“From Strength to Strength: Let Us Go Up”
December 1, 2013
The 1st Sunday of the Christian Season of Advent
Isaiah 2: 1 – 5/Psalm 122/Romans 13: 8 – 14/Matthew 24: 37 – 44
His Excellency
The Most Reverend Ariel Cornelio P. Santos D.D.
Auxiliary Bishop and Locum Tenens
of the
Archdiocese of Manila
the
National Church in the Philippines
and the
Territorial Church of Asia
International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church
Happy New Year! This is the first day of the new Liturgical Year and we look forward to a fruitful year ahead of us.
Advent is the start of the first Season in the beginning of the year, and it means ‘coming’. We are encouraged to prepare for the coming of our Lord at Christmas and also His second coming. We are not to fear the coming of Christ. There is no reason to be afraid about His coming. Rather, we must be comforted and we must have a joyful anticipation of the coming of our Lord because His coming is news of a great joy. Not just joy, but great joy. We have no reason to be afraid but to anticipate it with excitement, with anticipation, and with joy because this is for our good.
I would like to correct something that has been in the Church and probably is still is in some circles of a wrong interpretation or concept of the coming of the Lord. We, as a Church, believed this before and certain parts of the Church still believe. It is called the rapture of the Church. The concept of this teaching is that one day, the righteous will be gathered and caught up in the air to meet Christ in the air when He comes. He will take us out of this world to heaven and shall ever be with the Lord. Those unfortunate wicked ones will be left on earth to be whipped and whacked by the devil for seven great tribulations years, and it is woe to them. We, the righteous and the elect, will escape that.
This is not exactly according to Scriptures. It is contrary to Scripture. The gospel today says that the coming of the Son of Man will be like just the days of Noah. During the days of Noah, it was the wicked that were taken out; it was the righteous that stayed. In the coming of the Lord, it will be the unrighteous that will be taken out, and it will be the righteous that will stay and be saved.
John the Baptist testified about our Lord and His coming. He described Him as someone who has His winnowing fork in His hand. He will clear out the threshing floor and He will burn up the chaff but He will gather the wheat into His barn. It is the wheat that will stay and the chaff that will be taken out.
Before, our mothers would have this ‘bilao’ with the grain of rice, and it would be tossed in the air so that the chaff would be blown away by the wind. With the wheat, they use a fork and tossed it in the air so that the chaff would be blown away by the wind. It is always that the righteous stay and the wicked are taken out.
In the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, the tares are gathered and burned up; the wheat stayed. In the Parable of the Dragnet, Jesus said that the kingdom of God is like a dragnet that caught a fish from the sea and they sorted out the fish. The bad fish was thrown away and the good fish stayed and were put into containers.
“This is my Father's world. I am not leaving!” Will you allow yourselves to be taken out of your own house? This is our inheritance and we are staying if we are a law-abiding citizen in the Kingdom.
Psalm 37 says, “Do not fret. Do not be afraid. Do not be worried or concerned for yet a little while the wicked will be no more but the righteous will always inherit the land.” In the Beatitudes, Jesus said, “The gentle are blessed for they shall inherit the earth, the land.” Land is always the promise of God. This is our inheritance. The reward of land and earth are not meant to be temporary. This is the inheritance of the gentle. If you are blessed, your inheritance must be forever. It is not just a lifetime or what is called the end of the world. The inheritance of the earth is that which is equivalent to eternal life.
Maybe a correct understanding of the inheritance of the earth and the land would give us a better perspective when it comes to this reward. St. Paul said in 1Corinthians 15, “If we have hope in Christ in this life only, then we are of all men most to be pitied.” His hope is not just for this lifetime; his hope is for the afterlife which is the life of the world to come. We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. We will inherit the world; we will inherit the earth; we will inherit the land. The Kingdom includes the land and the earth.
Jesus, John the Baptist, and Paul preached on the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven. They would say that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. It is here! Now! It will never end and will continue to increase. In the Gloria Patri, we say, “Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end.” We will inherit the land. If you plan to escape that is bad news for you, but actually it is good news because we have an inheritance. We have to have a correct understanding of the kingdom of God and it is here now and will stay forever.What about the meaning of a new heaven and a new earth? Does that mean that indeed there will be the end of the world and this world will be destroyed and some terrestrial ball would fall from heaven and we will have a new earth? If that is what it means to physically replace this earth, what about the heaven? How can you replace heaven?Scriptures says that heaven is the Lord’s throne. Do you think God will create for His throne something that has an expiration date to it and has to be renewed? It is eternal. New heavens and new earth mean that it would be renewed because the tares would have been taken out and the kingdom of God will be established as the chief of the mountains. Where will be our mansions be? Where will be the cities we are to rule over be? We are all going to be here. We have a land, an earth to inherit, and we are staying.Just as Adam was placed in the Garden and was meant to be there for eternity, we, as flesh, are meant to inherit the earth. This is to clear our understanding and to make it correct that we are not destined to escape. The children of God, the sons of God never ran away. This is not the character of God.In 1988, there was this book called “88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Happen in 1988.” During that time, I read a column of a Roman Catholic priest in one of the major dailies. He was very, very smart and wise. He challenged the author, Edgar Whisenant and said, “I bet Mr. Whisenant one million dollars that I am right and he is wrong. The rapture is not going to take place in 1988.” He added, “I am in a no lose situation. He is in a no win situation because if I am right, then he has to pay up. If he is right, he is not going to be here to collect my money.” He would have been raptured!The children of God never escape. We acknowledge that God Himself takes us to situations and brings before us challenges for us not to be thrown into the sea but to conquer. Escape is the easy way out. It is always easy to escape and God’s children are not like that. They don’t run away; we are like God.I believe that this is the root of the culture of divorce. It is always easier to say, “I don’t want anymore. Let us just stop this. I stop my commitment. I am not willing to face this anymore.” We are not like that because we are children of God. God never runs away from any problem. Jesus asked His disciple, “There are five thousand people in front of us and are hungry. It is late. Where are we going to get food to feed them?” The disciple said, “We need to send them away.” Jesus said, “No, you feed them! Don’t make them go away from you. You solve the problem. Feed them.”Escape or rapture mentality is looking forward to not having to face our giants anymore. It is not what God’s will is. If you have children, when you feed them, it is like their seat has a burner that just makes them very uncomfortable to stay in their seat. They always have to leave. They play; they make excuses. It always happens during mealtime. They cannot stand sitting in front of their food and staying there until they finish it. You probably need to chain them. They don’t understand that the food is good for them.Many times, in what we want to escape from, we don’t understand that if we conquer them, it is good for us. What do we do and feel? We feel, “How long is it until I can leave or stop doing this? I am tired of this.” We do not know that it is good for us and we have the ability to finish the food or to conquer the problem.Correct understanding will give us the right perspective. The righteous always stay and carry on. We are meant to have posterity. We are meant to have longevity. We are meant to have eternal life. Life is not just a continuity of time. It is not just chronological, but it is a continuity of kingdom living and growing in the quality of life that eternal life has for us.
In the gospel, it says that the people were doing their usual activities. Two men will be working in the field; one will be taken out and one will be left. Two will be in bed; one will be taken and one will be left. We will be going about with our daily, usual activities and the difference would be is that we are prepared and walking in the ways of God. We crown Him King in our lives and in our hearts. We are in this world, but we are not of this world.Bishop Gene Lilly had an after-death experience. He had a vision when he was in surgery unconscious. He had a glimpse of the other side. He said, “There was no difference. The people were going about their daily activities but they had joy. They understood what they were doing was all for God.” This was the difference! Is it doing for ourselves or doing it for God? What are we here on earth for? What are we employed for? What do we have families for? Why are we sitting in Church? If we are citizens of the Kingdom, we do all for the glory of God!After the tares had been taken out, the righteous simply go on with their eternal life already started. Right now, you are living eternal life already. It is not going to start sometime later. It has already started. When Jesus comes, we simply go on with our eternal life glorifying Him. I am not saying that is it not something special because that will take us to a much higher degree of glory. Every day, we should be going from glory to glory. We simply continue with what we already started. We are not going to start then. It will be too late to start then. We prepare now by living the kingdom-life now. It just continues when Jesus comes.We are not to be caught up with the “when” of His coming. It is not for us to know when; it is for us to prepare for whenever He comes. He said, “Occupy till I come. Don’t prepare later. Be prepared always.” If you haven’t started preparing, you probably have to start now! We should always be prepared. “Behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold, today is the day of salvation, the day of eternal life.” In Romans, Paul said, “Do this commandment knowing that the time is the hour to awaken from sleep.” Every day living, every day practice is the best preparation. You will always be prepared if you already are doing it every day.As an example and this is not to honk my own horn or to boast, I was in Grade Four and one day, I walked in the classroom and my Math teacher asked me, “Why are you not in gala uniform?” I said, “Is this a special day?” My teacher, Mrs. Romero, said, “Well, it is a special day because today is Math Contest. I gave your name as one of the contestants. You should be in gala uniform.” I did not know. She did not tell me. She said, “Never mind. Just go up there and do your thing.”I ended up with the silver medal. I had no preparation. I didn’t even know that it was coming. Was I prepared? Yes. How did I prepare? It was every day during the whole school year. If you understand and you apply every day, you are never unprepared. I would mentally compute and it was not an assignment. I just love doing it. I would compute the numbers of seconds in one hour mentally, the number of seconds in one day, one week, one year. You don’t go unprepared if you are already prepared and practice something every day.For motor vehicle drivers, when somebody gives them an exam right now, would they be unprepared? No. They know the road signs because they encounter them every day as they drive. This prepared them. Would it help me if I reviewed for the day before the exams? It would not have prepared me anymore than I already was. I have an understanding of an everyday living out.We are not actually preparing, but we are just going on and carrying on eternal life that has already started. To borrow the rapture’s verse in 1Thessalonians, “We will be with the Lord and so shall we will be ever be with the Lord.” I would add, “As we have always been.” Are you not with the Lord right now? You need to be! Every day, we need to be with the Lord. On that day, from that time and from then on, we shall ever be with the Lord.Right now, we already are and we just continue. We are not taking away from the glory of that, but we should be every day spending it with God. I was in the Church of St. Andrew the Apostle in Muntinlupa and I said, “They used to say that if you see God, then you will die. No one has seen God and lived.” I told them, “I would rather see God and be with Him because if you don’t see God, if you are not with Him, then you actually have no life. You have no life when you don’t have an encounter with God. If you do, you have found eternal life.”Isaiah 2 talks about the consistent witness of kingdom living and it will result in the Church being the chief of the mountains and nations streaming to its light and kings to the brightness of its risings. Peoples of the world will come and say “Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and they would want to learn of the ways of God in the mountain of the Lord.” What is the mountain of the Lord? It is the Church! They would want to learn of God’s ways and obtain peace and be productive instead of destructive in warfare.This is preparedness. Preparedness is not meant for us to be anxious and fearful but excited and joyful and hopeful. The First Sunday of Advent Candle reminds us of hope. Hope does not disappoint, but we anticipate salvation which is nearer now than when we first believed. Jesus instructs us, “Just occupy. Stay. Carry on.” Be steadfast with what you are already doing which is living the kingdom-life and crowning Jesus King in your hearts every day. He says, “He who endures to the end, He is the One that will be saved.”Our hope is that the grace of God will always be there for us. It is all God’s doing. It is all God’s grace. This is the way it is in His kingdom.
LET US CONTINUE OUR REFLECTION WITHCARDINAL OF HOLY MOTHER CHURCHAND VENERABLE PRIMATEOF THE PHILIPPINES
THROUGHTHE WORD EXPOSED
Happy New Year! This is the first day of the new Liturgical Year and we look forward to a fruitful year ahead of us.
Advent is the start of the first Season in the beginning of the year, and it means ‘coming’. We are encouraged to prepare for the coming of our Lord at Christmas and also His second coming. We are not to fear the coming of Christ. There is no reason to be afraid about His coming. Rather, we must be comforted and we must have a joyful anticipation of the coming of our Lord because His coming is news of a great joy. Not just joy, but great joy. We have no reason to be afraid but to anticipate it with excitement, with anticipation, and with joy because this is for our good.
I would like to correct something that has been in the Church and probably is still is in some circles of a wrong interpretation or concept of the coming of the Lord. We, as a Church, believed this before and certain parts of the Church still believe. It is called the rapture of the Church. The concept of this teaching is that one day, the righteous will be gathered and caught up in the air to meet Christ in the air when He comes. He will take us out of this world to heaven and shall ever be with the Lord. Those unfortunate wicked ones will be left on earth to be whipped and whacked by the devil for seven great tribulations years, and it is woe to them. We, the righteous and the elect, will escape that.
This is not exactly according to Scriptures. It is contrary to Scripture. The gospel today says that the coming of the Son of Man will be like just the days of Noah. During the days of Noah, it was the wicked that were taken out; it was the righteous that stayed. In the coming of the Lord, it will be the unrighteous that will be taken out, and it will be the righteous that will stay and be saved.
John the Baptist testified about our Lord and His coming. He described Him as someone who has His winnowing fork in His hand. He will clear out the threshing floor and He will burn up the chaff but He will gather the wheat into His barn. It is the wheat that will stay and the chaff that will be taken out.
Before, our mothers would have this ‘bilao’ with the grain of rice, and it would be tossed in the air so that the chaff would be blown away by the wind. With the wheat, they use a fork and tossed it in the air so that the chaff would be blown away by the wind. It is always that the righteous stay and the wicked are taken out.
In the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, the tares are gathered and burned up; the wheat stayed. In the Parable of the Dragnet, Jesus said that the kingdom of God is like a dragnet that caught a fish from the sea and they sorted out the fish. The bad fish was thrown away and the good fish stayed and were put into containers.
“This is my Father's world. I am not leaving!” Will you allow yourselves to be taken out of your own house? This is our inheritance and we are staying if we are a law-abiding citizen in the Kingdom.
Psalm 37 says, “Do not fret. Do not be afraid. Do not be worried or concerned for yet a little while the wicked will be no more but the righteous will always inherit the land.” In the Beatitudes, Jesus said, “The gentle are blessed for they shall inherit the earth, the land.” Land is always the promise of God. This is our inheritance. The reward of land and earth are not meant to be temporary. This is the inheritance of the gentle. If you are blessed, your inheritance must be forever. It is not just a lifetime or what is called the end of the world. The inheritance of the earth is that which is equivalent to eternal life.
Maybe a correct understanding of the inheritance of the earth and the land would give us a better perspective when it comes to this reward. St. Paul said in 1Corinthians 15, “If we have hope in Christ in this life only, then we are of all men most to be pitied.” His hope is not just for this lifetime; his hope is for the afterlife which is the life of the world to come. We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. We will inherit the world; we will inherit the earth; we will inherit the land. The Kingdom includes the land and the earth.
Jesus, John the Baptist, and Paul preached on the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven. They would say that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. It is here! Now! It will never end and will continue to increase. In the Gloria Patri, we say, “Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end.” We will inherit the land. If you plan to escape that is bad news for you, but actually it is good news because we have an inheritance. We have to have a correct understanding of the kingdom of God and it is here now and will stay forever.
What about the meaning of a new heaven and a new earth? Does that mean that indeed there will be the end of the world and this world will be destroyed and some terrestrial ball would fall from heaven and we will have a new earth? If that is what it means to physically replace this earth, what about the heaven? How can you replace heaven?
Scriptures says that heaven is the Lord’s throne. Do you think God will create for His throne something that has an expiration date to it and has to be renewed? It is eternal. New heavens and new earth mean that it would be renewed because the tares would have been taken out and the kingdom of God will be established as the chief of the mountains. Where will be our mansions be? Where will be the cities we are to rule over be? We are all going to be here. We have a land, an earth to inherit, and we are staying.
Just as Adam was placed in the Garden and was meant to be there for eternity, we, as flesh, are meant to inherit the earth. This is to clear our understanding and to make it correct that we are not destined to escape. The children of God, the sons of God never ran away. This is not the character of God.
In 1988, there was this book called “88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Happen in 1988.” During that time, I read a column of a Roman Catholic priest in one of the major dailies. He was very, very smart and wise. He challenged the author, Edgar Whisenant and said, “I bet Mr. Whisenant one million dollars that I am right and he is wrong. The rapture is not going to take place in 1988.” He added, “I am in a no lose situation. He is in a no win situation because if I am right, then he has to pay up. If he is right, he is not going to be here to collect my money.” He would have been raptured!
The children of God never escape. We acknowledge that God Himself takes us to situations and brings before us challenges for us not to be thrown into the sea but to conquer. Escape is the easy way out. It is always easy to escape and God’s children are not like that. They don’t run away; we are like God.
I believe that this is the root of the culture of divorce. It is always easier to say, “I don’t want anymore. Let us just stop this. I stop my commitment. I am not willing to face this anymore.” We are not like that because we are children of God. God never runs away from any problem. Jesus asked His disciple, “There are five thousand people in front of us and are hungry. It is late. Where are we going to get food to feed them?” The disciple said, “We need to send them away.” Jesus said, “No, you feed them! Don’t make them go away from you. You solve the problem. Feed them.”
Escape or rapture mentality is looking forward to not having to face our giants anymore. It is not what God’s will is. If you have children, when you feed them, it is like their seat has a burner that just makes them very uncomfortable to stay in their seat. They always have to leave. They play; they make excuses. It always happens during mealtime. They cannot stand sitting in front of their food and staying there until they finish it. You probably need to chain them. They don’t understand that the food is good for them.
Many times, in what we want to escape from, we don’t understand that if we conquer them, it is good for us. What do we do and feel? We feel, “How long is it until I can leave or stop doing this? I am tired of this.” We do not know that it is good for us and we have the ability to finish the food or to conquer the problem.
Correct understanding will give us the right perspective. The righteous always stay and carry on. We are meant to have posterity. We are meant to have longevity. We are meant to have eternal life. Life is not just a continuity of time. It is not just chronological, but it is a continuity of kingdom living and growing in the quality of life that eternal life has for us.
In the gospel, it says that the people were doing their usual activities. Two men will be working in the field; one will be taken out and one will be left. Two will be in bed; one will be taken and one will be left. We will be going about with our daily, usual activities and the difference would be is that we are prepared and walking in the ways of God. We crown Him King in our lives and in our hearts. We are in this world, but we are not of this world.
Bishop Gene Lilly had an after-death experience. He had a vision when he was in surgery unconscious. He had a glimpse of the other side. He said, “There was no difference. The people were going about their daily activities but they had joy. They understood what they were doing was all for God.” This was the difference! Is it doing for ourselves or doing it for God? What are we here on earth for? What are we employed for? What do we have families for? Why are we sitting in Church? If we are citizens of the Kingdom, we do all for the glory of God!
After the tares had been taken out, the righteous simply go on with their eternal life already started. Right now, you are living eternal life already. It is not going to start sometime later. It has already started. When Jesus comes, we simply go on with our eternal life glorifying Him. I am not saying that is it not something special because that will take us to a much higher degree of glory. Every day, we should be going from glory to glory. We simply continue with what we already started. We are not going to start then. It will be too late to start then. We prepare now by living the kingdom-life now. It just continues when Jesus comes.
We are not to be caught up with the “when” of His coming. It is not for us to know when; it is for us to prepare for whenever He comes. He said, “Occupy till I come. Don’t prepare later. Be prepared always.” If you haven’t started preparing, you probably have to start now! We should always be prepared. “Behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold, today is the day of salvation, the day of eternal life.” In Romans, Paul said, “Do this commandment knowing that the time is the hour to awaken from sleep.” Every day living, every day practice is the best preparation. You will always be prepared if you already are doing it every day.
As an example and this is not to honk my own horn or to boast, I was in Grade Four and one day, I walked in the classroom and my Math teacher asked me, “Why are you not in gala uniform?” I said, “Is this a special day?” My teacher, Mrs. Romero, said, “Well, it is a special day because today is Math Contest. I gave your name as one of the contestants. You should be in gala uniform.” I did not know. She did not tell me. She said, “Never mind. Just go up there and do your thing.”
I ended up with the silver medal. I had no preparation. I didn’t even know that it was coming. Was I prepared? Yes. How did I prepare? It was every day during the whole school year. If you understand and you apply every day, you are never unprepared. I would mentally compute and it was not an assignment. I just love doing it. I would compute the numbers of seconds in one hour mentally, the number of seconds in one day, one week, one year. You don’t go unprepared if you are already prepared and practice something every day.
For motor vehicle drivers, when somebody gives them an exam right now, would they be unprepared? No. They know the road signs because they encounter them every day as they drive. This prepared them. Would it help me if I reviewed for the day before the exams? It would not have prepared me anymore than I already was. I have an understanding of an everyday living out.
We are not actually preparing, but we are just going on and carrying on eternal life that has already started. To borrow the rapture’s verse in 1Thessalonians, “We will be with the Lord and so shall we will be ever be with the Lord.” I would add, “As we have always been.” Are you not with the Lord right now? You need to be! Every day, we need to be with the Lord. On that day, from that time and from then on, we shall ever be with the Lord.
Right now, we already are and we just continue. We are not taking away from the glory of that, but we should be every day spending it with God. I was in the Church of St. Andrew the Apostle in Muntinlupa and I said, “They used to say that if you see God, then you will die. No one has seen God and lived.” I told them, “I would rather see God and be with Him because if you don’t see God, if you are not with Him, then you actually have no life. You have no life when you don’t have an encounter with God. If you do, you have found eternal life.”
Isaiah 2 talks about the consistent witness of kingdom living and it will result in the Church being the chief of the mountains and nations streaming to its light and kings to the brightness of its risings. Peoples of the world will come and say “Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and they would want to learn of the ways of God in the mountain of the Lord.” What is the mountain of the Lord? It is the Church! They would want to learn of God’s ways and obtain peace and be productive instead of destructive in warfare.
This is preparedness. Preparedness is not meant for us to be anxious and fearful but excited and joyful and hopeful. The First Sunday of Advent Candle reminds us of hope. Hope does not disappoint, but we anticipate salvation which is nearer now than when we first believed. Jesus instructs us, “Just occupy. Stay. Carry on.” Be steadfast with what you are already doing which is living the kingdom-life and crowning Jesus King in your hearts every day. He says, “He who endures to the end, He is the One that will be saved.”
Our hope is that the grace of God will always be there for us. It is all God’s doing. It is all God’s grace. This is the way it is in His kingdom.
WITH
CARDINAL OF HOLY MOTHER CHURCH
AND
VENERABLE PRIMATE
OF THE PHILIPPINES
THROUGH
THROUGH
THE WORD EXPOSED
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