In God’s Good Time:
Thoughts about Advent*

But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.—2 Peter 3:8

For the second Sunday of Advent, the second reading at Mass (Cycle B) is from the Second Letter of Peter, Chapter 3.  Several years ago our priest gave a homily based on this reading.  He stressed that we should believe in God’s promises.

CONFUSED ABOUT THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST

As our pastor explained it, when Peter gave his homily the faithful were confused about the Second Coming of Christ. Many thought it should have come already, or soon be forthcoming: whence Peter’s comment that God’s time is not our time.

Indeed, as St. Augustine put it a few centuries later:

Who will hold the heart of man, that it may stand still, and see how the still-standing eternity, itself neither future nor past, utters the times future and past? [emphasis added]—St. Augustine of Hippo, Confessions, Book 11, Chapter 11.

So, as our pastor told us, we should be patient and believe that God keeps His promises. Christ WILL come again, in God’s time, not our own.

A GOOD REASON TO DELAY THE SECOND COMING

I can think of another reason to justify that the Second Coming of our Lord may be and, indeed, should be delayed. If Christ had come again while St. Peter was alive, think of all the souls who would never have been in heaven, all the saints that would never have been born, the magnificent story of God’s universe that would never have been known. As St. Peter explains in verse 9:

The Lord does not delay his promise, as some regard “delay,” but he is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.  2 Peter 3:9

ALL THINGS HAPPEN IN GOD’S GOOD TIME

So again, it is in God’s good time (and our own) that Christ will come again. This is to be kept in mind this Advent and always.

But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.—2 Peter 3:8

Indeed, we should keep this in mind for all events, in fact that recovery also happens in God’s Good Time.

Again, this is the message: God is timeless (as is His domain, heaven).   Since the concept of timelessness, past, future and the present as one, is hard to imagine, it’s hard for us to be indifferent to  when Christ comes again— tomorrow, or 20,000 years from now. But when (or if) we get to heaven, it will be all the same to us.

*Modified from a post published Dec. 15, 2019 on Catholic Stand.