Spirituality of the Second Coming of Christ
by Dér Stépanos Dingilian, Ph.D. © 1997
Everyday we hear about further ‘proofs’ and ‘prophecies’ about the Second Coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. What should we make of these? Further, how should this event, the Second Coming, affect our life? As we reflect further, why did Christ have to begin his mission at the First Coming, and then tell us that he will leave and come back again? Could not he have completed all his work during his First Coming? The best way to answer these questions is to understand the Spirituality of the Second Coming of Christ.
God’s intention for humanity. As discussed in an earlier article, God has placed His ‘image’ in us. We already have the potential to grow and become more like God. God wants us to exercise our own rationality and will, and consciously grow. This is the ‘likeness’ of God in us. In order for God to help us grow, in our ‘image’ and ‘likeness,’ he has to give us an example to uphold and to learn to follow. For this reason, God sent Christ on his First Coming who then set the example for us. Afterwards, Christ was taken up and the Holy Spirit was given to humanity in order to help us understand and follow the path Christ set for us. The time between the First and Second Comings in which we live now is the time that God has allowed humanity to learn, appreciate, and live up to His ‘image’ through His likeness. This is God’s intention for us!
Why does God need to give humanity time to grow? Knowing the intention for humanity, why could not God simply create humans so they could love and appreciate Him from the very beginning? Because human beings, need to exercise their free will and rationality, and mature through that experience in order to grow, appreciate, and love others. There are no shortcuts to love, and God knew that he had to give humans the opportunity and the time to discover that. You recall that it was the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which caused Adam and Eve to fall from grace and be placed out of the Garden of Eden and eternal life. Why? Because when they tasted that fruit (which is neither apple, nor tomato, nor the sexual relationship), they embarked on a reality that was too complicated for them. Adam and Eve were overwhelmed with the possibilities in life and their consequences, very much like a child would be overwhelmed. Just as a child would hide under a table when he or she is overwhelmed, Adam and Eve hid under a tree. Just as you cannot leave openly a loaded gun in the presence of children because the chances are good that they will hurt each other, likewise God recognized that he could not let them stay in the Garden and hurt themselves and others. Consequently, God gave humanity a period outside of the Garden during which we can learn to appreciate our strengths and vulnerabilities, and then be allowed to enter Paradise again. Right now we are living in this time period – between the expulsion from the Garden and the re-entrance into Paradise.
In the meantime, here are some of the lessons in life that God wants us to learn:
1. God, and only God is truly and perfectly ‘Good.’ At time of need, we can turn to many sources for help. As we mature in life, we generally find out that no human being can completely deliver what they promise. We see that many great societies and cultures who promise safety, security, and opportunity rise and fall. We find great emperors, intellectuals, and spiritual leaders who promise great advances, come to power and then disappear without fulfilling their promises or bringing about any change or advancement. Gradually, we begin discovering that only God is capable of consistently delivering what He promises. Although God can delivery what He promises, however, God does not promise everything. Our challenge then becomes determining that which God promises in life. To recognize this however, we also need to see, experience, and live through the false and empty promises of human beings, societies, and cultures. It is by comparing and contrasting that we discover that which is Eternal and that which is passing, that which is from God and that which is from humans. For this reason God has given humanity a time period and a history through which we can recognize the true promises of God and how God brings them about. The time between the First and Second Comings of Christ is when God fully opens the eyes of humanity to complete this discovery, to find out Who is perfectly ‘Good’!
2. God has a plan for humanity in general and for us as individual persons. Over fifty years ago, a scientist put it this way: ‘God does not play dice with the universe!’ This was in response then to so many people who kept insisting that situations come about because of chance. Many today still insist that ‘things just happen.’ But there are too many inter-related events, and there is too much of a pattern in human history, psychology, sociology, and belief to think that events have not been pointing to the existence of a pattern in the world and in our own life! All we need to do is to step back and develop a ‘bird’s eye view’ of situations. We use the ‘bird’s eye view’ to view a large painting. When we have difficulty understanding the theme of that painting, we step back and look from a distance, and then we see the whole picture in one glance and recognize themes and patterns within that painting. This same ability is necessary in human relationships and situations: When we place our whole life in one picture frame, look at it in one glance, and search for an underlying theme and a thread, it is then and only then that we can discover that our life has direction, purpose, and meaning! It is not sufficient for us to say that God has a plan for us. We need to discover that plan ourselves!
3. There is only one standard for perfection among humans and that ‘standard’ is the ‘person’ of Jesus Christ. I meet many well intentioned people who tell me they just want to be good people, want to do good, and want to have a good attitude in life. It may not sound difficult, so I ask them a some simple questions: "What do you mean by ‘good’? Who do you consider as the exemplary ‘good person’?" Most remain quiet and reflect! ‘Good’ is a relative term. It compares a reality with a standard. However, if a person does not have a standard of ‘goodness’ beyond himself or herself, then he or she becomes own standard of goodness, and considers himself or herself as ‘god.’ And as we know in human relationships, we always tend to perceive our side as the ‘good’ and just side. So who is the standard of ‘goodness’ for humanity? God tells us the standard is Christ. Some believed Christ, and many did not. Since Christ preached two thousand years ago, many have attempted to emulate him, to take what he has said and modify it to meet their own needs. Yet time has shown that they have all fallen short. God is giving humanity all the time we need to settle once and for all as to who is the Standard of Goodness as a Human!
4. Without God’s help in the form of the Holy Spirit, the human beings cannot accomplish and bring about complete goodness and help for their fellow human beings. Through our television monitors, we have a great opportunity to discover that happiness in family and relationships, or even in society and nation, is not dependent nor assured by any form of human activity or societal structure. Instead, it is the presence of the Holy Spirit in our life and our willing cooperation with God that brings a sense of peace, courage, and guidance. If we were to wait for the whole world to be peaceful, we will be waiting endlessly with no results. However, when we find peace through the Holy Spirit, then we will find that regardless of what takes place in world, we still have a sense of peace in ourselves and our family. Only the Holy Spirit can guarantee our security and peacefulness in life! God wants humanity to try and experience different forms of relationships, cultures, and governments, and come to the conclusion that only the Holy Spirit can guarantee and deliver what the others promise but do not deliver.
5. The human being is not an island – either as an individual person or as a community. We all need each other! So many of us would like to spend our time between four walls and pray to God. Generally we conclude that all is well and that our relationship with God is improving. However, it is only when we begin to enter in the midst of human relationships, namely the Church, the Body of Christ, that we begin to discover that our faith, hope, and love is not just for ourselves, but for sharing with others. It is then that we discover our strengths and weaknesses. We discover that as ‘good of a Christian’ as we think we are, we still have a great deal to learn from others. Ask any accomplished teacher; he or she will tell you that while a student receives information and wisdom from the teacher, only the teacher receives a sense of satisfaction for making a difference in a person’s life. God wants us to experience what Christ stated: "It is more blessed to give than to receive." [Acts 20:35]
6. No amount of educational, physical or political power, economical or technological strength can help a human being overcome the spiritual and physical imperfection in his or her life. There have been numerous situations in human history where leaders and intellectuals concluded: "Now we understand everything in life. We need not make foolish mistakes. Finally, we do not need God because now we are grown up!" In fact, it was this sort of leadership, spirituality, and mentality towards the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth, that made governments, institutions, and persons confident that people are no longer as barbaric as they were in the primitive times. Further, since people had so much education, scientific tools, and means of governing themselves with conscience, they concluded that they no longer needed God’s help! It was this bubble that was burst in World War I, when Europe discovered how brutal, cruel, and shortsighted the ‘civilized world’ could be. The whole of Europe had become a huge cemetery. However, the brutality did not stop there. It continued into the Genocide, the Holocaust, and finally World War II and beyond. A similar situation is beginning to develop today. People believe that through education, cloning, DNA manipulation, that the illnesses and imperfections in life will soon be overcome, rendering humanity mature enough not to need God. The problem is not with the scientific and technological advancements. But rather with people’s false interpretations and expectations of these advancements. Again and again, humanity falls into the same trap that it sets up. Why? Because the human imperfection is spiritual not political, intellectual, economical or technological. Only God can address and eliminate mankind’s spiritual shortcomings. No human effort can accomplish this. God wants us to come to this understanding once and for all!
7. Finally, God wants us to learn whose creation we really are, and to ask for help from the appropriate source, namely God. It is for this reason that Christ said: "For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’" [St. Matthew 23:39] If we return to the Book of Genesis, we find that one of the main reasons that Adam and Eve turned to the snake rather than God is because they did not quite comprehend that God is their Creator and is the One upon whom they need to rely and ask for guidance. God wants the whole of humanity to come to this realization! God sends help when we ask of Him. For example, when Moses was sent, he was told by God: "I heard the affliction of my people!" Yes, Christ will come for the second time. In the meantime, he is awaiting for the whole of humanity to go through the trials and tribulations of discovering that ultimately only God is good and that Christ is the Savior. Unfortunately, in order for this realization to come, many will have to suffer. This can be illustrated by a woman who is giving birth, and the travail and pain she experiences at childbirth. For this reason that creation is seen as a woman giving birth in the Book of Revelation. [cf. 12:1-2]
As we begin to reflect upon spirituality of the Second Coming of Christ, we discover that it is truly God’s way of helping us grow closer to Him and appreciate our place in His creation. Yes, there are those who will grow away from Him, however, part of our responsibility is to help them see otherwise. There are many responsibilities that we have in life. Ultimately we can do only that which we are given, as pointed out by St. John the Baptist. It is our hope and prayer that the reality of the Second Coming of Christ will re-awaken and re-strengthen our spiritual calling in the service of God, in whatever capacity it may be!
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