New Seasons – Day 19

An Australian author, Morris West, wrote a very moving story in his novel The Clowns of God. It speaks of a fictitious pope, Pope Gregory XVII. The story is set in 1992 and the world is in great conflict, ready for the next world war. In Europe and in the US, atomic weapons are pointed at one other. In the Vatican, the Pope decides to set himself apart and seek guidance from the Lord regarding the message he must give to millions of believers. Alone in a monastery one day, an angel of the Lord appears to him and instructs him to announce that the great day of the second coming is finally on its way. The believers should prepare themselves to receive the Lord! It was a shock to him, but he did not doubt his vision.

He sent a papal letter to all the church leaders on earth. The cardinals in the inner circle were furious. They agreed that the Pope had lost his mind and, as the leader of the largest church in the world, he had no right to act so irresponsibly. They feared the stock market would crash and people would be terrified. Eventually, they forced the Pope to resign. The moral of the story is that it was Christians who could not handle the message of the second coming.

This story made me think about whether we’re really ready for an unexpected coming of the Lord Jesus. Are you, like these cardinals, also embarrassed when other people talk about Jesus’ return? God has promised he will come like a thief in the night. No one will be expecting him. If the Lord came again today, would you be ready? Would God be happy with what you’re doing right now? We all say that we look forward to seeing the Lord, but is that really true in your case? Do you not perhaps live as if the world was the most important place to you? If you want to live a meaningful life, you need to know today that God wants us to be ready for his return at any given moment!