Today, when reading Saint Luke’s Gospel, can we afford not to ponder over the present moments, fuller every day with threats and blood shedding? “On earth nations will be in dismay, perplexed by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will die of fright in anticipation of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken” (Lk 21:25b-26a). The second coming of our Lord has quite often been depicted with the most terrifying images, as in this Gospel, and always under the sign of fear.

But is this really the message the Gospel is proclaiming today? Let us just look at the last sentence: “But when these signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand.” (Lk 21:28). The core of the message of these last days of our liturgical year is not fear but hopefulness of a future deliverance, that is, the Christian’s complete expectancy of the fulfillment of our full life with the Lord, which our body and the world around us will also share. The events narrated in such a dramatic way symbolically indicate the participation of the whole creation in the second coming of the Lord, as it already participated in during His first arrival, specifically at His Passion, when the sky darkened and the earth shook. The cosmic dimension will not be forsaken at the end of time, because it is the dimension accompanying man since he entered the Paradise.

The Christian prospect is not deceiving, because when this will all happen —the same Lord tells us— “They will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory” (Lk 21:27). Let's not live an anguished life because of the second coming of the Lord, because of His Parusia: let us rather ponder over the profound words of Saint Augustine that, already in his day, bearing witness of those Christians fearful of the Lord's coming, was wondering: “How can the Wife be afraid of her Spouse?”