Not and End but a New Beginning

Luke 21:7-8 -- The End as the Now

Then they asked him, "Teacher, when will this happen? And what sign will there be when all these things are about to happen?" He answered, "See that you not be deceived, for many will come in my name, saying, 'I am he,' and 'The time has come.' Do not follow them!

Frank Doyle writes:

There is another end we all have to face and which is totally outside our control: the end of our bodily life [on earth].

Are we ready for that? There is only one effective way to prepare: to live each day fully in the company of Jesus. We do not prepare for the end by guaranteeing our future (we can’t) but by living fully with God and for God at every moment of every day.

We can do this:
* by personal prayer
* by absorbing the message of the Gospel so much into our way of seeing life that it permeates everything we say and do; we become “other Christs” by learning to find Jesus, to love and respond to him in every person, in every place and in every experience of our daily life.

Then, no matter when Jesus comes to take us away, we will be more than ready. We will meet not as strangers but as dear and intimate friends who know each other well.

Doyle, Frank, SJ. "Living Space: Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time." Living Space, Irish Jesuits,

    livingspace.sacredspace.ie/OC331/.