Mentality of the Last days...?!
The last day of the year 2018
1 John: 2:18-21; John 1: 1-18
As you go through the readings of today, do you get a feeling of tearing the last leaf of the calendar, or turning the last date on your diary or opening the last page of a novel... that is very dramatic! But the truth is, life goes on! It is good to end something and start something anew. That should begin from our mindset.
Today as we look back at 2018, we find so many events and happenings that in a way disturb our minds - the political roller coasters, the economic manipulations, the legal tragedies, the social calamities, the religious inhumanities... all of them pose a big question in our minds : is the end near? Yes, the end is here, for the year; but yet another will be born anew. And nothing will change if our mindsets don't.
John speaks of the antichrists who have already come - there is no doubt about it. It is no useful task for us to start investigating who is the antichrist that has come. What matters is to believe and to make it true that the Word has become flesh and has come to dwell amidst us. In and through us, the Word has to live on, even amidst the antichrists who are possibly all around us. That is the call: each of us, to be Christ amidst the antichrists in the society. It means a challenge, a personal, social, communitarian, ecclesial challenge for us to make Christ present here and now. That alone will amount to the mindset of the last days, not fear nor recklessness. With discernment and determination let us resolve to be Christs amidst the antichrists today.