Today, my eldest son sent me a picture of a Gospel text in which Jesus speaks about the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem and the end times (Luke 21). He did not attach any inquiry or caption to the picture. He left me to guess, on my own, that he was embroiled in a verbal altercation with some of his friends, which is one of the repercussions of the devastating earthquake, and he is asking for an opinion on the matter. What I have told him I am telling you. Ecclesiastically, we see nothing wrong in that the horrific events of the world remind us of the end times. The mistake would be if we confine the end to a certain time and not to another. In this Gospel text and its equivalents, there is a word that opens our waiting for Jesus’ second coming to the moment, to every moment, and it is: “watch”. This reveals that what Jesus wanted, in talking about the end times, was for us to keep ourselves in the world with a life of piety whose core is prayer, obedience and diligence in doing good. “Watch” is, for my son and his friends, as well as for you and me, an appropriate word for every day.
A Word for Every Day
Christian Diligence Daily prayer End Times Orthodox Piety Spiritual Watchfulness
