PPE AND THE END TIMES

Reflections for the First Sunday of Advent (27 November 2022)

"So too, you also must be prepared,

for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come" (Matthew 24:44)

Self-help coaches and gurus have long argued that planning, preparation and execution (PPE) are essential to the success of any enterprise. While planning involves fixing the goal of an activity and its desired outcome, the preparation stage consists in identifying resources and means to facilitate the execution of these objectives. Interestingly, one can discern this PPE mantra already at work in Matthew’s discourse on the end times. We identify three specific agents assigned with each of the three tasks of PPE:

1. Planning:

Matthew is resoundingly clear in pointing out that the Father is in sole charge of planning the day and hour of the last day. As we read in Matthew 26:36, “About that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father”. Isn’t it interesting to note that while the Son of Man himself does not hesitate to admit his ignorance of the day and the hour, our humanity tries to play God with its doomsday predictions? From the Montanists of the second century to the more recent Maya calendar, numerous new age movements, self-proclaimed apostles/prophets, televangelists, psychics, exegetes, and gurus have repeatedly failed in their claimed ability to predict the last day. However, Jesus affirms “it is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority” (Acts 1:11).

2. Execution:

Matthew also names the Son of Man as the one in charge of executing the last judgment with the assistance of the angels. We read in Matthew 25:31, “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate the people one from another”. How often do we try to overtake the role of the Son of Man, when we pass ill-informed judgments on our brothers and sisters? Aren’t we too eager to spot the speck in our neighbours’ eyes? Don’t we claim to decide who will be saved and who will be damned? The Father judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son (John 5:22). While Christ, the appointed judge, is himself hesitant to pass judgement on the world (John 8:15) for he would rather save it (John 12:47), we are often too willing and quick to judge!

3. Preparations:

The Father plans and the Son executes justice. It is not for us to predict the day or the hour or to assume the “glorious throne of the Son of Man”. What is our responsibility then? Haven’t we no role to play but to passively wait for our turn to be judged? This Sunday’s Gospel indicates clearly that every disciple of Christ is called to pro-actively prepare for the end times. We are not mere victims or on-lookers, we have an active role to play in the preparations for Christ’s return. Our participation matters and our contribution can make a real difference. Therefore, the Gospel demands us to stay awake, be ready, keep alert, and be on guard (Matthew 24:42-44). Our mission is to work for the coming of the Kingdom of God already here and now in our individual and collective histories.

How can we prepare for events of which we know neither the nature nor the date? How do we proactively prepare the way for judgement day without assuming the role of the true judge? The liturgy of the first Sunday of Advent makes it clear that the focus of our preparation for the Second Coming is not merely on the final destination of our history but also on our present journey! Pope Francis on 29th June 2022 observed, “The Synod that we are now celebrating calls us to become a Church that gets up, one that is not turned in on itself, but capable of pressing forward, leaving behind its own prisons and setting out to meet the world, with the courage to open doors”. As we step into a new liturgical year, the Universal Church continues its pilgrimage on the synodal path. The word synod comes from the Greek terms “syn” meaning ‘together’ and “odos” meaning ‘path’. Thus, synodality is essentially walking “together on the path”. There is wisdom in what Confucius said 70 years before Christ, “Roads were made for journeys, not destinations”. We are all invited to join hands to walk on the synodal path in search of transformation here and now and in preparation for the end times.

Our assigned role to prepare for the Lord’s coming is not primarily concerned about the hour or the end result of the judgement day, but the process of our pilgrimage here and now. Isaiah in the first reading evokes the beautiful image of the entire humanity walking together at peace with each other as co-pilgrims climbing the Lord’s mountain: “The mountain of the LORD's house shall be … raised above the hills and all nations shall stream toward it”, prophesizes Isaiah and he further adds, “O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord”. Paul, in the second reading, tells us that walking the synodal path involves our collective conversion from asat (falsehood) to sat (truth); from tamas (darkness) to jyotis (light); and from mṛtyu (death) to amṛtaṃ (immortality). As disciples of Christ, charged with the huge responsibility of preparing the way for the Kingdom of God, let us resolve to give up our passive wait and our thrones of judgement and walk together on the synodal path to truth, light, and immortality.