Wednesday, November 27, 2013

The Coming of the Son of Man


A left-over October sunset that especially appeals to me.
As I meditated this morning on Matthew 24:36-44 I found my thoughts moving back to my reflections on our Cosmic Christ inspired last week by Paul's Letter to the Colossians.  Matthew's passage is about the necessity to be watchful for the unpredictable coming of the Son of Man.  I don't think of this coming as a sudden appearance in the heavens.  Our cosmology, our way of looking at the world, is very different from that of most of the New Testament writers.  Evolution has affected every aspect of the way we think.
Teilhard de Chardin, who as far as I know was the first to use the name "Cosmic Christ," saw the Risen Christ as the guiding spirit of our evolving universe, as the goal toward which all of creation is being drawn.  That helps me to understand the coming of the Son of Man as Christ's gradually transforming our world into himself, bringing everything under the influence of Love.
Being watchful, then, would involve noticing the ways in which Love is changing the world and doing our part in aiding that change.  As we love and are loved our Cosmic Christ gradually moves toward "the fullness of time, gathering all things into himself, things in heaven and things on earth (Ephesians 1:10.)

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