Fr Matthew Reese

“But of that day or that hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Take heed, watch; for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Watch therefore—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning—lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Watch.”
—Mark 13:32-37

Dear Friends in Christ,

Jesus’ exhortation to watchfulness is a knowing one… In just a few verses (Mark 14:32-42), Jesus will find that even his dearest disciples are incapable of keeping the watch. When he finishes praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus will turn to Simon Peter and ask,

“Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak…”

This scene, and Jesus’ parable that precedes it, have exerted great power over Christians across the centuries. In Saint Paul’s time, the bodily return of Christ was expected imminently. And since then, there have been spikes of millenarian fervor—around AD 500, and again 1000, and again in the early 1200s (predicted by Joachim of Fiore—a principal inspiration for Dante’s Divine Comedy)…

No to mention 1492, 1525, 1757, 1844 (“The Great Disappointment”), 1874 (the Jehovah’s Witnesses), 1891 (some Mormons), 1914 (the Jehovah’s Witnesses, again, for good measure), and by at least one group or another, seemingly every three to five years since 1975!

But these disappointed prophecies, visions, and numerological “calculations,” in my view, entirely miss the point.

After all, Jesus says quite clearly, “But of that day or that hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

Why waste our time with calculations?

Jesus is telling us that the moment for discipleship is now. The moment for forgiveness and reconciliation is now. The moment for prayerful expectation of the Risen Lord is now.

We are to live, and to love, and to serve, as if our Lord might appear at any moment. That is the fervor, the immediacy of faith to which we are called.

Yours in Christ,

—Fr Matthew