WELCOMING
CHRIST IN THE WORLD
After
the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, God out of His infinite mercy sought a
way to redeem man from eternal damnation. Hence, he decided to send His Son Jesus
Christ to carry out the mission of man’s redemption. But before the coming of
Christ, God sent so many prophets to the world, so that through their preaching
and prophecies, the people may be ready to receive the Son of God who is to
come. So many came and few persons listened to them. Others were very hardened
in accepting the message of the coming of Christ. Even when the last prophet John the Baptist preached
and prepared the way for the Lord, so many people never got interested in that
regard. In fact many prophets of Old had to end their mission sorrowfully as
they were all humiliated and Mal-treated.
When
Christ finally came, the people at that time never took Him seriously
especially those arrogant Pharisees and Sadducees. They not only never wanted
to accept the truth of the presence of Christ in their midst, but equally
discouraged others from doing so. In the end when they thought that they had
won Christ by nailing him on the cross, they never knew that he was actually
completing his work of salvation after he had taught man how best to relate
with God.
Ever
since the world became in need of the Savior, the same world had not taken time
to prepare for the coming of Christ just as they do when ordinary prominent
human beings are coming. The truth is that the first time Christ came into the
world his reception was never something to boast about. Biblically, he was
nearly killed if not for the intervention of the Angel who directed Joseph to
travel to Egypt and instructed the Magi not to go back to Herod. And
unfortunately, in the desperate desire to rubbish the coming of Christ numerous
children were killed by King Herod. This is the world for us.
In
our own time, especially as we enter into the season of Advent, is the world
ready to welcome Christ? The season of advent is essentially given for us to
prepare for the coming of Christ which starts with his birth subsequently. It
not only reminds us of the celebration of the memorial of the nativity of the
Lord, but also reminds us of the Parousia
the final coming of Christ to the world. Hence we are called to prepare for
these two great events.
Given
this as the case, is the world ready for any of the two events? That is, is the
world ready to welcome the birth of Christ and his Second Coming? The readiness
we actually mean here may not be the physical readiness although it is a part
of it. The readiness we are talking about here is the spiritual preparation for
the Coming of Christ. Of course the spiritual readiness will be manifested in
the physical by words and actions. It actually means keeping our spiritual
candles burning steadily.
If
this is exactly the spiritual readiness we are talking about, can we actually
say that with the events of our society there is any sign that the world is
indeed preparing for the coming of Christ either in the case of the Christmas
celebration or in the case of the Second Coming?
We
may not answer in the affirmative because we all are guilty of those things
that are in great contradiction with the nature of the coming of Christ. The
life of the world is a complete contradiction with the nature of Christ. And
that is why we cannot say that the world is ready to meet the Lord either at
Christmas or the Second Coming. There are so many acts of inhumanity being
carried out in the world today. Do we even talk about the growing rate of
injustice and social inequality in the world? What about the envy and jealousy
among us? These and many other negative attitudes indicate that the world is
never ready and in fact does not want to receive Christ. This is because if the
world wants to receive Christ, the people would have to prepare the way of the
Lord and then make his paths straight. But as it is, no way has been made for Christ
and the existing way is already rough and uneven. With these, we can
conclusively say that the world is not ready to welcome Christ.
The question as to whether the world is
prepared or not to receive Christ should not be a problem here because whether
we are ready or not and whether we want it or not, He must surely come. That is
to say that the coming of Christ either at Christmas or the Second Coming is
never dependent on our preparedness. In other words, whether we are ready to
receive Christ or not he will surely come. In fact our preparedness at the
coming of Christ is an advantage to us.
Where
the above is the case, it now makes it clear to us that we all have to get
prepared to welcome Christ in the world. We all have to come back to ourselves
and find out those things we do that are not in consonance with the nature of
the person we are expecting to come. We will also continue to prepare for the coming
of Christ by explaining to people by words and deeds that they too need to get
ready for the coming of Christ. This is a task given to us at baptism and we
must carry it out.
In
essence, the season of Advent helps us to prepare to welcome Christ in our
individual hearts and then to the entire world. Christ will come at the
appointed them of which only God knows, and as such this unknown time of the
coming should make us ever conscious of that fact and then we shall get ready
by words and actions for the coming of Christmas.
Beyond the liturgical celebration of
Christmas, it is a reminder that just as Christ came the first time to die for
us all, he will come again to judge us all. Thus we all should prepare for the
coming of Christ as much as is expected of us Christians. We have to welcome
him not just by words but by our actions. The season of Advent will help us to
do this, so that having done that, we may be worthy to welcome Christ in the
world anytime, any day and anywhere.
Nwanyanwu Chris
No comments:
Post a Comment