I've written before about the end of the world, and about how there are (at least) three senses in which Christ's return can be understood: Parousian, Eschatological, and Veiled. These correspond roughly to the Literal, Annagogical and Allegorical interpretations (respectively) of Matthew 24:30-36:

Quote: And then the sign of the Son of man will appear in heaven; then, too, all the peoples of the earth will beat their breasts; and they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet to gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. 'Take the fig tree as a parable: as soon as its twigs grow supple and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. So with you when you see all these things: know that he is near, right at the gates. In truth I tell you, before this generation has passed away, all these things will have taken place. Sky and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. But as for that day and hour, nobody knows it, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, no one but the Father alone.

I have not yet attempted a tropological (moral) interpretation of these word except indirectly. Now, to engage the moral interpretation of this passage is not going to mean giving a fourth sense in which Christ shall return directly, but rather indirectly, through the actions of His mystical body (the Church).

First, a bit of backstory. The belief that the end of the world is to occur soon has a long tradition (writ small) within Christianity (and beyond). I've already given some of my interpretations of this as regards the apostolic age. I'll cite only a few other examples. First, there was the general fear and belief that the end would occur on New Years' day of the year AD 1000. A feeling of impending apocalypse was widespread during the high middle ages (especially during the periods of plague). The Jehovah's Witnesses--not exactly a Christian sect--predicted that the end would come in 1914, 1915, 1918, 1920, 1925, 1941, 1975, and 1994. Charles Wesley predicted that Doomsday would occur in 1794, and there was widespread fear of some sort of nuclear armageddon during the early Cold War. Most recently Harold camping made his infamous (and failed) predictions of the rapture and Apocalypse (twice). There has been a spate of Hollywood movies about this, most not taken seriously, though more than a few people have bought into the lunacy of an imminent global catastrophe initiated by "climate change" or by the ending of the Mayan calendar.

Most recently to enter the fray, within my own larger extended social bubble, is Ms Caroline Hampton, who writes that

Quote: I want to put forth something in which I believe needs to be said and taught today. I believe we are in the last days, right before our Lord Jesus shall return. The whole world is constantly reeling from disaster after disaster, too many wars to number, and a looming world government that nobody can deny that many world leaders are trying to assemble. Even much of the church is working to assemble, not in Christian unity, but to include mormon, Jehovah's witness', universalists, muslims, and every other religion under the sun in what will be the harlot church. These things can be clearly seen by all, and cannot be denied. We must work while we still can, and we have a huge task ahead of us as Christians.

Although this was likely written with the best of intentions as a part of her evangelization campaign, it nonetheless conveys that sense of urgency bordering on panic that the end will be very soon (and, in a sense, it will, since no one lives forever). Of our lives the Psalmist writes:

Quote: "In the morning man shall grow up like grass; in the morning he shall flourish and pass away: in the evening he shall fall, grow dry, and wither....The days of our years in them are threescore and ten years. But if in the strong they be fourscore years: and what is more of them is labour and sorrow" (Psalm 89:6,10).

A more generous estimate of man's life gives us a hundred years.

We may find that even this long life is short. "For a thousand years in thy sight are as yesterday, which is past. And as a watch in the night, Things that are counted nothing, shall their years be" (Psalm 89:4-5). The oldest among us may live a hundred or so years--a long time, time enough to despair or to give up faith and hope--and yet, a paradoxically short time to learn how to love. That is, after all, why we're here at all:

Quote: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. And the second is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments dependeth the whole law and the prophets" (Matthew 22:37-40).

Thus, in a paradoxical sense, we ought to remain vigilant with somewhat a sense of urgency, but not so much that we live in fear with a sense of panic. Watchful vigilance is a theme which runs through the parables of Christ--I think especially the parable of the ten virgins (Matthew 25:1-13); I also think of Saint Paul's warning that the Day of the Lord will come "like a thief in the night" (1 Thessalonians 5:2). None of us knows "the day or the hour" of Christ's return--which is true not only in the general eschatological (Parousian) sense of the Final Judgment and the consummation of the world, but also in the particular eschatological sense of our own individual deaths. The world may last a few billion years or it might end tomorrow; God and my wife willing, I may live to see one hundred; or I could be in a fatal car crash tomorrow. If the former is the case, then vigilance is the watchword, faithful vigilance; if the latter is true, then perseverance to the end (2 Timothy 4:7) is necessary, hopeful perseverance.

Since the same is true for everybody else, there is indeed a sense of urgency within the Christian religion, as if the life you save could be your own, even if it is that of a complete stranger. Although we cannot (and should not try) convert everybody in the first meeting (indeed, as Mr Mark Shea has mentioned, we don't cause anybody to convert), we should view conversion with a sense of urgency to the extent that we should never delay to do our part to evangelize, whatever that part may be. Often it is our actions which speak more loudly (and clearly) than our words, cliche as that may sound: for the woman at the well asks the LORD to give her the life-giving waters, not merely to tell her about them (John 4:15). Indeed, St James tells us this much in his epistle: "And if a brother or sister be naked, and want daily food: And one of you say to them: Go in peace, be ye warmed and filled; yet give them not those things that are necessary for the body, what shall it profit? So faith also, if it have not works, is dead in itself" (James 2:15-17). What is true for faith is true again for preaching and evangelizing: empty words without deeds are dead words.

All of this can be contrasted with fearful panic, that sense of urgency which has been taken too far. This turns evangelization into prosylitization and leaves us so worried about the prospects of avoiding Hell--important as that is--that we forget to live our lives. It takes the focus away from God and His kindness, mercy, and love, and leaves us thinking about the devil and the torments which he and his minions have prepared for us. There is, after all, one thing which is infinitely more important than not going to Hell: and that is getting to Heaven. After all, God did not put us here only to survive life and avoid Hell, but rather "God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in the next" (Baltimore Catechism 2, Q6).

These are very positive things, no more passive that befits a member of a Church which is tasked with storming Hell's very gates (Matthew 18:16); and by evangelizing, we are doing that exactly. But we are, as a result, treading on the territories held by the enemy. And if we have the advantage of knowing that the Church writ large will ultimately win this war, this is small comfort for us as the individual foot-soldiers in God's army. Our enemy is malicious and very devious, and he will look to lure us off-guard; he knows the lay of the land which we are besieging, perhaps better than we do. Thus, while panic will not avail us nor anybody else, vigilance will help us to survive the sieging and storming of that dungeon.

To panic--that is, to despair of our or anybody else's salvation--places us in great danger for our lives (that is, for spending eternity in those dungeons we meant to storm). Panicking, we try to take all matters into our own hands, and so forget to place our trust in the LORD. And at the opposite extreme we have a lack of urgency--as if no battle need be fought, no enemy confronted--which is that carelessness that becomes presumption, in which any faith or hope becomes merely passive. We become content with whatever our spiritual progress may be, and then fail to notice as that progress becomes a subtle regress.

Note well that as members of the Church militant--and we are this by our baptisms--we are soldiers in a spiritual war. We may be specialists of some sort or other, but all of us are tasked with recruiting as we may, and of laying siege to our enemy's fortress in the hopes of rescuing those in the dungeon. But note equally well that as soldiers, we are under orders and under the command of the officers, who are ultimately liable to the Supreme Commander (God). The soldier who panics will disobey his orders and endanger his own life or the lives of others; but the soldier who equally disobeys orders through sloth (complacency, a lack of urgency) or through pride (claiming to "know better" or to "have inside information") is at least as dangerous to others and possibly to himself. Let us therefore practice diligence as befits the urgency of our situation, becoming neither complacent nor panicked. The lives we save in so doing may well be our own.

-----
This was originally posted on my Equus Nom Veritas blog. If you enjoyed this post, here are some other related posts:

What Happens to Non-Christians When They Die: A Speculative Reflection
Christ's Return: the Parousian Sense
Of Infants and Salvation (Nicene Guys)
How Do We Preach: A Reflection on the Importance of Christian Discipleship
Pascal's Wager and Invincible Ignorance: Irreconcilable? (Nicene Guys)
_____

Tags: Eschatology Theology Morality

Bookmark: