Pastor's page: "Come, you who are blessed by my Father.”
(Matthew 25): Second Sunday of Advent

When Jesus Christ comes again in glory, the Son of Man who will judge the living and the dead, all of us long to hear the words: "Come, you who are blessed by my Father."

On that day, according to St. Matthew, Jesus will judge us according to the standards of love; love for the least among us. Our kindness will be evidenced in the traditional works of mercy; the corporal works of mercy from my childhood catechism. How well did we feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, cared for the sick and visited the imprisoned?

Our lives will reach their completion, either in the final moments when our strength diminishes and our heart stops, and we meet our maker…or in the triumphant return of Jesus Christ, the exalted one, who will appear in glory to take us into the eternal kingdom of joy and perfect love.

Jesus of Nazareth was born in the land of Israel some 2000 years ago. The books of the New Testament; the Gospels, and the letters, reveal the historical Jesus and the Christ of faith. Other writings by Roman and Jewish historians, offer other snippets of information about him. In fact we can know more about Jesus than almost any other figure from ancient times.
The second coming of Christ will mean the end of the world as we know it. From the earliest days of Christianity, the followers of Jesus longed for and expected Christ's return. Their hopes would be fulfilled in the eternal life experienced in the kingdom of God. They wrote a short prayer that appears in Aramaic, Maranatha, which means, "Our Lord, come!" (1 Corinthians 16. 22), and also in Greek- concluding the book of Revelation 22. 20.

In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus teaches about events leading up to his second coming and the completion of God's kingdom. Future end time events will take place, says Jesus, but no one except the Father knows their precise time. We are to live our lives constantly prepared.

In his first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul warned that "the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night" (5. 2). But if we live as though the last judgment might occur in the next moment, we will have no need to fear that judgment. Rather it will be a time of great joy for us, and the fulfillment of all our dreams.

As the Gospel for the first Sunday of Advent told us: "Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near." (Luke 21. 28) "Our Lord, come!" Maranatha!

Peace and love,
Father Bruce