Friday, December 28, 2001

Read: Matthew 25:31-46

The end is coming, whether it is the catastrophic doomsday of the cosmos, as some scientists have already declared, or whether it is personal death. Let's say that about 4.5 billion years ago, the cosmos came into being by the so-called Big-Bang, a grandiose cosmic explosion from a single point, as some famous physicists (including Stephen Hawking who has long been confined in his wheel-chair) have been pondering this theory of the beginning of the entire universe. But the end is coming to every beginning.

Everything that exists now will someday be vanishing into oblivion. The expectation of this is grim in nature. We just do not know, and do not want to know if it is the end of our personal journey on earth. But the day is coming, probably sooner than we think it should be, if not of a cosmic nature, then in our own returning to the original breath that was endowed at our birth. But the physical end of existence is just the opposite end of chronological beginning. We want to know the point where the beginning meets the end, which is usually called kairos.

So, what do we see at the end of time? A glorious passage into the Eternal Peace, namely, into the bosom of Jesus Christ who has been waiting for our arrival in heaven? Well, Jesus did not mention this at all. Jesus is coming to us again. But who is this Jesus? I think Jesus is every place if we try to find his face. If we go to him with our expectation of seeing him in those whom he loves, he will surely come to us on the clouds of hazy horizon. Mother Teresa once said, "As I look into the dying persons' faces on the street of Calcutta, I see Christ's face there." There is also a legendary story about St. Francis of Asissi. One day when he encountered a leper on the road, he dismounted his horse to extend his helping hands, the face of the leper changed to be seen as the face of Christ. Christ's face is in our hearts, but is revealed through others.

When is our end time? It is the moment when the spirit of Jesus comes into our hearts in such a way that we begin to exercise our bodily activity to the urgent need of others' bodily activity that is being threatened to its impinging end. Their threatened end conjoins into our new beginning in God's Sovereignty, judging our spiritual reality from their perspective of bodily existence. It is not just a small act of extending our hospitality, but an urgent need of another person's life and death situation. When we see that their life is on the verge of extinction, our life is on the verge of new birth!

Sungsoo Hans Hahn

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