“PADRE, Jesus regresara pronto, verdad?”, a mentally challenged Korean man asked me in heavily accented Spanish at our church patio. “Si,” I responded without thinking much. Then I mused about my answer and why this simple-minded man asked me if Jesus is coming soon.
Was he influenced by the apocalyptic preaching of his Korean brothers and sisters that belong to nearby evangelical churches? I remember some years ago, how a Korean Christian Church in Los Angeles publicized the Second Coming of Jesus, and how its members waited anxiously for this appointed time, which many refer as the Great Rapture.
However cynical we can be to this apocalyptic prediction, there can be something deeply spiritual about it. It can speak about our longing for a just world, where everyone is equal in God’s eyes and heart. It can speak about our desire to find true answers to the complicated moral issues of our time. It can speak about our conviction that God will never abandon us and the world we live in: he will bring justice to us and enflame the world with His mercy; he will raise us up who have remained in his love.
On this Ascension Sunday, we commemorate the event of the Risen Jesus’ ascension to heaven to be with his Father and the passing on of his mission to his disciples “to go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.” However, this parting is never meant to be a permanent event. Jesus will return again in glory to bring final judgment to the world and completion to the Kingdom of God.
But we can’t passively wait for this Second Coming of Jesus. Jesus commissioned us to be his partners and collaborators in the gradual enfolding of this parousia. This is the beauty and nobility of this eschatology. God invites us to participate in the realization of a new world and new order. He calls us to be active participants of this mission, not mere observers!
Each one is given opportunities to fulfill this eschatological task. All that we need to ask God is to enlighten the eyes of our hearts to see the needs around us among the poor, the outcast, and weak members of our society. We don’t have to do grandeur and highly publicized projects. We can reach out to a single stranger or a few neighbors to bring the Good News of God’s love and forgiveness. In this way, we allow people to believe that, indeed, Jesus is near them…He is returning soon!
* * *
Reverend Rodel G. Balagtas attended St. John Seminary in Camarillo, California and earned his Doctor of Ministry in Preaching from Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, Missouri. For twenty years, he has been in the parish ministry of large multi-cultural communities. Since 2002, he has been the pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Los Angeles. Please email Fr. Rodel at [email protected].
