The Friend That Returns

Today I want to comment on the return of a Great Friend of Humanity. This is a subject that causes a lot of emotion in our Souls. Regardless of the line of thinking that any one of us adopts, what we all long for in our hearts is to have someone close who can direct us along the right path and who is an example of great character of spiritual, human, and social coexistence.

In the return of Jesus, the Ecumenical Christ, that is Universal, the Divine Statesman, to planet Earth, I observe a blessing for all communities.

In my talks broadcast on the radio, TV, the Internet, and published in the press I have always tried to analyze this Sublime Happening. In one of them, in my book "Apocalypse without Fear," even before we entered the present millennium, I considered the following:

God’s Time
Tela: James Tissot (1836-1902)

   

On the third day Jesus resurrected from the dead. Pay attention: He resurrected from the dead! (The Gospel according to Luke 24:1 to 12):

"1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women who had followed Jesus from Galilee took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.

"2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb,

"3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

"4 While they were perplexed about this, behold, two Angels stood by them in dazzling apparel.

"5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the Angels said to them: ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead?

"6 ‘He is not here; He has resurrected! Remember how He told you, while He was still with you in Galilee:

"7 ‘The Son of God must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’

"8 Then they remembered His words.

"9 When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others.

"10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told these things to the apostles.

Tela: James Tissot (1836-1902)

   

"11 But they did not believe the women, because the words seemed to them like nonsense.

"12 Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Stooping and looking in, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened."

Tela: Eugene Burnand (1850–1921)

   

The Divine Reference

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Dionysius Exiguus

On the third day Jesus will return. But in His own time, which is not how humans count it, which is full of mistakes. Dionysius Exiguus (470-544) knew this only too well. He made a mistake in the calculations that were used by Gregory XIII (1502-1585) when he reformed the calendar in 1582. Christ cannot use a chronology that was wrong right from the start and, what is more, is not used by many nations.

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Gregory XIII

Let us say, for argument’s sake, that when analyzing prophetic subjects Time should be counted from the time when the Earth first appeared in the Universe. Starting from this mark we would find the correct date for the time of the Return of Jesus, since in this way we would be working in accordance with the Divine Planning, according to which this planet was structured.

We cannot, above all, forget that Christ returns every day in the hearts of those with Good Will, and even to those who do not praise Him openly, because He is a Sacred Reference of Goodness, for which insurmountable boundaries should not exist. His return, in this sense, is a spiritual phenomenon that occurs within us, for which we need to exercise eyes to see and ears to hear, in line with the advice the Heavenly Teacher gives us in the messages that were sent to the Seven Churches in Asia, which today are all over the world, involving Politics, Science, Philosophy, Economics, Religion, Art, Sport, and so on and so forth.

"Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches of the Lord. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the Tree of Eternal Life, which is in the paradise of my God." (Jesus’ letter to the Church in Ephesus, Apocalypse 2:7)

José de Paiva Netto is a writer, journalist, radio broadcaster, composer, and poet. He is the President of the Legion of Good Will (LGW), effective member of the Brazilian Press Association (ABI) and of the Brazilian International Press Association (ABI-Inter). Affiliated to the National Federation of Journalists (FENAJ), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the Union of Professional Journalists of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the Union of Writers of Rio de Janeiro, the Union of Radio Broadcasters of Rio de Janeiro, and the Brazilian Union of Composers (UBC). He is also a member of the Academy of Letters of Central Brazil. He is an author of international reference in the concept and defense of the cause of Ecumenical Citizenship and Spirituality which, according to him, constitute “the cradle of the most generous values that are born of the Soul, the dwelling of the emotions and of the reasoning enlightened by intuition, the atmosphere that embraces everything that transcends the ordinary field of matter and comes from the elevated human sensitivity, such as Truth, Justice, Mercy, Ethics, Honesty, Generosity, and Fraternal Love.”