Ad Jesum per Mariam

Faith and the Second Coming of Christ

Faith and the Second Coming of Christ Luke’s gospel, often referred to as the apocalyptic section, . . . . . . speaks about the future and the anticipated return of Jesus Christ. This second coming is eagerly awaited by those with faith, as faith is the first and essential requirement for this expectation. Such faith is nurtured through persistent prayer. At the end of today’s passage, a profound question is posed: When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth? This question holds deep significance, especially when we reflect on the state of our world today. Many have abandoned the church. Across the globe—in regions like the Middle East, Africa, and the Americas—we witness parishes closing and communities shrinking as Christians move away from traditional centers of worship. This decline prompts us to ask again: When the Lord returns, will He find faith? Hear more in the Homily! How Do We Remain Faithful? How, then, do we remain faithful as we await the Lord’s return? Today’s gospel offers the answer: persistent prayer. It presents the parable of the widow and the unjust judge. The widow’s relentless appeal to the judge—Do justice for me against my opponent—is a testament to the power of unwavering prayer. Through this story, we are reminded that God, who is infinitely good, will respond to those who remain constant in prayer. Yet, for some, the challenge lies in unanswered prayers. Many have prayed tirelessly for years without seeing their hopes fulfilled. How should we understand this silence? The gospel and homily invite us to reflect further and to trust in God’s perfect timing and plan. Faith is the bridge that connects us to God, and prayer strengthens that connection. As we wait for the Lord’s return, may we hold fast to persistent prayer and unwavering trust in His goodness. Listen more to this Meditation Media. Listen to: Faith and the Second Coming of Christ --------------------------------- Image: cropped version of The Ascension: Dutch Artist and Painter: Rembrandt --------------------------------- Gospel Reading: Luke: 18: 1-8 First Reading: 3 JN 5-8

Duration:: 12m
Broadcast on:: 19 Nov 2024
Audio Format:: other

The Lord be with you. And with your spirit. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke. Glory to you. Jesus told his disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary. He said to them, "There was a judge in a certain town who neither feared God nor respected any human being, and a widow in that town used to come to him and say, "Rend her a decision for me against my adversary." For a long time the judge was unwilling. But eventually he thought, "While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being because this widow is bothering me, I shall deliver a just decision for her, lest she finally come and strike me." The Lord said, "Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says. Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them? I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? The gospel of the Lord." The Lord Jesus of Christ. [ Pause ] The gospel we just proclaimed falls apart in the whole subject of Luke's gospel, known as the apocalyptic section, which means it speaks about the future, the coming again of Jesus Christ. And the coming again of Jesus Christ is wetted upon because people have faith. To wet upon the second coming of Jesus Christ, the requirement, the first requirement is faith. And that faith is cultivated by persistent prayer. And this is revealed at the very end of the passage we read today that when the Son of Man comes, will he find any faith on earth? I think this is a very important question. If you look at the situation of our world, will the Son of Man when he comes find any faith? Because we see time and again people living the church, people not coming to church to pray, except a few that continue to come to pray. Last year in February, I was in Rome, and my cousin was the elected bishop, an auxiliary bishop of our home douses. So I went home to be with them during the ordination of my cousin, to be the auxiliary bishop of our douses. But what was interesting, they gave him, because he is an auxiliary bishop, he has no douses of his own. And they gave him a titular title. This is a title. He was called Bishop of Are in Mauritania. And that is a title that he has as a result of having no douses. So the church texts a douses that died a long time ago in Mauritania, and gives it to him as his douses. The church recognizes that once the church is erected, it is usually erected in perpetuity. But the reality is that they die, people that are no longer there. In the Middle East where we talk of the beginning of the faith, there are no more Catholics there. Douses have died. And when they make auxiliary bishop, they still mention those dead douses. And this is happening everywhere. In Europe you find douses dying, churches dying. Here douses are already other titular douses that have died, and they are still there. The question is if all these dying of the churches. That is when the Lord comes back. Will he find any faith on us? How do we remain faithful in this period of waiting for the Lord? How do we remain constant in the waiting for the second coming of the Lord? The gospel today gives us the answer of how we are going to remain faithful. We are going to remain faithful as we wait for the coming of the Lord. If we pray persistently, and it gives us an example of a widow who goes to a judge, "Do justice for me against my opponent." And the unjust judge says, "If I don't give justice to her, she is going to bother me to death." That is through persistence. See, his response Jesus says, you see what the unjust judge says, because she is going to bother me to death, "I do justice to her." How much more God who is just will he not give good things to his children? He is not comparing God and the unjust judge, because there is no comparison. But he is contrasting. That is, you see God is good. The judge is bad. God is good, and God who is good, if we remain constant in prayer towards him, he is going to tend to us in answer. And the prayer is not that we beat down God, that he answers our prayer by all means, by crook and stuff. God, we know, some of you, some of us, have prayed for one thing, yes, without number, and we have not received what we have prayed for. But what the prayer does is to keep us in connection with God, to keep our hearts tuned to God, such that even in the midst of what we are going through, we carry it with the hope that God is going to help us. And that tunes our spiritual life, tunes our life, really having hope in something greater than what we are facing. And that must be done with persistence. I remember a story where a grandfather was saying to his grandson, "Whatever you do, you must persist." Because persistence is the answer to some of the things that you can not ordinarily meet them. So the son, the grandson says, "And what is persistence?" The grandfather was not able to give the answer to what persistence was, but he wanted to demonstrate it to him. So one day he took him with him, he says, "Let us go hunting." They went to hunt, and they found a dead carcass of an animal, and then he stood there, looking at the carcass, and on the carcass there were flies that were coming there, and then he started taking some pebbles around him and throwing at the carcass. Once he throws the carcass, all the fries threw, and then afterwards they came back on the carcass. He took another pebble and did that several times. Each time he throws the pebble on the carcass, the flies fly and then come back. And then he says to the son, the grandson, "Do you see what is happening here?" He says, "Yes, I can see, flies, flying once you throw a what, and then coming back." And he said to him, "That is persistent." I have thrown several stones there. If they were others, they could have gone away. But they flew, came back, flew, came back. So your life must be in that way. You must persist if there is something that is really important for you, you must persist. Today, the gospel that we listen to invites us to persistence in prayer. And persistence in prayer is the one that will help us keep our faith, waiting for the coming of our Lord. Let us pray that our faith may not fail through the prayer that we offer, persistently, every day.