It has been nearly a year since I wrote my views on the so-called “most embarrassing verse” in the Bible. At the time of that writing, however, I was not yet a Roman Catholic. Having now come to the fullness of the faith, I would like to share a take on the parousia that, as a Protestant, I never encountered. Dr. Scott Hahn explains in the passage below how the Real Presence (parousia) in the Eucharist constitutes a direct fulfillment of all that Jesus promised us. As I cannot due justice to this uniquely Catholic perspective myself, I will let Dr. Hahn do the explaining below.

The book is Catholic for a Reason: The Mass, and it can be purchased by following this link. All credit and thanks to Emmaus Road Publishing and the St. Paul Center for kindly allowing me to share this excerpt with you. Please visit them at http://www.stpaulcenter.com.

Jesus had promised repeatedly that the kingdom was coming without delay. Midway though the “little apocalypse” of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says: “Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away till all these things take place” (Mt. 24:35).

The Early Christians expected immediate fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecies. They expected an imminent parousia. Modern historians have found evidence of this expectation throughout the New Testament and the earliest Christian writings. The most ancient Eucharistic prayer that has survived, in the Didache, ends with the Aramaic word “Maranatha,” that is, “Come, Lord!” The Book of Revelation begins with a promise to show “what must soon take place” (Rev. 1:1) and ends with the same words as the liturgy in the Didache: “Come, Lord Jesus!” Biblical scholar Margaret Barker has identified the word “Maranatha!”- as the Church’s primal Eucharistic prayer: “This links the return of the LORD to the Eucharist. Other lines of [Didache’s] prayer are ambiguous: ‘Let this present world pass away’, for example, could imply either a literal understanding of the LORD’s return or the present transforming effect of the Eucharist. Maranatha in the Eucharist, however, must be the original epiklesis, praying for the coming of the LORD. [11]

Modern historians are right to point out the expectation of the apostolic age. They go wrong, however, when they conclude that the early Christians must have been disappointed with the passing of time. The apostate scholar Alfred Loisy observed that Jesus came promising the kingdom, but all He left behind was the Church. Loisy was disappointed by this turn of events, but the early Christians most certainly were not.

The early Christians knew that there would indeed be a Parousia at the end of time, but there was no less a parousia right now, whenever they celebrated the Mass. When Christ comes at the end of time, He will have no less glory than He has whenever He comes to His Church in the Mass. The only difference, then, is in what we see.

Faced with the evidence of the ancient liturgies, skeptics will sometimes resort to psychoanalyzing the ancients. They say that the idea of a “liturgical Parousia” was a late development and a coping mechanism for a disappointed Church. But it wasn’t late. Gregory Dix notes that it is in the very earliest of documents; indeed, some scholars estimate that the liturgy of the Didache could have been written no later than AD 48. [12] After reviewing all the ancient Eucharistic texts, Jaroslav Pelikan concludes: “The Eucharistic liturgy was not a compensation for the postponement of the Parousia, but a way of celebrating the presence of one who had promised to return.”[13]

After all, it was Jesus Himself who set such a high level of expectation in the Church; and it was Jesus Himself who pointed to its imminent fulfillment. Indeed, it was Jesus who established the Eucharist as an eschatological event – a Parousia- a coming of the King and the kingdom. We must not miss the small but significant details of the scriptural accounts of the Last Supper. As Jesus takes the bread and wine, He says to His apostles: “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I tell you I shall not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God . . . . I shall not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes” (Lk. 22:15 – 16, 18). As he institutes the sacrament, He institutes the kingdom. A moment later, He is speaking of the kingdom in terms of a “table” (22:27) and a “banquet” (22:30) – language that will recur in the final chapters of the Book of Revelation. If we are looking for familiar apocalyptic language, we will find it aplenty in Luke’s account of the Last Supper – but we will find it always expressed in Eucharistic terms. Thus, Jesus, using language which calls to mind the Eucharistic element, goes on to speak of the apocalyptic trials, in which believers are “sift[ed] like wheat” (22:31).

No less an authority than Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger has noted that the New Testament’s apocalyptic imagery is overwhelmingly liturgical, and the Church’s liturgical language is overwhelmingly apocalyptic. “The Parousia is the highest intensification and fulfillment of the liturgy,” he writes. “And the liturgy is parousia. . . .Every Eucharist is Parousia, the Lord’s coming, and yet the Eucharist is even more truly the tensed yearning that He would reveal His hidden Glory.” [14]

None of this precludes a parousia of Christ at the end of history. Theologians call that “coming” of Christ the “plenary parousia” – not because Christ will have a greater fullness then, but rather because we will be able to behold Him in His fullness, with our senses unveiled. For, since His coming, Christ is present in the world in a way that He was not in the Old Covenant; but He remains veiled in a way that He will not be at the end. The Catechism tells us: ”The Kingdom of God has been coming since the Last Supper and, in the Eucharist, it is in our midst. The kingdom will come in glory when Christ hands it over to His Father” (no. 2816).[…]

[…] The Catechism sums it up: “The Church knows that the Lord comes even now in his Eucharist and that he is there in our midst. However, his presence is veiled” (no. 1404). […] As Catholics, we must dare to take Jesus at His word and accept His promises on His terms. He promised us a glorious kingdom within His own generation – and, even today, we boldly proclaim that he made good on that promise. For all time, He has established His Eucharistic kingdom, the Church.

What Jesus promised and what He delivered are one and the same. He said He was coming soon – and He is! He said the kingdom is near – and it is. It’s as near as your local parish, where the King reigns in the Eucharist. O come, let us adore him!