By Clement Harrold

October 30, 2025

Three times in the Book of Revelation, Jesus assures His followers of His imminent return:

And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. 

RevELATION 22:7

Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense, to repay every one for what he has done. 

RevELATION 22:12

He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! 

RevELATION 22:20

Revelation 22 is the final chapter of the Bible, and verse 20 contains Jesus’s final words in all of Sacred Scripture. And yet, with almost 2,000 years having elapsed since Christ’s Ascension into heaven, the modern reader might reasonably ask what exactly Jesus meant when He said that He is coming “soon.”

The Greek word for “soon” used in these verses is tachy, which can also be translated “quickly.” The same adverb is used in Matthew 28:8, for example, to describe the woman hurrying away from the empty tomb: “So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples.”

What, then, is Jesus trying to tell us when He says that He is coming quickly / soon? The early Greek bishop Andrew of Caesarea invites us to consider this question in two ways:

The words ‘I am coming soon’ indicate either the shortness of the present time in comparison with the future age or the sudden swiftness of the death of each person. (Commentary on the Apocalypse, 22.7)

This helps us see that Jesus’s words at the end of the Book of Revelation have a dual meaning. On the one hand, they warn us that Jesus’s Second Coming will indeed come soon when we understand the time span of this world relative to the time span of the world to come. Even 2,000 years is a short time compared with eternity.

On the other hand, Jesus’s words warn us that He is coming soon for each and every one of us at the moment of our death. We do not know when that moment will be, but it could be today. And even if the Lord allows us to remain on this earth for another few years or decades, that is once again a very short time indeed when compared with eternity.

Time Is Short, Eternity Is Long

One of the overarching themes of the Bible is that the present world is only a passing thing. With this in mind, the Scriptures repeatedly highlight the fleeting nature of this life:

• “Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing in your sight. Surely every man stands as a mere breath!” (Psa 39:5)
• “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” (Psa 90:12)
• “The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the LORD blows upon it; surely the people is grass.” (Isa 40:7)
• “Whereas you do not know about tomorrow. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” (Jas 4:14)
• “And the world passes away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.” (1 Jn 2:17)

As Christians, we understand that Jesus will one day return in glory to forge the new heavens and the new earth, and to judge the living and the dead. When Jesus does at last come, then we shall suddenly realize, as St. Paul did, that everything we endured in this life was a mere blink of the eye compared to everything which awaits us if we remain faithful:

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer man is wasting away, our inner man is being renewed every day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, because we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Cor 4:16-18)

St. Teresa of Ávila echoed this insight with her famous line comparing our earthly trials to a bad night in a hotel:

Let us not desire delights, daughters; we are well-off here; the bad inn lasts for only a night. Let us praise God; let us force ourselves to do penance in this life. How sweet will be the death of one who has done penance for all his sins, of one who won’t have to go to purgatory! Even from here below you can begin to enjoy glory! You will find no fear within yourself but complete peace.

While this present life can feel long and arduous, particularly when we are suffering, the reality is that Christ’s coming—and the judgment which follows it—will be here soon enough: “If it seem slow, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay” (Hab 2:3; cf. Heb 10:37).

Thy Kingdom Come

While 2,000 years might seem like a long time from our human perspective, we are called as Christians to view our lives, and all of history, from an eternal perspective. This is an important theme in the second epistle of St. Peter:

But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness, but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up. (2 Pet 3:8-10)

St. Peter points out that what we might consider to be slowness on God’s part is really an act of mercy. God is forbearing (patient) towards us and the world because He wants to give us every opportunity to repent. At the same, this mustn’t be an excuse for complacency, because we know that God’s patience will not last forever.

Perhaps an analogy will be helpful here. In 1944, it was essential for Frenchmen living in northern France to know that the Allies were coming soon, even if they weren’t sure exactly when this would be. This was a point made by C.S. Lewis in his classic apologetic work Mere Christianity:

Why is God landing in this enemy-occupied world in disguise and starting a sort of secret society to undermine the devil? Why is He not landing in force, invading it? Is it that He is not strong enough? Well, Christians think He is going to land in force; we do not know when. But we can guess why He is delaying. He wants to give us the chance of joining His side freely. I do not suppose you and I would have thought much of a Frenchman who waited till the Allies were marching into Germany and then announced he was on our side. God will invade. But I wonder whether people who ask God to interfere openly and directly in our world quite realize what it will be like when He does. When that happens, it is the end of the world. When the author walks on to the stage the play is over. God is going to invade, all right: but what is the good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else — something it never entered your head to conceive — comes crashing in; something so beautiful to some of us and so terrible to others that none of us will have any choice left? For this time it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late then to choose your side. There is no use saying you choose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up. That will not be the time for choosing: it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realized it or not. Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It will not last forever. We must take it or leave it. (Mere Christianity, bk II, ch 5, “The Practical Conclusion”)

Jesus is indeed coming soon, and the only reason for His delay is that we and the world around us are not ready yet. Yet it remains a solemn part of the Church’s mission to pray at all times for Christ’s Kingdom to come soon:

Though already present in his Church, Christ’s reign is nevertheless yet to be fulfilled “with power and great glory” by the King’s return to earth. [Lk 21:27] This reign is still under attack by the evil powers, even though they have been defeated definitively by Christ’s Passover. Until everything is subject to him, “until there be realized new heavens and a new earth in which justice dwells, the pilgrim Church, in her sacraments and institutions, which belong to this present age, carries the mark of this world which will pass, and she herself takes her place among the creatures which groan and travail yet and await the revelation of the sons of God.” [Lumen Gentium 48 § 3] That is why Christians pray, above all in the Eucharist, to hasten Christ’s return by saying to him: Marana tha! “Our Lord, come!” (CCC 671; cf. Lk 21:27; 1 Cor 16:22; Rev 22:17,20)