"Awaiting parusia is not a way to escape from our responsibilities in this world. On the contrary, the return of the Judge makes us more responsible for our own actions in this world," pointed out the Pope, saying that St Paul summed up the doctrine of parusia the main subject of today’s audience in a "deep and simple message: at the end, we will always be with the Lord." According to the Pope, "this is the essential message: our future is being in the Lord. Since we, as believers, are already in the Lord, our eternal life has already began," even if "we must not be misled by thinking the day of the Lord is imminent. Before the coming of our Lord, there will be the Apostasy, the presence of an ‘evil man’ called by the tradition Antichrist." "Waiting for our Lord’s return implies that we take our responsibilities in this world," continued the Pope recalling that "St Paul does not fear death. On the contrary, for him death is being fully with Christ. But Paul is also sharing Christ’s feelings who has not lived for himself but for the others." Hence, in St Paul "living for the others becomes a life programme" that "is source of a great inner freedom, from the fear of death, and the commitments and suffering of life."
