Christians have no privileged insight into future events, such as political changes, ecological crises, or matric results. The “things to come” that Jesus promises the Holy Spirit will reveal to us are not historical occurrences, but rather God’s entire plan for the salvation of the world. Some people use the term “eschatological” to describe these end-of-time plans that God has for the
world.
As Christians, we look at the whole of history through a different lens: the lens of hope and love. Where others see cause for despair, despondency, and desolation, we trust in God’s greater plan of love, mercy and reconciliation. We firmly believe that God will resolve the most challenging problems of our time, and this gives us cause for hope in a future that we cannot produce with our limited human means.
As long as we’re using language about a “future,” we aren’t conceiving a state that is beyond time and space, where change and decay don’t feature. Words like eternity, everlasting, immortal, timeless, heaven, have been used by Christians to attempt to describe a condition in which we are totally in the hands of God, and have nothing to fear and cannot suffer. This is the future that the Spirit of Jesus reveals to us.
How firmly do I trust that my future is in the hands of God? Am I at peace with this idea? What am I looking forward to in God’s good time?
Reflections by Peter Knox SJ
