The Son of Man will come
1 DECEMBER (Mt 24,37-44)
It is truth. If a person combined all the power of modern electronic computers and wanted to establish with them the historical mode of his death, in no case would he succeed. The time and manner of our death do not belong to us, neither by imagination, nor by fantasies can we establish them with absolute certainty. Since our time might be every moment, we must always be prepared.
A disgrace falls upon us. Who lives and who dies ? We do not know. A war breaks out. Who passes to eternity, and who remains in history? We ignore it. A pandemic spreads out. Who overcomes the disease and who succumbs to its death effects? No one can imagine it before. A catastrophe happens. Not even in this case we have certainties. The uncertainty is the absolute of our history. Let us read in the Book of Job.
And so one day, while his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in the house of their eldest brother, a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the asses grazing beside them, and the Sabeans carried them off in a raid. They put the herdsmen to the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was yet speaking, another came and said, “Lightning has fallen from heaven and struck the sheep and their shepherds and consumed them; and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was yet speaking, another came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three columns, seized the camels, carried them off, and put those tending them to the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was yet speaking, another came and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in the house of their eldest brother, when suddenly a great wind came across the desert and smote the four corners of the house. It fell upon the young people and they are dead; and I alone have escaped to tell you” (Job 1,13-19).
Everyone dies. Only one remains alive. All remain in life, only one dies. It is the uncertainty of our human existence. This uncertainty demands, requires our constant preparation for death, by reason of the judgment to which everyone will be submitted at the same time. Every conscience must present itself before God to be judged in every work of good and evil, accomplished while on earth. If there were no judgment, there would be no need for any preparation. There is no preparing for death. This comes and that is it. In an instant we are in history, in a moment in eternity. As soon as we enter eternity we must all pass through the judgment, which will be according to most pure truth and unappellable. The judgment is a universal law.
For as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. In (those) days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark. They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away. So will it be (also) at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be out in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left. Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into. So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.
The judgment of the soul, when it is in eternity, is an eternal judgment, with no return. One is saved or damned forever. Forever with God or forever without Him. Forever in darkness or forever in light. Forever in joy or forever in sorrow. Forever in life or forever in eternal death, which knows no end. This truth, which is the essence not of the Christian faith, but of man, of every man, since God does not speak to those who believe, but to every man, so that he welcomes this truth that will come upon him, whether he believes or does not believe – even the reasons for his non faith he must explain on the day of eternal judgment – today is disappearing from the heart and mind, not of the man that does not believe, but of the very man of faith. In the absence of this faith, man lives without truth, he lives without his final anthropological truth, which must give the anthropological truth to all his earthly existence. This is the most terrible poverty of our time.
Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints give us our truth.