THE DAY OF THE LORD IS IMMINENT

THE DAY OF THE LORD IS IMMINENT

By Fr. Felix (African Times Guest Writer)

After all this teaching on the conduct of the

apostles in the life of the Church Luke turns his

attention to the end-time with the little parable

in which the master sits the servants down and

serves them.

It is an image rather than a full-blown story-

parable. It no doubt comes from the source

shared with Matthew, though it is scarcely the

idea which sparked Matthew’s story-parable of

the ten wedding-attendants.

In its present position, after the teaching on the

conduct of the mission, it must be intended as

an exhortation to perseverance, a favourite

virtue of Luke), to carry on till the end, whenever

that may be. However, a parable can have

several applications or several meanings.

In the mouth of Jesus was it originally a

warning that the Day of the Lord was imminent,

the sort of warning which went with the

preaching of John the Baptist and Jesus’ own

early proclamation? Paul certainly expected the

final coming of the Lord to occur within a

lifetime or two, and shaped his view of the

prospects for married life and the education of

children on that assumption (1 Corinthians 7).

But as the Day of the Lord continued to delay,

the interpretation of such figures changed from

immediacy to imminence.

The teaching has the same theme as Matthew’s

parable, the need to make provision now for the

future, but there is no mention of the opposite

excesses into which the unfaithful servant falls

in the other synoptic gospels, maltreating the

rest of the household.

The Gospel of the Lord teaches us that the

coming O Lord is nigh when we contrast the

brevity of this life with the eternity of the

hereafter in its longevity. Grant that in our

passing on daily, we may not be fooled by the

abstract nature of the chronological time.

Temporality (i.e. being conditioned by time) is

the reason of our temporary life on Earth. Turn

us towards the Eternal One.