«Figli della luce e figli del giorno» (1Ts 5,5): il fondamento kerygmatico dell’essere Cristiani

Abstract

The article reflects on the “actual aspect”, that is, the “real now”, the “hour of salvation”, as described by St. Paul, who sees parousia as a new way of understanding the eschatology rooted in the ordinary “now” life of the Christians. Jesus’ resurrection is an event par excellence dependent solely on the action of God’s power in history. Hence the end of the times, which is the end of time, is something already present within history and within the passage of time. The article also introduces and deepens one of the intuitions of the biblical scholar Ugo Vani SJ, which concerns the so-called “qualitative”, “vertical” eschatology. It refers to the change of perspective brought about by the event of Christ’s death and resurrection, which highlights the Christian experience of “being saved”. This experience characterizes “eschatological tension” as the tension between the “not yet” and “already” being saved. Finally, the article examines 1 Thess. 5: 1-11. Its aim is to discover the kerygmatic value of the Gospel of Paul and the ontology of the baptized contained in the statement “we are children of light and children of the day” (1 Thess 5: 5).