Advent IV - Thursday

It is strange but the gospel reading at the beginning of the time of preparation for Christmas is that of the end of the whole history of the world. Yet that is not really surprising. For what is a foot in a small beginning is best recognized by the magnitude of its end. What was really meant and actually happened by the coming, the “advent”, of the redeemer is best gathered from the completion of his coming which he rather misleadingly called the “second coming”. For in reality, it is the fulfillment of his one coming which is still in progress at the present time.

Karl Rahner, Everyday Faith, 1968