ultimately fulfilled in the coming together over Time both heaven and earth to be as one.

The metaphor that comes to mind is gravity. Gravity is that draws two bodies toward each other. From one perspective Christ in Heaven is drawing the ways of earth toward the ways of heaven; from the other perspective, Christ within us and among us is drawing the ways of heaven toward into the ways of earth. Thus, the Christ who is always with us is drawing toward us the Christ in His returning.

And what could this possibly and practically mean for we who live as Christ? We are not called to sit and wait for salvation to one day come … but rather we are actively a part of Christ-process of bring closer to each other, both heaven and earth. This is the process I call the “Christ-ification” of this earth whereby the ways of heaven become the ways of earth.

Always in His Service,
Fr. Charitas de la Cruz