Is It the Day of the Lord Yet?

Jane Korvemaker considers how our actions and attitudes now have a direct effect on what happens in the future.

“Hey Mommy! Come check out my Lego I built!” my six-year old brightly says to me as I’m engrossed in reading an article.

“OK. In a minute,” I reply, vaguely aware of the actual words that came out of my daughter’s mouth.

“MOMMY!”

I finally tear my eyes from the screen with an internal sigh that resonates down to my knees. Couldn’t she wait just another minute or two until I was finished? I turn to her bright and undaunted face, eyes gleaming with pride.

“See? I built a diamond sword, and that’s a heart, and that’s the Enderman but I didn’t have all black so he’s got some red …” she tells me. And my brain slowly sinks into a ‘here-but-not-here’ disposition as I feel my attention wane.

If she’s shown me this once, I swear, it’s been a hundred times I’ve seen these creations. Interruptions seem like the bane of my existence. Know the feeling?

I find I am at war within myself often, maybe you find yourself in a similar situation. I like the idea of being an attentive mom who can meet her kids’ needs, however imperfectly I do it. But I find myself dragging my feet often, struggling to be present in the here-and-now, wishing for it to be the end, or the later.

This struggle, I think, has cosmic implications. Hear me out. I’m taking a theology class right now and one of the books I’m reading is on Christian hope, or in a more precise term, eschatology. Eschatology is typically understood as the end times, or the Day of the Lord. As Christians we experience a tension between the here-and-now and the end times. Is Christian hope that eventually things will work out in the end, no matter what we do? Or is it our hope that through Christ we can do what is right now?

Martha meets with Jesus when her brother Lazarus dies. She knows Jesus’ profound compassion and love for people, and the signs He has done as a witness to His relationship with His Father. She says to Him,

‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’

Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.’ (John 11:21-26)

Martha states her belief that in the end all things will be all right. Jesus corrects her understanding from being something that is only in the future to what is happening now: I am the resurrection and the life … everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. What one does right now will have a direct result on what happens in the future.

The Day of the Lord has indeed happened – it happened when Christ died on the cross at Cavalry. For it was then that the course of the world changed. The resurrection is a result of the Father’s faithfulness to his promises; our salvation and the redemption of all creation is due to Christ’s faithful obedience to death – even death on a cross (Philippians 2: 5-11). Salvation came on Good Friday, and was fully realised on Easter morning; we cooperate in that salvation when we realise that our actions in the here-and-now have consequences for what happens later, as Jesus told Martha.

Is it the Day of the Lord yet? Sometimes I’m caught wishing for the end, when all things will be made right. As much of a struggle as it is, my yes to Jesus in the here-and-now determines much of what is to come. I can have that Day of the Lord right now – the Day of the Lord is Good Friday, and that is a cross we all are called to bear daily. I have to admit it’s not the answer I necessarily want to hear.

The same love Jesus has for us is the same love I can give back to my child. #catholicmom

Turning my attention to my child, ignoring the engrossing article I was reading, and intentionally bringing my attention back when it wanes – this is a cross. This is a yes to believing that Jesus is the resurrection and the life. And when I hear my daughter’s voice perk up again as she calls me out from myself, to stand up and live for her and see the Lego creations she has made, even when my will fades I get up and do so because what really motivates me is love.

The same love Jesus has for us is the same love I can give back to my child. And the only way the pain of humiliating my ego will ever diminish is if I rely on Jesus to provide the love I need to give, and do it over and over again. And sometimes I can only grudgingly admit that it is a gift to be able to say yes to this cross and participate in Jesus’ love. I am hopeful and pray that He will work on my heart of stone so that it becomes pliable to Him and can, in those moments, be able to praise Him for everything that happens, good or ill, for through it God’s glory can be revealed.

What is a particular cross which you recognise that you bear for love of another?

Copyright 2021 Jane Korvemaker
Images (from top): Zach Vessels (2019), Unsplash; "Last Judgment" by Michelangelo, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; "Raising of Lazarus" icon at MonasteryIcons.com, used with permission