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The end of the world and Jesus’ second coming can often create anxiety in our soul. We fear the unknown and are worried about what will happen when Jesus comes again.
However, the second coming of Jesus is supposed to create within us a spirit of hope and joy, not fear.
St. Augustine explains the key to decreasing our apocalyptic fear in a commentary that is featured in the Church’s Office of Readings.
He has come the first time, and he will come again … Previously he came through his preachers, and he filled the whole world. Let us not resist his first coming, so that we may not dread the second … He who is without anxiety waits without fear until his Lord comes. For what sort of love of Christ is it to fear his coming? Brothers, do we not have to blush for shame? We love him, yet we fear his coming. Are we really certain that we love him? Or do we love our sins more?
This type of love is based entirely on trust, trusting that God’s plan is better than our own and that he will reward those who were faithful to him.
Furthermore, we won’t fear his second coming if we are prepared for it. If we want to receive God’s mercy at the end of our life, we must first be merciful to others.
[I]f you wish to receive mercy, be merciful before he comes; forgive whatever has been done against you; give of your abundance. Of whose possessions do you give, if not from his?…For what do you have, that you have not received? These are the sacrifices most pleasing to God: mercy, humility, praise, peace, charity. Such as these, then, let us bring and, free from fear, we shall await the coming of the judge who will judge the world in equity and the peoples in his truth.
With this type of disposition we can confidently pray, “Come, Lord Jesus!”
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