TOPIC 11

RESURRECTION, ASCENSION,
AND SECOND COMING

Part 3 – Jesus’ Second Coming

 JESUS’ SECOND COMING

The Ascension The Ascension The Great Battle The Transfiguration

& the inauguration ushers in the End Times of the Last Times of Christ’s Body
of the kingdom and the Last Times

Prayer, Expiation, the Eucharist: Faith, hope, boldness: The Church’s St. Josemaria:
weapons for the combat. hallmarks of the sons of God. “ultimate trial” qualities of the modern apostle
 The Ascension
and the inauguration
of the kingdom
Jesus “ascends into heaven where He sits at the right hand of God”
(cf Mk 16:19)

◦ Christ, in His Humanity, now participates in God’s power

and is given universal sovereignty in heaven and on earth
(cf Mt 28:18).

◦ from thence, He ceaselessly pours out the Holy Spirit

into the members of His Body of which He is the Head
(cf Eph 4: 11-12.16).

◦ equipping thereby each member with gifts of the Spirit

◦ “to build up His Body in love...until He “fills all things”

(Eph 4:10)
“I have come to cast fire on the earth...”
Lk 12:49
 The Ascension ushers
in
the End Times
Since the Ascension, God’s plan has entered into its final stage

◦ subjecting “all things in heaven and on earth to the sovereign dominion of Christ
until all His enemies are destroyed...”

◦ so that, in the consummation of time, Christ may offer His kingdom to God and
“God becomes all in all”
(1 Cor 15:23-28).

◦ The renewal of the world is now irrevocably under way...

◦ “...and is even now anticipated in a real way in the sanctity

of the Church on earth, which Christ has established as the seed and beginning of
the kingdom”
(CCC 669-670).

◦ Christ’s Victory on the Cross

is now permeating all humanity and history.
 The Great Battle
of the Last Times
“a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed
with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her
head a crown of twelve stars; 2 she was with child and she
cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery. 

And another portent appeared in heaven; behold, a great

3 

red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven
diadems upon his heads. 

His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven, and

4 

cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the
woman who was about to bear a child, that he might
devour her child when she brought it forth…”
Rev 12: 1
 The Transfiguration
of Christ’s Body
and the Last Times
The Body of Christ, inaugurated at the Resurrection
and awaiting perfect realization at the end of the world,
is now in the process of being fully formed.

◦ fruit of the sending of the Spirit: the Transfiguration

of the Body of Christ in each of Her members.

◦ the Kingdom is present & operative in our midst and inside us

◦ Benedict XVI: the “energy” of the Eucharist, a fission bomb

explosion, transforming the personal, social and institutional dimensions
of life.

◦ the assaults of Satan are permitted ad robur (St. Augustine), for the
purification of our faith, as gold is cleansed by fire
(cf 1 Pt 1:7).
 Prayer, Expiation,
the Eucharist:
weapons for the combat.
The “rules of engagement” for the struggle

◦ Know the enemy.

“12 For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities,
against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the
spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
Eph 6

◦ Wage the struggle in the living space opened up for us by faith. Lk 9: 1-36.
◦ the calling of the Twelve, who receive power over demons and authority to preach
God’s word.
◦ feeding of 5,000, with 12 baskets of leftovers. Eucharist is Promised. Jn 6.
◦ Passion is foretold. Peter is given the keys. Assaults of hell foreseen.
◦ the Transfiguration at Mt. Tabor, now operative in the Body of Christ.
Faith, hope, boldness: hallmarks of the sons of God
The overriding desire of the Church: the full realization of the kingdom

“12 “Behold, I am coming soon. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega.

17 
The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!”
Rev 22

Faith Hope Boldness

Christ’s reign “is still under attack by the evil powers, Perseverance in carrying out the apostolate.
Christ is “the Lord of the cosmos and of history.” And
even though they have been definitively defeated. So Acts 4: Arrest and release of Peter and John.
He now “dwells on earth in his Church bringing “all
the pilgrim Church groans and prays, above all in the
creation to its fulfillment”(CCC 668).
Eucharist, to hasten Christ’s return” (CCC 671).`
 The Church’s
“ultimate trial”
The “supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist” (CCC
675)

◦ a false messianism that seeks to realize

within history the hope of the definitive triumph
of goodness over evil that can only be realized beyond
history.

◦ that rejects God’s creative plan by claiming

for man an absolute freedom to shape his own identity and
destiny

◦ and seeks deliverance from evil

in ideologies that glorify wealth, pleasure
and human power. Fundamentalism and secularism.
 St. Josemaria:
qualities of the modern apostle
Cf. The Way: chapters on “Study,” “Forming the spirit,” “Your sanctity”

constant professional formation: Cultural formation: Doctrinal

sanctification of work awareness of the ideas and Religious formation
that are shaping our times

Human Virtues: perseverance in the apostolate respect for the freedom

genuine concern for others, spirit of of friendship and confidence and dignity of each person
service, generosity, humility, capacity
for dialogue, fortitude
 TOPIC 11
RESURRECTION, ASCENSION,
AND SECOND COMING

Part 3 – Jesus’ Second Coming