THE WORLD OF THE GOSPELS was not too different from ours. Even in our day of airport screenings and frequent arrests, behind barricades of military buildup and international alliances, in spite of all our advanced defense technologies, we know our world is precarious and can collapse as suddenly as the Twin Towers. Our only security is in God: God with us.
John wrote to those in his community to encourage them in an anxious time. He warned them that the day of reckoning was close at hand. “Children, it is the last hour!” This may not sound much like reassurance but it certainly got their attention. John’s “children”—those he nourished in faith—were upset about people defecting from the true faith. They felt their world was falling apart, and John meant to reassure them.
Anxiety makes good headlines today. We read that the polar caps are melting; we are running out of fossil fuels, the climate is changing; the animal kingdom is being affected by high technology. These are not delusional statements. They have basis in fact, and they often convince us, along with many other aspects of modern life, that we are living in the last hours or days of planet Earth.
John’s words, written centuries ago, have an apocalyptic tone. But his deeper message is meant for childlike hearts. He offers, not words of panic, but of peace and reassurance. We who know Christ, who receive him, who believe in his name, receive power to become children of God. “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.”
By living the Christian life on the deepest possible level, we remain secure in God no matter how fearful the times. How do we do this? Not by denying the uncomfortable facts of our environment and our troubled societies, but by letting the Incarnate Christ transform us. The God life within us will strengthen us in times of war and peace. And with transformed hearts we will do what we can for our anxious neighbors and our societies.
To be conscious that we are children of God, we must pay attention. We must practice the Christian life with confident spirits. Keeping the Incarnate Christ close to us, in our hearts, we internalize God’s Word. By putting ourselves at the service of Christ, we are transformed. “From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” Even if it is the last hour, it is the hour of redemption for those who believe.
~From Emilie Griffin, “New Year’s Eve,” GOD WITH US: Rediscovering the Meaning of Christmas, edited by Greg Pennoyer & Gregory Wolfe
