Word to the Wise
Thursday, August 31, 2023 - Thursday in the 21th Week in Ordinary Time
[1 Thess 3:7-13 and Matt 24:42-51]"Stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into. So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come." [Matthew]
"Stay awake!" "Be alert!" "Stay in shape!" "Be on the watch! for....!" These are all expressions with which most of us are familiar. And most of us are also aware of how difficult it is to do those things 24 hours a day for a long time, let alone for a lifetime! When the Gospel According to Matthew was composed, there was considerable expectation that Jesus would return "soon!" The same feeling is strong in St. Paul's two letters to the Thessalonians, which are featured in the first daily scriptures at the present time. It didn't take too long before Christians began to realize that the "second coming" could not be determined by human reckoning (although some folks still try!). So, how does one live in steady, if not constant, expectation? Does it mean a constant state of anxiety as well?
Maybe the human fact of death can offer a clue, difficult as it is to think about! A wise friend once told me: "Nobody is guaranteed a tomorrow." The inevitable fact that we do not live forever on earth and that all of us must die at some point in "time" is much like trying to predict the second coming of Jesus. It will happen. We just don't know when. We can help to prolong our stay physically by good diet and exercise and mental hygiene. There are lots of "gurus" who will gladly assist us in that process! The same is true psychologically and emotionally. But, for the Christian, there is preparation on a day by day basis with a view to the long term - i.e. life after death. For Catholic Christians, the "ordinary" means are sacraments and church attendance on Sundays and Holydays. But there is also the "love of neighbor" to pay attention to, as we could see in the parable of the Last Judgment (Matt. 25:31-45, which gets bumped this year because of Sunday).
Staying in shape spiritually requires some intentionality. The personal relationship to Jesus is important, but it must manifest itself in daily life with our neighbor, who, as Jesus reminds us in Matt 25:31-45, stands in his place! AMEN