In the end, not annihilation but eternal life

As we approach the Feast of Christ the King which marks the end of the liturgical calendar, our readings turn apocalyptic. Like our Gospel today, they forewarn of the Second Coming of our Lord and the final judgment.

Today, we hear Jesus tell a parable about a landowner who entrusts varying sums of money – talents – to three servants, journeys to a distant land and ultimately returns. He symbolizes our Lord Jesus Christ who has departed from the world, has ascended into heaven and “will come again to judge the living and the dead.”

Two servants invest the sums given to them which subsequently yield interest. The third, due to fear of his master, buries his money which consequently does not bear fruit. They represent us to whom the Lord has bestowed various talents and gifts. Preparing for the Lord’s Second Coming entails, the parable suggests, actively and judiciously utilizing all that the Lord has given us.

No one really knows how the world will come to an end. Perhaps after all the energy in our ever-expanding universe dissipates. Or long before that, when our sun ages and as a red giant incinerates the earth and nearby planets. Or perhaps through an asteroid that crashes into the earth. Or due to humanly accelerated and aggravated climate change. Or maybe due to a nuclear war, which given the set of world leaders today, has become even more plausible.

Against soothsayers and doomsayers of every generation who claim to know exactly, based on their computations or private revelations, when the world will come to an end, Jesus says, “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Mt. 24:36).

A more important question is whether the world’s coming to an end will be simultaneous with the Second Coming or Final Judgment. Is it possible that God might recreate the world or the universe again and again before the End Time? No one really knows.

Instead of speculating about the unknowable future, Jesus invites us to focus on the here and now. Certainly, preparing for his Second Coming entails turning away from a life of sin and vice. But salvation does not only pertain to my deliverance, but to the redemption of all humanity. And not is God interested in saving one species – homo sapiens – but all creation. Just as the Lord is concerned about my spiritual and moral state, so is He concerned about every creature He has fashioned.

Going back to the theme of preparing for the Lord’s Second Coming, we are invited not only to do good and avoid evil. Ushering the definitive coming of God’s Kingdom involves not only doing good but actively confronting evil – denouncing corruption, ethnic discrimination, sexual abuse, extra-judicial killings, terrorism, and environmental destruction. If all we did were to do good and avoid evil, evil would continue to flourish. We are invited to be channels of the Risen Lord who will bring about the ultimate transformation of all creation by doing good and confronting evil within us and in the world.

Ultimately though, while we are invited to participate in God’s plans of redeeming the world, the Second Coming of Christ, which is also the definite establishment of the Kingdom of God, is beyond human labor. It is God’s initiative and work. In the end, God promises that annihilation and death will not have the say word, rather His eternal life and love will.