Approaching The END

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself,
that where I am you may be also.
John 14:3

Rather than looking to our calendars, we look to the Church to tell us what time it is. She tells us we approach the end of the year; Christ the King Sunday approaches. With it we are reminded that there is an end to things, a closure that births a new beginning. At times this can feel like we are merely running in circles. The Preacher in Ecclesiastes certainly felt that vicious cyclical movement, at least as pertains to all things "under the sun." And if this were all there is to life–we are merely hamsters running on a hamster wheel, going fast to nowhere–we would all be pitied. We even hear the pessimistic–some call it realist–adage "all good things must come to an end." And from our real, though limited, vantage point of life, that may appear to be the case. Appearances, however, as we know, can be and often are deceiving. This is why we need to hear from Another who has a greater vantage point, one that is "above the sun," who resides in the heavenly places. And more than merely being a spatial description–as if He were only above us,–it is at the same time a temporal description. All time is now for the Lord. I AM that I AM declared the Lord to Moses.

Looking to Holy Scripture we find that we ought to amend the "realist" adage. "All good things must come to The End," is the biblical proclamation. And that End is Jesus. We are not running in circles in wild desperation to nowhere; we are pilgrims on a journey that has an End in sight. As we approach the end of the year, may it be a lesson in following Jesus: we approach the end that we might embrace the End. Put another way around: the end of the year reminds us that one day, by the grace of God, we will be Home.

Grace & Peace,

– Fr. Matthew